Recovering authentic Catalan
In the previous article we saw that colloquial Catalan is hidden from young people. This leads us to wonder if this situation can be reversed. The answer is yes, and you just have to resort to spontaneous speech. For example, many people say ‘to understand’ to ‘understand (something)’. This is an influence of Spanish. And how is it called in Catalan? Well, very easy: ‘fish’ (and also ‘fold’) (Boy, don’t fish anything they tell you!). Also, whoever uses ‘pillar’ with the meaning of ‘getting a profit’ can use ‘sucar’ (Politicians are always looking to see what they get) and also ‘fishing’ (Go and see what you catch, of this project, for sure that you will get a good mortar).
Alternative words
In Spanish, the word ‘pollo’ (or ‘follón’) is used to refer to a complicated and convoluted situation. Some people translate it as: ‘chicken’. What a great translation…! Whoever says this has his head elsewhere, since all his life he has been called ‘shit’ (or ‘sidral’): ‘What a shit he has done, at the meeting!’ Yes, boy, a ‘sideral’ of God! The first word is also used for the Spanish ‘brown’.
Fresh words and authentic expressions
We have at our disposal a large number of fresh words and authentic expressions. For example, if someone says ‘roll’ to refer to a ‘heavy thing’, as it is a Castilianism, they can use the way they say it in Mallorca: ‘pesadura’ (What a pesadura, math class!) . This word is understood even if you have never heard it. If someone wants to say ‘work’, you don’t need to use the Spanish term ‘currar’, we have the imposing ‘pencar’ (When it’s time to hang, this one always gets a big girl). If someone makes ‘matráfoles’, there is no need to use the Spanish term ‘trapicheo’: there is the super-expressive ‘xipot’ (What are you doing? Making xipots? Don’t you see that one day or another you will be caught!). If someone finds an easy business opportunity, it’s a ‘biboca’ and not a ‘chanchullo’ (My cousin is always finding kisses, in the second-hand car market, and he’s fucked a hell of a lot).
Currency and payment
Many people use the Spanish term ‘pavo’ to refer to an individual and a monetary unit. You see how low self-esteem Catalan communicators have who use this word instead of looking for an appropriate form. In the first case, we have ‘paio’ (a word not used in Spanish). In the second, it has always been called ‘cuca’ (How much are they asking for this andromina? A thousand cucas? They are shocked!). We can also use ‘panís’ instead of the Spanish ‘panoja’ (My neighbor has a lot of panís, that’s why he has parties so often at his house!). In Urgell, we can hear ‘pistrincs’. And we have a very deep-rooted word: ‘calés’, and also ‘quartos’ (If you knew the quartos this guy has made scamming people! He has more calés than you and me!).
Expressions for specific situations
For when someone has to pay the consequences, there are those who say ‘pringar’, taken from Spanish. You don’t have to: in Girona, they call it ‘lepar’ (youth singers from Girona say it) (If you’re caught, you’ll lick it, baby!). The original meaning of ‘pringar’ is to get dirty by a viscous substance (ouch!). There are also those who use the Spanish term ‘pringarse’, but it is better to use ‘envescar-se’ or ‘enviscar-se’.
making up words
What if we can’t think of the right word? No problem: we make it up. For example, if you don’t know how to say ‘finde’, you can use ‘capde’ (pronounced ‘cadde’, because the expression ‘weekend’ is also pronounced that way). Easy, right?
