Word of the Day: Jupa

Costa Ricans will often say "jupa" instead of head in informal situations.

Other informal names for parts of the body are as follows:

nariz (nose) --> trompa
trasero (butt) --> culo (vulgar)
pies (feet) --> cachos (which also means horns/antlers)
boca (mouth) --> pico (which literally means beak, but can also be an informal--and vulgar--way to say penis)

I'll save more for later.

Word of the Day: Despedida de Soltera

Sorry, ladies. This Costa Rican equivalent of the bachelorette party isn't a drunken night out on the town with fallic-ridden props. These despedida de soltera parties are quite tame...so they say.

Word of the Day: Quemado

Besides meaning 'burned' or 'burnt', quemado is also a game of tag (the verb quemar meaning 'to tag').

Another use of the term is for burnt (or burning) trash. Just about everywhere in Costa Rica, except for the larger cities (Costa Rica is still largely a rural society), people burn their trash because of either habit, lack of garbage pickup, or both. If you have ever smelled burnt trash, you won't forget it. When plastic burns it gives off toxic dioxins that are--as far as I know--proven carcinogens. Even in some of the more open environments, the burning of trash can be smelled all around town (remember, these are small towns I'm talking about).

Anyway, back to the point...In Costa Rica you might hear someone say "huele a quemado", which basically means "it smells like something is burning". Whenever I've heard the term quemado for when something is literally burning, it has always been in this context of burning trash.

Word of the Day: Pelo de Gato

Pelo de gato is a term Costa Ricans use to describe a very light, soft rain.

Word of the Day: Dormilón

Dormilón is a Costa Rican word that means "sleepy head", as in someone who likes to sleep, sleeps too much, or tends to sleep in. This can be dormilona for a woman, which is also a very common weed throughout Costa Rica. It's pretty neat because its leaves appear to shrivel up upon touching them. This defense mechanism--along with its sharp spines--protects it from ruminant animals and makes it a very successful species.

Word of the Day: Cabecera

Cabecera is Costa Rican for 'pillow', as in the one you use to sleep on in bed. The more common Spanish term 'almohada' would likely be understood as well, but be aware that most people just say cabecera.

Word of the Day: Estudiar

Estudiar means 'to study', but in Costa Rica it's used more broadly to mean 'to read'. People would often say to someone trying to talk to me while I read, "Déjelo, ¿no ves que está estudiando"? (Leave him alone--don't you see that he's reading?) Confused by this reference at first, I used to respond, "Don't worry, I'm just reading", which was always met with odd looks.

Word of the Day: Diantres

¡Diantres! is what you might hear an old woman say out of surprise in Costa Rica. It's a euphemism for diablos or demonios, and is the etiquette-equivalent of saying 'heck' instead of 'hell' in English.

I lived with a religious family in Costa Rica, and the mother would often say diantres. After I while I had to know what that really meant. Then, after knowing that it meant 'devils' or 'demons', I started blaming everything on "los diantres". Whenever I couldn't find something in my room, I would decry the mischevity of those darned "diantres" that were hiding my shit. The family got a kick out of it.

Word of the Day: Picado

Picado is the past participle of the verb 'picar', which can mean a number of different things in Spanish. In Costa Rica it is used in this participle form as an adjective to mean 'chopped'.

For example, if you help out a Costa Rican in the kitchen, she might ask you for chile picado, which just means chillies (or peppers, depending on what type of chile--picante or dulce--it is) chopped into small pieces.

Another popular use of picado is to mean 'scrambled', as in 'scrambled eggs'. It took me a while to start asking for 'huevo picado' instead of 'huevos revueltos'. (Please note that the singular 'huevo picado' is what I typically hear in restaurants, perhaps because in Costa Rica scrambled eggs are not a main course, but a side dish for a Costa Rican breakfast.)

Word of the Day: Queque

Queque is a word for 'cake' that is very similar to its English translation. Many Latin Americans outside of Costa Rica will correct you when you say queque, instead preferring the more Spanish word pastel or torta.

