13 Facts About Lunfardo

Lunfardo is an argot originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and from there spread to other urban areas nearby, such as the Greater Buenos Aires, Rosario and Montevideo.

Originally, Lunfardo was a slang used by criminals and soon by other people of the lower and lower-middle classes.

Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo has spread among all social strata and classes by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics of tango.

Lunfardo began as prison slang in the late 19th century so guards would not understand prisoners.

Today, many Lunfardo terms have entered the language spoken all over Argentina and Uruguay, although a great number of Lunfardo words have fallen into disuse or have been modified in the era of suburbanization.

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Conde says that Lunfardo can be considered a kind of Italian dialect mixed with Spanish words, specifically the one spoken in Montevideo.

In other words, Lunfardo is an interlanguage variety of the Italian dialects spoken by immigrants in the areas of Buenos Aires and Montevideo.

Conde takes the view that the Lunfardo is not so much a dialect but a kind of local language of the Italian immigrants, mixed with Spanish and some French words.

Lunfardo is possibly the only argot that was originally formed, and in great measure, from Italian immigrant terms.

Characteristic of Lunfardo is its use of word play, notably vesre, reversing the syllables, similar to English back slang, French verlan, Croatian Satrovacki or Greek podana.

Lunfardo employs metaphors such as bobo for the heart, who "works all day long without being paid" or bufoso for pistol.

Lunfardo was influenced by Cocoliche, a pidgin of Italian immigrants.

Some Italian linguists, because of the Cocoliche influences, argue that the Lunfardo can be considered a pidgin of the Italian language.