Interestingly, the pronunciation and meaning of the word in English is often re-invented during this process, blurring the line between which language it actually belongs to. Here are just a few examples of English words spoken around Bogotá…
- Man – more like ´guy´ or ´feller´, this is often used when talking about someone that you don´t know well, like ´tipo´.
- Heavy – some Colombians use this to describe a situation that is difficult to deal with, or a person who always crosses the line, or a seedy party with lots of alcohol and drugs. It´s common to hear the expression ´El man es un heavy´. How´s that for a bit of Spanglish!
- Look – style. As in ´me gusta tu look´ or ´I like your look´.
- Brother – this refers to a buddy as opposed to a sibling.
- Sandwich – you´ll most commonly hear this on the dance floor when two people ´sandwich´ someone between them.
- Fashion – if somebody arrives at a party ´con pinta muy fashion´, it means that they have gone to a lot of effort to be wearing the latest style.
- Play - meaning ´cool´ or ´trendy´, this may be used among other things to describe a new piece of technology or a person.
Vocabulary has travelled between languages for centuries, so this is no new phenomenon. In Spanish, words such as bus, camping, chef, happy-hour, inbox and trailer are widely used and have come to be known as ´extranjerismos´. In English we see the same thing happening with words like abattoir, angst, chic, cliché, kindergarten, pronto, rodeo and zeitgeist.
So is there a difference between the word ´rodeo´ in English and ´heavy´ in Spanish? What does it take for a word to go from one language to another? And what will be the next 7 words that creep their way across the Colombian border and into the realm of the universal?
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