In Chile they use the word queque for cake, but also use it for buttocks. Whenever I tell Costa Ricans this, they think it's kind of goofy. Well, it might be, but I always remind them:

"Uds. (los ticos), sí, tienen razón porque un queque no siempre viene partido"

"You Costa Ricans are right because a cake doesn't always come separated into pieces."

I'm not sure how well this translates, but I always got a good laugh out of it.

Word of the Day: Lavado

Lavado, which literally means 'washed', can mean 'broke' (out of money) in Costa Rica. You can also say 'limpio' (Spanish for the adjective 'clean'), which also means you're completely out of money.

Word of the Day: Filo

Filo is Spanish for 'edge', as in the edge of a blade. In Costa Rica people sometimes use the word to mean hunger, instead of the standard 'hambre'.

Word of the Day: Arepa

An arepa is pancake-like Costa Rican flapjack made with flower, eggs, milk and/or sour cream, and sugar.

I find arepas tastier than American pancakes. They're creamier--and less chalky--than pancakes and don't need syrup to taste good. They are often served with the mid-afternoon café.

Word of the Day: Malanga

Malanga is a gray, starchy tuber that takes on a soft, gooey texture when cooked. It is very similar to tiquisque (pronounced [tiquisqui]), which fits the same description and is much more common in Costa Rica than the malanga. Both vegetables taste great and are a good change-up to the more conventional potato.

Perhaps more common than all the aforementioned tubers--especially in the rural areas where it's grown--is yuca, which is gooey like the malanga and tiquisque, but much more fibrous.

Word of the Day: Manteca

Manteca is essentially 'lard'. It's not exclusive to Costa Rica, but foreigners in the country will quickly take notice of this fatty staple. Costa Ricans will fry just about anything and everything in Manteca. Manteca has traditionally come from animal fat, but has recently comes from the next worst thing, palm oil. Just like animal fat, the majority of the fat in palm oil is saturated, which is bad for your heart. Costa Ricans will hear occasional news stories encouraging people to make the switch to vegetable oil, but manteca is well ingrained into the culture.

While I am often critical of manteca, it's only fair to point out that many Americans (myself included) have a diet that's much worse than the typical Costa Rican diet.

Word of the Day: Maicero

Maicero comes from the word for corn, maíz, and literally means 'corn producer'. However, it is used as a pejorative term for a rural campesino, meaning 'hillbilly' or 'country bumpkin'. The connotation is very negative, essentially like 'hick' and 'redneck' in the English language, but without the playful benignness that is attributed to these words as a result of recent popular culture. (Will anyone doubt that the "Blue Collar Comedy" guys have made being a hick a lot hipper?)

Word of the Day: Apretar

Literally meaning 'to tighten' or 'to squeeze', apretar comes to mean 'to kiss one's boyfriend or girlfriend' in Costa Rican Spanish.

Apretar is often mispronounced in the present indicative form.

The verb, in standard form, calls for a stem change ('-e-' to '-ie-') when the stem is the tonic syllable. For example, the third person singluar form would be 'aprieta', or 'aprietan' in the third person plural form. However, many ticos will say 'apreta' and 'apretan' for these verb forms, respetively. This is a common mistake found in other countries as well.

Apretado in Costa Rica can also signify a homemade frozen treat made from a base of either water or powdered milk, and one of many flavors of syrup. The contents are placed in a plastic sandwich baggie and then frozen. To eat it you simply bite a small opening from one of the two points in the bottom of the plastic bag, and suck out the contents from the makeshift teat. This apretado treat is called chiribisco [spelling?] in many parts of Costa Rica.

Word of the Day: Jama

Jama is Costa Rican for 'food'. Of course, the standard comida also works, but ticos will often informally refer to food as jama.

Mothers will yell to their kids:

¡Está la jama! (Food's on the table!)

Ticos will sometimes, but not as often, use the verb jamar instead of comer.

Word of the Day: Largo

In Costa Rica largo not only means 'long', but it's also a very common word to mean 'far' or 'far away' (instead of using the more common Spanish word, 'lejos'.)

