Caló language

Caló (; ; ; ) is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani ethnic groups. It is a mixed language (referred to as a Para-Romani language in Romani linguistics) based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items, through language shift by the Romani community. It is said to be used as an argot, or a secret language, for discreet communication amongst Iberian Romani. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish are closely related varieties that share a common root.Adiego, I. ''Un vocabulario español-gitano del Marqués de Sentmenat (1697–1762)'' Ediciones Universitat de Barcelona (2002)

Spanish caló, or Spanish Romani, was originally known as . Portuguese , or Portuguese Romani, also goes by the term ; it used to be referred to as , but this word has since acquired the general sense of jargon or slang, often with a negative undertone (cf. , 'obscene language', lit. low-level ).

The language is also spoken in Brazil, France, Venezuela, Portugal and Colombia.

Some Caló expressions have been borrowed into modern Spanish ''jerga'' (slang), such as '' camelar'' (to seduce), '' currar'' (to work) and ''dar lache'' (to cringe in shame or embarrassment).

Etymology

is the endonym of the Romani people in Iberia, and means 'the language spoken by the '. However, the are commonly known in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries by the exonyms and .

In and other varieties of Romani, means 'black' or 'absorbing all light', hence closely resembling words for 'black' and/or 'dark' in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g. Sanskrit 'black', 'of a dark colour'). Hence and may have originated as ancient exonyms.

Linguistic features

Phonology

Caló has six vowels:

It has the following consonant inventory:

Notable phonological features of Iberian Caló are:
* the loss of the distinction between aspirated , unaspirated and voiced .
* the merger of and – betacism.
* affrication of to before the front vowels and cf. Brazilian Portuguese , > , .

Samples

Spanish Romani:
:
:Parable of the Sower, Luke, 8, 4–8, as published by George Borrow in 1838Biblia en acción
''JORGE BORROW: Un inglés al encuentro de lo Español''.
Compare with a Spanish version:
:

The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer has often been used as a parallel text:

Spanish Caló:
:
: Luke, 11, 2-4
Embéo e Majaró Lucas
translated by George Borrow, 1837.

Lovara Balkans Romani:
:
: Luke, 11, 2-4
Romani (Gypsy) New Testament: E Lashi Viasta
Ruth Modrow, 1984.

Spanish:
:
: Luke, 11, 2-4
Spanish Bible
Reina-Valera 1569, revised 1960.

Loans

Spanish

Many Caló terms have been borrowed in Spanish (especially as slangisms and colloquialisms), often through flamenco lyrics and criminal jargon ().

Examples are ("man/woman", from '' gadjo/gadji''), ("boy", originally "son", also present in English as '' chav''), ("money"), or ("to work"), ("excellent"), ("feet"), ("cold"), ("boy"), ("silly, stupid"), ("outstanding, genuine"), or ("god/goddess"), ("demon"), or in Spain ("to steal", also present in English slang as ''to chaw''), ("to be appealing to someone"), ("bed"), ("eyes"), ("head"), ("face"), ("nose"), ("mouth"), ("shame"), ("vain"), ("bad, nasty, dodgy"), ("cheeky, soldier"), ("fake"), ("pretence, white lie"), ("slender, graceful"), or ("old"), ("to sleep"), or ("house"), ("house, gambling den"), ("to eat with great apetite"), ("hit"), ("to defecate, to fear"), ("to give, to die"), ("to die"), ("to get upset"), ("lame"), or ("crazy"), ("to leave", "to make oneself scarce"), ("to break"), ("to denounce ''sb'', to squeal"), ("informer"), ("to pretend to be absent-minded"), ''pringar'' ("to get ''sb'' mixed up, to overdo"), ("to have sexual relations, to bother"), ("little"), ("to flee"), ("drink, to drink"), ("to steal"), ("no way, there isn't"), ("thief"), ("to intimidate"), ("to nick"), ("to nick"), ("shut your mouth"), or ("fear"), ("Romani person"), ("Romani person"), ("language of the Iberian Kale"), ("money"), ("drunkenness"), ("myself"), and ("heart"), payo ("non-Romani person, fool, easy to cheat").

Some words underwent a shift in meaning in the process: (etymologically related to Sanskrit ''kāma'', "love, desire") in colloquial Spanish has the meaning of "to woo, to seduce, to deceive by adulation" (but also "to love", "to want"; although this sense has fallen into disuse),
camelar
' in the '' Diccionario de la Real Academia'', but in Caló it more closely matches the Spanish meanings of ("to want" and "to love"). In addition and the noun can also mean either "lie" or "con".

Caló also appears to have influenced Madrid slang and quinqui, the language of another Iberian group of travellers who are not ethnically Romani.
, a cant spoken by makers of agricultural equipment in a village of Segovia, also derives some words from Caló.

Catalan

To a lesser extent than in Spanish, Caló terms have also been adapted into Catalan as slangisms and colloquialisms, most of which were taken adopted from Spanish slang.

Examples are ( or ; "to eat"), ("boy"), ("to die"), ("to die"), ("fear"), ("non-Romani person"), ("money"), ("language of the Iberian Kale"), ("prison"), ("to nick"), ("to nick"), ("to steal"), ("to steal"), ("to like"), ("to get ''sb'' mixed up, to overdo"), ("to leave, to make oneself scarce"), ("to sleep"), ("drink, to drink"), ("pleb"), ("shame"), ("stink"), ("outstanding, genuine"), ("to denounce ''sb'', to squeal"), ("informer"), ("to get upset"), (lit. "Do a long one" fig. "to pretend to be thick/slow") and ("luck").

Portuguese

There are a small number of words of Caló (Calão) origin and many of those are indirect loans, borrowed via Spanish.

The examples generally understood by most or all speakers of Portuguese include (, "man, dude", primarily in Portugal), ("lad, young boy"), chunga ("bad, nasty, dodgy"), chibar-se ("to denounce sb, to squeal"), chibo ("informer"), (, , generally "impact", but in this sense "sudden happiness"), (, , "drunkenness"), ("bad smell of feet), ("to leave"), and ("crazy").

Language maintenance

There is a growing awareness and appreciation for Caló: "...until the recent work by Luisa Rojo, in the Autonomous University of Madrid, not even the linguistics community recognized the significance and problems of Caló and its world." Its world includes songs, poetry and flamenco.

As Iberian Romani proper is extinct and as Caló is endangered, some people are trying to revitalise the language. The Spanish politician Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia promotes Romanò-Kalò, a variant of International Romani, enriched by Caló words.''"Unión Romaní imparte el primer curso de romanò-kalò"''
Union Romani, 29 December 2006 His goal is to reunify the Caló and Romani roots.

Literature

In 1838, the first edition of ''Embéo E Majaró Lucas''Embéo e Majaró Lucas by George Borrow
at Project Gutenberg. translated by George Borrow was published and began to be distributed in Madrid. This was Borrow's translation of the Gospel of Luke into Caló.Embéo E Majaró Lucas
- further details are given in the page on the website of th
George Borrow Society
A revision of this was printed in 1872.

See also

* Angloromani
* Erromintxela
* Germanía
* Gitanos
* '' The Zincali: An Account of the Gypsies of Spain''

References

External links

The Romany language in Spain

Romanò-Kalò (As promoted by Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia)


List of Spanish words from Caló
in the '' Diccionario de la Real Academia Española''.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calo language
Calé
Cant languages
Languages of Portugal
Languages of Spain
Romani in Brazil
Romani in France
Romani in Portugal
Romani in Spain
Para-Romani
Spanish dialects of Spain
Languages of France
Languages of Brazil
Languages of Colombia
Languages of Mexico