Caló language

Caló (Spanish: [kaˈlo]; Catalan: [kəˈlo]; Galician: [kaˈlɔ]; Portuguese: [kɐˈlɔ]) is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani. It is a mixed language (referred to as a Para-Romani language in Romani linguistics) based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items[4] through language shift by the Romani community. It is often used as an argot, a secret language for discreet communication amongst Iberian Romani. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish caló are closely related varieties that share a common root.[5]

This article is about the Caló language spoken by Romani people in Iberia. For the argot spoken by Mexican-Americans, see Caló (Chicano).

Caló
Native to	Spain, Portugal, south of France, Latin America
Native speakers	up to 400,000 in Brazil (2014)[1] 40,000 in Spain (1980)[2]
Language family	mixed Romani–Romance
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rmq
Glottolog	calo1236[3]

Spanish caló, or Spanish Romani, was originally known as zincaló. Portuguese caló, or Portuguese Romani, also goes by the term lusitano-romani; it used to be referred to as calão, but this word acquired the general sense of jargon or slang, often with a negative connotation (cf. baixo calão, 'obscene language', lit. low-level calão).

Etymology

Calé is the endonym of the Romani people in Iberia, and caló means "the language spoken by the calé". However, the calé are commonly known in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries by the exonyms ciganos and gitanos.

In caló and other varieties of Romani, kalo means "black or "absorbing all light",[6] hence closely resembling words for "black" and/or "dark" in Indo-Aryan languages (e.g. Sanskrit काल kāla "black", "of a dark colour"). Hence caló and calé may have originated as ancient exonyms. For instance, the name of the Domba people, from whom the Romani, Sinti and Kale people are now believed to have emerged,[7] also implies "dark-skinned" in some Indian languages.[8]

Nomenclature and dialect divisions

Three main groupings of dialects are distinguished in what is technically Iberian caló but most commonly referred to simply as (Spanish) caló or Spanish Romani:

• Spanish caló (Spanish: caló español)
• Catalan caló (Catalan: caló català)
• Occitan caló (Occitan: caló occitan)
• Portuguese caló (Portuguese: caló português)

In modern Romani linguistics, all are jointly referred to as Iberian Romani (Spanish: iberorromaní or romaní ibérico).[5]

Linguistic features

Phonology

Caló has six vowels:[5]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e̞	ə	o̞
Open		a

It has the following consonant inventory:[5]

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p  b		t  d			k  ɡ
Affricate			t͡s  d͡z	t͡ʃ  d͡ʒ
Fricative		f	s	ʃ		x	h
Nasal	m		n
Approximant			l		j
Tap			ɾ
Trill			r

Notable phonological features of Iberian Caló are:[5]

• the loss of the distinction between aspirated /pʰ tʰ kʰ tʃʰ/, unaspirated /p t k tʃ/ and voiced /b d ɡ dʒ/.
• the merger of /b/ and /v/ – betacism.
• affrication of /t d/ to /tʃ dʒ/ before the front vowels /i/ and /e̞/ cf. Brazilian Portuguese /ti/, /di/ > [tʃi ~ tɕi], [dʒi ~ dʑi].

Samples

Spanish Romani:

Y sasta se hubiese catanado sueti baribustri, baribustri, y abillasen solictos á ó de los fores, os penó por parabola: Manu chaló abri á chibar desqueri simiente: y al chibarle, yeque aricata peró sunparal al drun, y sinaba hollada, y la jamáron as patrias e Charos. Y aver peró opré bar: y pur se ardiñó, se secó presas na terelaba humedad. Y aver peró andré jarres, y as jarres, sos ardiñáron sat siró, la mulabáron. Y aver peró andré pu lachi: y ardiñó, y diñó mibao á ciento por yeque. Penado ocono, se chibó á penar á goles: Coin terela canes de junelar, junele.

Parable of the Sower, Luke, 8, 4–8, as published by George Borrow in 1838[9]

Compare with a Spanish version:

Cuando una gran multitud se reunió y personas de cada ciudad fueron donde Jesús, Él les habló con una parábola. «Un campesino salió a sembrar su semilla. Al sembrar algunas cayeron en la carretera; fueron pisoteadas y se las comieron los pájaros del cielo. Otras semillas cayeron encima de la roca, tan pronto como crecieron se secaron porque no tenían humedad. Otras cayeron entre los espinos, y los espinos crecieron con éstas y las sofocaron. Otras cayeron en tierra buena; crecieron y dieron fruto, cien veces más.» Después de decir estas cosas gritó, «¡Aquel que tiene oídos para escuchar, que escuche!»[10]

The Lord's Prayer

The Lord's Prayer has often been used as a parallel text:

Spanish Caló:

Amaro Dada, oté andré o Tarpe, majarificable sinele tun nao. Abillele tun chim. Sinele querdi tun pesquital andré a jolili, sasta andré o Tarpe. Diñamangue achibes amaro manro de cada chibes. Y amangue ertina amarias visabas, andiar sasta mu ertinamos á os sares, sos debisarelen amangue buchi. Y na enseeles amangue andré o chungalo y choro.

