Guatemalan Spanish
Guatemalan Spanish is the national variant of Spanish spoken in the Central American republic of Guatemala. About 9 million of the 13 million population speak Spanish.[1] It includes the use of the second-person singular personal pronoun vos alongside the standard Spanish second-person singular pronouns tú and usted to form a three-level system of second-person singular address,[2] all of which would be translated as "you" in English.
Vocabulary
Local words include
- a la gran – oh my God
- bolo – drunk
- caite – sandal
- chapín – Guatemalan (especially a native of the capital)
- chish - interjection signifying disgust[3]
- chucho - dog (literally "choo-cho")
- cincho - belt
- canche – blonde
- cabal – right on
- colocho - curly (usually when speaking of hair)
- ishto - kid (brat)
- mosh - oat porridge
- patojo – child (young people)
- pisto - money
- pajilla - straw
- poporopo - popcorn
- shuco - dirty (also informal of "hot-dog")
There are also many words unique to Central America, for example, chunche or chochadas or babosadas means "thing" or stuff in some places. The words used to describe children (or kids) vary among the countries in Central America; in Guatemala they are often called patojos. In Guatemala and Honduras the word güiros is also used. In Guatemala (also in Honduras and El Salvador) money is called pisto, a term originally used by Maya peoples in Guatemala.[4]
See also
Notes
References
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