Vesre
Encyclopedia
Vesre is one of the features of Rioplatense Spanish
slang. Natives of Buenos Aires and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and never in formal circumstances. Tango
lyrics make widespread use of lunfardo
and vesre to highlight the intended underworld
atmosphere, or for comical relief.
Vesre is mostly from Buenos Aires, and other cities in Argentina have their own customs. Rosario
has its "Rosarigasino
" method for obfuscating words, and Córdoba
has an entirely different set of colloquial conventions. Yet, most Argentines and Uruguay
ans have been exposed to vesre through tango lyrics or the media.
Even though vesre has spread to other countries, and can be heard in Peru
, Chile
and Ecuador
, Spanish
speakers outside the Río de la Plata
area are usually less inclined to use it. Popular speech has created some instances; for example, natives of Barranquilla
, Colombia
often call their city Curramba, in a stylized form of vesre.
Occasionally, vesre is a stepping-stone towards further obfuscation, achieved by evolving into a longer word. For example:
The original and vesre versions of a word are not always synonym
s; sometimes the reversal adds some extra nuance to the meaning. For instance, the word hotel bears the same meaning as in English (i.e. a normal tourist hotel), whereas telo implies that the establishment is actually a love hotel
. Listen to examples
has a form of intentional metathesis known as verlan
.
Tagálog
, a language of the Philippines
, also has a similar construct known as binaliktad, lit. "inverted."
Serbian
has a form of slang called Šatrovački
followed in the 1990s with a more ambiguous slang called utrovački
.
In Brazilian Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the local version is called gualin, from lingua (tongue or language). While it is pretty straightforward, the final "s" in plurals and the final "r" for the infinitive tense of verbs are usually dropped. A typical example is: "Cevô lafá gualin?" (Você fala gualin? Do you speak gualin?).
Rioplatense Spanish
Rioplatense Spanish or River Plate Spanish is a dialectal variant of the Spanish language spoken mainly in the areas in and around the Río de la Plata basin of Argentina and Uruguay, and also in Rio Grande do Sul, although features of the dialect are shared with the varieties of Spanish spoken...
slang. Natives of Buenos Aires and Uruguay use vesre sparingly in colloquial speaking, and never in formal circumstances. Tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
lyrics make widespread use of lunfardo
Lunfardo
Lunfardo is a dialect originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in Buenos Aires and the surrounding Gran Buenos Aires, and from there spread to other cities nearby, such as Rosario and Montevideo, cities with similar socio-cultural situations...
and vesre to highlight the intended underworld
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
atmosphere, or for comical relief.
Vesre is mostly from Buenos Aires, and other cities in Argentina have their own customs. Rosario
Rosario
Rosario is the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the western shore of the Paraná River and has 1,159,004 residents as of the ....
has its "Rosarigasino
Rosarigasino
Rosarigasino is a language game traditionally associated with the city of Rosario, , even though very few people, if any, currently employ it....
" method for obfuscating words, and Córdoba
Córdoba, Argentina
Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with...
has an entirely different set of colloquial conventions. Yet, most Argentines and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
ans have been exposed to vesre through tango lyrics or the media.
Even though vesre has spread to other countries, and can be heard in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
and Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
speakers outside the Río de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
area are usually less inclined to use it. Popular speech has created some instances; for example, natives of Barranquilla
Barranquilla
Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
often call their city Curramba, in a stylized form of vesre.
Examples
- revés → vesre (reverse)
- café → feca (coffee)
- caballo → llobaca (horse)
- libro → broli (book)
- amigo → gomía (friend)
- doctor → tordo (doctor, usually meaning physician but also used for lawyers. "Tordo" is also the name in Argentina of the opportunistic shiny cowbirdShiny CowbirdThe Shiny Cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis, is a passerine bird in the New World family Icteridae. It breeds in most of South America apart from the most dense jungles, mountains and deserts , the coldest southernmost regions , and on Trinidad and Tobago...
). - carne → nerca (meatMeatMeat is animal flesh that is used as food. Most often, this means the skeletal muscle and associated fat and other tissues, but it may also describe other edible tissues such as organs and offal...
) - pizzaPizzaPizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
→ zapi - baño → ñoba (bathroom)
- boludo → dolobu or dobolu (dumb.)
- mujer → jermu (woman; the vesre version mostly means "wife")
- pelado → dolape (bald)
Occasionally, vesre is a stepping-stone towards further obfuscation, achieved by evolving into a longer word. For example:
- coche (car) → checo → checonato (after a once-famous sportsman named Cecconatto)
- cinco (the number five) → cocín → cocinero (literally cook; used mostly on the racetrackRace trackA race track is a purpose-built facility for racing of animals , automobiles, motorcycles or athletes. A race track may also feature grandstands or concourses. Some motorsport tracks are called speedways.A racetrack is a permanent facility or building...
to mean "the five horse")
The original and vesre versions of a word are not always synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
s; sometimes the reversal adds some extra nuance to the meaning. For instance, the word hotel bears the same meaning as in English (i.e. a normal tourist hotel), whereas telo implies that the establishment is actually a love hotel
Love hotel
A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy for sexual activities...
. Listen to examples
In other languages
Colloquial FrenchFrench language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
has a form of intentional metathesis known as verlan
Verlan
Verlan is an argot in the French language, featuring inversion of syllables in a word, and is common in slang and youth language. It rests on a long French tradition of transposing syllables of individual words to create slang words...
.
Tagálog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
, a language of the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, also has a similar construct known as binaliktad, lit. "inverted."
Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
has a form of slang called Šatrovački
Šatrovacki
Šatrovački is a feature of permuting syllables of words used in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Macedonian. It is similar to verlan and louchébem in French. The term is sometimes used to describe other slang in which words are deformed, as well.Šatrovački was initially developed by criminals in...
followed in the 1990s with a more ambiguous slang called utrovački
Šatrovacki
Šatrovački is a feature of permuting syllables of words used in Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Macedonian. It is similar to verlan and louchébem in French. The term is sometimes used to describe other slang in which words are deformed, as well.Šatrovački was initially developed by criminals in...
.
In Brazilian Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the local version is called gualin, from lingua (tongue or language). While it is pretty straightforward, the final "s" in plurals and the final "r" for the infinitive tense of verbs are usually dropped. A typical example is: "Cevô lafá gualin?" (Você fala gualin? Do you speak gualin?).