Chile Forum

Tybombero wrote:
As far as them writing it...haha, well yeah, they can't spell half of the words in the spanish vocabulary so it seems they just spell everything phonetically and hence get a lot of the "ll" and "y" mixed up as well as "b" and "v".

So I guess it's no different than in the U.S.
All you have to do is surf the 'net and read forums such as this to see tons of examples of bad spelling and grammar. Most prevalent in the younger generation. Why on earth do we allow kids to graduate without being able to read and write propely?!

Sorry for the rant. Back to our regularly scheduled chilenismos and other weird stuff.

I think that the cachai, como estai, como te llamai?, porque te enojai?, a que mirai? etc was a rebellion on the part of the youth in CHile to become different in just another way from thier elders, nothing more...and then it just passes into a spot where its just a more common way of speaking without any rebellious intent behind it...just like now si and po were previously merged to "sipo" and now its "sip" prounounced almost as if it were "zip" and Mira! (look!) has now become "mish!"...there are quite a few others but they so slyly enter into your vocabulary that you can't think of them...they are just too natural....if you communicate via e-mail with chile in castellano, you will see the change on a day to day basis...remember that Chile has the greatest, most expressive and developed non-verbal language in the world...its a kind of sign language but not exclusive to just the hands...ask a CHilean directions on the street and he is most likely to point with his/her lower lip...just really odd if you are not used to it and that is really the softest version of thier non verbal language.....if you go anywhere in the cordillera north of Los vilos (4ta region)..listen closely and you will hear the children in the street whistling different and varied tunes...and then responses will come from the direction you are walking to but haven't arrived yet...its thier way of identifying you and indicating to everyone else that you are coming and the direction you are going....they will even invent a "whistle tone" or "song" that identifies you and only you...and at the very least the "whistle " will identify you as male or female, old or young, ugly, fat with glasses, backpacker, businessman, big boobs, blond, whatever....

ciaopo, puelche out....

yeah, my Colombian wife does the whole pointing with her lower lip. kinda funny. i guess it takes less effort than lifting your hand to point... you just gotta get used to looking for it.

A chilean sayin that I really love:

"Muchas manos matan la guagua"

(too much hands kill the newborn)

Call me dense, but I don't get it. What does it mean?

Too much people fixing a problem may be worse, some things are better solved with few people involved, if a woman is delivering a baby and many people try to help, the newborn may die asfixied, I don´t know how to explain it better, my english is poor!!

I think the equivalent english trans would be...too many cooks spoil the pie...

puelche out

I've got it! Thanks, Tom and Puelche

Haga la palanca!!!!!

when something doesn't quite fit or things are backed up and waiting you will hear this...or if you are waiting and those ahead are "pintando el mono" or "pienando la muneca" then you would say ..."haga la palanca no mas maestro>>>" to get them to hurry up or indicate that people are waithing and they need to hurry it up before everyone helps them and whatever it is they are hoping to gently get along willbe forced into where it needs to go...palanca is a switch like on a wall switch but it is also a "bar" or stick that is used as a fulcrum to enable something to fit....like a rock in a hole ...

puelche out

Tybombero wrote:socal-lady wrote:
The "poh" i've seen it spelled as "poh, pu, po, bu"... again not sure if it's an actual word or just some made up slang.

i beleive that its from the word pues.. like 'si pues'..

now if someone can tell me where they got bakan from.. i'd like to know.. it means cool.. like tu ipod es bakan... i also encountered some weird beliefs.. like someone giving you an evil eye or something.. the ojearon.. the belief is that someone with 'strong' eyes can put a curse or similar on u by just looking at you either with envy or coveting.. weirdest thing i heard whilst there.. and what they need to do is to sanctify (santiguar) you.. they do this by mixing salt and sugar and doin hail marys i think.. and get this.. they can tell you had the eye if there is a flame when the sugar is burnt.. hahaha.. if only they knew that sugar almost always will create a flame when thrown in the fire.. shame!.. anyways just something i encountered and found to be interesting...

bacan...

bacan is originaly a latin based word....the roman "god " or image/personality for wine and partying is a derivitive of that word...the word "bacanal" means celebration now but back in the day it was a wild and heavily wine infused party of roman proportions


p out

"Bacan" was imported from argentinian slang (lunfardo) where was used since long time. The famous tango "Muneca Brava" tells "que el bacan que te acamala tenga pesos duraderos" (1950s)

Originally refered to a person who live with luxury and pleasure (as puelche said the original meaning comes from baccus or dionisius, the God of wine). It comes back in fashion in the last 10 years in Argentina first, then in Chile. We use many argentinian slang: mina, gil, bancar, afanarse, etc

mish!..

Thanks for the update, after 25 years one tends to forget the little things that made you smile back then