Caló
Categories: Spain-related stubs | Indo-European language stubs | Languages of Spain | Roma culture | Spanish language
Caló or Spanish Romani is a jargon spoken by the Gitanos or Zincarli originating from Spain: Caló blends native Romany vocabulary with Spanish grammar (1), as Spanish Gypsies lost the full use of their ancestral language. Gitanos used Caló to communicate discreetly in their internal dealings. In spite of this secrecy, some Caló words have entered common Spanish language through Flamenco lyrics, Andalusian Spanish and criminal jargon. Examples are gachó ("man", from gadjo), chaval ("boy", originally "son", a cognate of English chav), parné ("money"), currelar ("to work").
There is a growing awareness and appreciation for Caló: "...until the recent work by Luisa Rojo, in the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, not even the linguistics community recognized the significance and problems of Caló and its world.(2)" Its world includes songs, poetry, and Flamenco (3). According to the Ethnologue, Caló is related to another nomadic group's language, Quinqui.
Reference
See also
- Germanía, an earlier Spanish criminal jargon.
- people with this name: Miguel Caló