Luke, 11, 2-4, Embéo e Majaró Lucas, translated by George Borrow, 1837.

Romani:

Amaro Dat, kai san ando rhaio, te avel cho anav ankerdo Swunto. Chi amperetsia te avel, chi voia te kerdiol pe phuv sar ando rhaio. De amen adies amaro manrho sar swako dies. Iertisar amare bezexa; sar vi ame iertis kodolen kai keren bezexa karing amende. Na mek ame te zhas ando zumaimos; numa skepisar ame katar o nasul iek.

Luke, 11, 2-4, Romani (Gypsy) New Testament: E Lashi Viasta. Ruth Modrow, 1984.

Spanish:

Padre nuestro que estás en los cielos: Santificado sea tu nombre; venga tu reino; sea hecha tu voluntad, como en el cielo, así también en la tierra. el pan nuestro de cada día, dánoslo hoy; y perdónanos nuestros pecados porque también nosotros perdonamos a todos los que nos deben. Y no nos metas en tentación, mas líbranos del mal.

Luke, 11, 2-4, Spanish Bible: Reina-Valera 1569, revised 1960.

Loans

Spanish

Many Caló terms have been borrowed in Spanish (especially as slangisms and colloquialisms), often through flamenco lyrics and criminal jargon (germanía).

Examples are gachó/gachí ("man/woman", from gadjo/gadji), chaval ("boy", originally "son", also present in English as chav[11]), parné ("money"), currelar or currar ("to work"), fetén ("excellent"), pinreles ("feet"), biruji ("cold"), churumbel ("baby"), gilí ("silly, stupid"), chachi ("outstanding, genuine"), (un)debel or debla ("god/goddess"), mengue ("demon"), chorar ("to steal"), also present in English slang as to chaw, molar ("to like"), piltra ("bed"), acais ("eyes"), chola ("head"), jeró ("face"), napia ("nose"), muí ("mouth"), lache ("shame"), pitingo ("vain"), chungo ("bad, nasty, dodgy"), guripa ("cheeky, soldier"), ful ("fake"), potra ("luck"), paripé ("pretence"), juncal ("slender, graceful"), pure or pureta ("old"), sobar ("to sleep"), quer or queli ("house"), garito ("house, gambling den"), jalar ("to eat"), cate ("hit"), jiñar ("to defecate, to fear"), diñar ("to give, to die"), palmar ("to die"), chinarse ("to get upset"), apoquinar ("to pay"), langui ("lame"), chalado or pirado ("crazy"), pirarse ("to leave", "to make oneself scarce"), changar ("to break"), chivarse ("to denounce sb, to squeal"), chivato ("informer"), hacerse el longuis ("to pretend to be absent-minded"), pringar ("to get sb mixed up, to overdo"), chingar ("to have sexual relations, to bother"), chinorri ("little"), najar ("to flee"), privar ("drink, to drink"), mangar ("to steal"), nanay ("no way, there isn't"), chorizo ("thief"), achantar ("to get intimidated"), pispar ("to nick"), birlar ("to nick"), achanta la muí ("shut your mouth"), canguelo or cangueli ("fear"), cañí ("Romani person"), calé ("Romani person"), caló ("language of the Iberian Kale"), calas ("money"), curda ("drunkenness"), payo ("non-Romani person"), menda ("myself"), and galochi ("heart").[12]

Some words underwent a shift in meaning in the process: camelar (etymologically related to Sanskrit kāma, "love, desire") in colloquial Spanish has the meaning of "to woo, to seduce, to deceive by adulation" (but also "to love", "to want"; although this sense has fallen into disuse),[13] however in Caló it more closely matches the Spanish meanings of querer ("to want" and "to love"). In addition camelar and the noun camelo can also mean either "lie" or "con".

Caló also appears to have influenced quinqui, the language of another Iberian group of travellers who are not ethnically Romani.

Catalan

To a lesser extent than in Spanish, Caló terms have also been adapted into Catalan as slangisms and colloquialisms, most of which were taken adopted from Spanish slang.

Examples are halar (pronounced [həˈla] or [xəˈla]; "to eat"), xaval ("boy"), dinyar(-la) ("to die"), palmar(-la) ("to die"), cangueli ("fear"), paio ("non-Romani person"), caler ("money"), caló ("language of the Iberian Kale"), cangrí ("prison"), pispar ("to nick"), birlar ("to nick"), xorar ("to steal"), mangar ("to steal"), molar ("to like"), pringar ("to get sb mixed up, to overdo"), pirar(-se) ("to leave, to make oneself scarce"), sobar ("to sleep"), privar ("drink, to drink"), xusma ("pleb"), laxe ("shame"), catipén ("stink"), xaxi ("outstanding, genuine"), xivar-se ("to denounce sb, to squeal"), xivato ("informer"), xinar(-se) ("to get upset"), fer el llonguis (lit. "Do a long one" fig. "to pretend to be thick/slow") and potra ("luck").[14][15]

Portuguese

As with Catalan, there is a smaller number of words of Caló origin and many of those are indirect loans, borrowed via Spanish.

