English plus Spanish = Spanglish

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Dear reader

Guapo tells me that in 1950s Argentina, parents of non Spanish speaking background could only give their children names that were translatable into Spanish. So, it was OK to name a baby George because it translated into Jorge. But it wasn’t OK for a bub to be named Keith, because this didn’t have a Spanish equivalent.

Now, if you were born across the river there were no such restrictions. In Uruguay, a baby boy could be called Keith or Bruce. Translatability was not an issue. But how do you pronounce Keith and Bruce in Spanish? Keet and Broos.

The most common surnames in Uruguay are Rodriguez, Garcia, Gonzalez, Fernandez, Martinez. So how would a Spanish-speaking Uruguayan pronounce Smith, Jones, or Sedgfield? Smit, Jones and Seffil.

Nicknames are common in Uruguay. They’re often descriptive and not particularly flattering. So, for example, a short person would be nicknamed petiso (shortie), a fat person gordo (fattie), a bald person pelado (baldie). Someone skinny might be nicknamed flaco or flaca. Guapo assures me that nicknames were used affectionately and therefore no one took offence.

Growing up bi-lingual, Guapo learned how to turn English words into Spanish mispronunciations: bife was used instead of beef steak, rosbif instead of roast beef. Bichicome was the Spanish for beach comber. And football was fubol.

At birthday parties, Happy Birthday was sung in sounds that approximated the English words but in fact were words with Spanish meaning. ‘Happy’ became apio (celery), ‘birthday’ became verde (green). The words ‘to you’ were sung with Spanish pronunciation “too joo”. Apio verde too joo …

Guapo spent his formative years in the Montevideo beachside suburb Pocitos, where he lived until sailing away to Europe at the age of 19. English was his first language, Spanish his second, Spanglish his third. He spent a lot of time travelling the highways and byways of Spain eating aiscrim and drinking vino.

Bye for now

Guapita

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