Xíriga is an occupation-related
cant
Cant, CANT, canting, or canted may refer to:
Language
* Cant (language), a secret language
* Beurla Reagaird, a language of the Scottish Highland Travellers
* Scottish Cant, a language of the Scottish Lowland Travellers
* Shelta or the Cant, a la ...
on
Asturian developed by the ''tejeros'' of
Llanes and
Ribadesella in
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
. The ''tejeros'' were
migrant worker
A migrant worker is a person who migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant workers who work outsi ...
s in brick or clay, usually poor, who contracted themselves out for work sometimes in distant towns. Often mistreated by their overseers, the traveling craftsmen developed xíriga sometime around the 18th century as a defensive or private language in order to be able to talk freely in front of their employers/masters. Because it originated with poor working men who were largely illiterate, xíriga had no written form, and the language began to disappear with the decline of the ''tejeros'' although one can still hear it spoken occasionally by relatives or descendants.
The words created for or adopted into the language provide some insight into the social life, customs and beliefs of its original speakers—for example, there are a large number of verbs that translate "to rob" and many of the words are crude, blunt, or intended as insults.
As in the
Gacería
Extension of the Gacería in the province of Segovia
Gacería is the name of a slang or argot employed by the (or makers of the , or threshing-board, as well as threshing-sledge) and the (or makers of : metathesis of Spanish word sieve) in ...
of the makers of
threshing-boards and sieves in
Cantalejo, Segovia and the Galician
Fala dos arxinas
The Armed Forces of the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Forças Armadas de Libertação de Angola) or FALA was the armed wing of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), a prominent political faction during the Angolan Civil ...
, some of the words are taken from
Basque language.
While the Basque regions were far from the tejero routes, the non-Romance vocabulary of Basque makes it unintelligible to outsiders.
Examples
;araguía
:meat. ''Haragia'' is Basque for "the meat"
;asúa
:fire. ''Sua'' is Basque for "the fire".
;bai
:yes. ''Bai'' is Basque for "yes"
;bartolo
:corn. ''Arto'' is Basque for corn. "Bartolo" is also a Spanish nickname for
Bartholomew
Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو� ...
.
;drama
:mother. A
vesre
Vesre (reversing the order of syllables within a word) is one of the features of Rioplatense Spanish slang. Natives of Argentina and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and rarely in formal circumstances. Tango lyrics make widespr ...
of ''madre''
;drape
:father. A
metathesis of ''padre''.
;ergue, erguín
:stonecutter. ''Hargin'' is Basque for "stonecutter", ''arxina'' in ''fala dos arxinas''.
References
Mallea Olaetxe, J. "The Basques in the Mexican Regions: 16th - 20th Centuries." ''Basque Studies Program Newsletter'' No. 51 (1995).La xíriga, on celtiberia.net (in Spanish)
External links
* Muñoz Valle, Emili
"La xíriga".''
Boletín del Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos'' No. 76 (1972).
* Muñoz Valle, Emili
"La xíriga como lenguaje secreto en la Segunda Guerra Mundial".''
Boletín del Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos'' No. 99 (1980).
Asturian language
Cant languages
Cants with Basque influence
Occupational cryptolects
Migrant workers
Tiling
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