Well-known examples generally understood by most or all speakers of Portuguese include gajo (pronounced [ˈgaʒu], "man, dude", primarily in Portugal), chavalo ("lad, young boy") baque ([ˈbaki], [ˈbakɨ], generally "impact", but in this sense "sudden happiness"), ralar ([ʁɐˈla(ʁ)], [ʁɐˈlaɾ], "to work hard", lit. "to grate oneself"), ralar peito ([ʁɐˈla(ʁ) ˈpejtu], [ʁɐˈlaɾ ˈpɐjtu], "to scamper, to skip, to run", lit. "to grate one's chest"), bagunça ([bɐˈgũsɐ], "mess"), boliche ([boˈliʃi], [buˈliʃ(ɨ)], "bowling"), dica ([ˈdʒikɐ], [ˈdikɐ], "tip, clue"), pechincha ([pɪˈʃĩʃɐ], [pɨˈʃĩʃɐ], "bargain, haggled"), gamar ([gɐˈma(ʁ)], [gɐˈmaɾ], "to be charmed, to fall in love with, to be obsessed by"), ganiços ([gɐˈnisus], [gɐˈnisuʃ], "dice", more commonly dados; "[thin] fingers and/or toes", more commonly dedos), mancada ([mɐ̃ˈkadɐ], [mɐ̃ˈkaðɐ], "failure with a compromise", lit. limped/hobbled) and pileque ([piˈlɛki], [piˈlɛk(ɨ)], "drunkenness"), chulé ("bad smell of feet), chunga ("of bad quality"), pirar-se ("to leave"), pirado and chalado ("crazy"), chibar-se ("to denounce sb, to squeal"), chibo ("informer"), chordar (“to steal”).[16]

Language maintenance

There is a growing awareness and appreciation for Caló: "...until the recent work by Luisa Rojo, in the Autonomous University of Madrid, not even the linguistics community recognized the significance and problems of Caló and its world."[17] Its world includes songs, poetry and flamenco.

As Iberian Romani proper is extinct and as Caló is endangered, some people are trying to revitalise the language. The Spanish politician Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia promotes Romanò-Kalò, a variant of International Romani, enriched by Caló words.[18] His goal is to reunify the Caló and Romani roots.

Literature

In 1838, the first edition of Embéo E Majaró Lucas[19] translated by George Borrow was published and began to be distributed in Madrid. This was Borrow's translation of the Gospel of Luke into Caló.[20] A revision of this was printed in 1872.

See also

• Angloromani
• Erromintxela (Basque Romani)
• Germanía, a Spanish criminal jargon

References

1. Caló at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Calo Romani at Ethnologue (10th ed., 1984). Note: Data may come from the 9th edition (1978).
3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Caló". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
4. Ethnologue
5. Adiego, I. Un vocabulario español-gitano del Marqués de Sentmenat (1697–1762) Ediciones Universitat de Barcelona (2002) ISBN 84-8338-333-0
6. Glosbe 2013, Dictionary/Romany-English Dictionary/kalo (23 September 2016).
7. N. Rai et al., 2012, "The Phylogeography of Y-Chromosome Haplogroup H1a1a-M82 Reveals the Likely Indian Origin of the European Romani Populations" (23 September 2016).
8. Isabel Fonseca, Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey, Random House, p. 100.
9. Biblia en acción, JORGE BORROW: Un inglés al encuentro de lo Español.
10. Traducción de dominio público abierta a mejoras derived from the World English Bible.
11. Diccionario crítico etimológico de la lengua castellana, vol. II, p. 39. Joan Corominas, Francke Verlag, Bern, 1954. ISBN 978-84-249-1361-8.
12. Aportacions gitanes al castellà Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine.
13. camelar in the Diccionario de la Real Academia,
14. Aportacions gitanes al català Archived 2011-07-22 at the Wayback Machine
15. El català dels gitanos. Caçadors de Paraules (TV3, edu3.cat).
16. Suplemento do léxico cigano. Mundo Cigano.
17. The Responsibility of Linguist and the Basque Case Archived 2005-11-20 at the Wayback Machine
18. "Unión Romaní imparte el primer curso de romanò-kalò", Union Romani, 29 December 2006
19. Embéo e Majaró Lucas by George Borrow at Project Gutenberg.
20. Embéo E Majaró Lucas - further details are given in the page on the website of the George Borrow Society.

External links

• The Romany language in Spain
• Romanò-Kalò (As promoted by Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia)
• List of Spanish words from Caló in the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española.