So instead of saying "la iglesia está muy lejos" (The church is very far away) you could say "la iglesia está muy largo", which would mean the exact same thing to a Costa Rican. (Of course, if a Costa Rican frowns upon this usage, it won't mean the exact same thing to him because of his negative feelings toward it.)

Notice that in my example iglesia, which is femenine, does not change largo--which is typically an adjective--into its femenine form. That's because in this case largo isn't an adjective, but an adverb, which is gender neutral. Essentially, largo assimilates to the part of speech of the word it's replacing, lejos (a genderless adverb).

Rapu Davi (Pura Vida),

Tomás

Word of the Day: Fritear

Fritear is a popular way to say the verb 'to fry'. The correct Spanish verb is actually 'freir', but many make the mistake of using the past participle of this verb, 'frito', as the base morpheme for the verb itself.

This non-standard way of speaking is also used in other areas of the Spanish-speaking world. I have heard the verb 'fritar' in other countries, which comes to mean the same thing. It's just that Costa Ricans will most commonly add an '-ear' ending to new, made-up verbs--whereas other cultures tend to simply add an '-ar' suffix.

To use a personal example, if I had a love interest at the time in Costa Rica, a friend of mine would always ask me "are you going to [insert girl's name here]-ear today"? (The actual pronunciation of the suffix is most commonly [-iar] because of the Costa Rican tendency to say the 'e' like an 'i' when forming a dipthong with an 'a' or an 'o', the two other "strong vowels" in Spanish.)

Word of the Day: Yodo

Yodo is the Spanish word for 'iodine', but in Costa Rica it's also slang for 'coffee' because of both liquids' deep, dark color.

Pura Birra,

Tom

Word of the Day: Guanacaste

Guanacaste:

1. One of Costa Rica's seven provinces.

2. Costa Rica's national tree.

Guanacaste Day: A Costa Rican holiday that commemorates the annexation of Guanacaste to Costa Rica on July 24th, 1824.

Word of the Day: Maña

Maña is a noun meaning 'habit' or 'custom' that often has a negative connotation, perhaps more like 'vice' (vicio).

Consider the following example:

Mi hijo tiene la maña de ir a la cantina cuando debería estar estudiando.

Translation:

My son has the bad habit of going to the local bar when he should be studying.

Some people will say that maña is to be used with animals, whereas humans have costumbres. While this may be more "proper" in a certain sense, you will hear ticos speak of people who have mañas (or who are mañoso, which can mean anything from mischevious to stubborn) all the time.

This is a tough one to grasp. Please leave any questions or comments that arise.

Pura Vida

Word of the Day: Biodigestor

This isn't an exclusively Costa Rican word, but it's relevant to this blog because biodigesters are quite common in rural areas in Costa Rica and I myself managed a biogas project in Santa Fe de Guatuso, a small town of 250 people in the "Zona Norte" countryside.

A biodigestor is any manmade contraption that uses the anaerobic (withou the presence of oxygen) decomposition of organic materials to make biogas, which is largely methane, for either cooking, heating, or electricity. In layman's terms, un biodigestor takes poop and turns it into gas.

If you're feeling extra ambitious, check out the biogas project that the Santa Fe women executed or the biodigester design they used.

¡Pura Vida!

Word of the Day: Matricidio

Ticos will sometimes jokingly refer to matrimonio as matricidio.

To the layperson, this implies an association between homicide and marriage. Marriage--when not done right--can kill your ambition, your sense of humor, your personal finances et al. I'm single and always have been. This is just what I hear...

Pura Vida ;)

Word of the Day: Salado

Salado, meaning 'salty' in most situations, is used in Costa Rica to mean 'unlucky' or 'unfortunate'. Costa Ricans will use salado(a) to lightly tease someone who missed out on a good opportunity. In this sense, it's sort of like saying "too bad" or "tough luck" in a sarcastic way.

The concept of luck is very strong in Costa Rican culture. Ticos will not only employ salado(a) for bad luck, but will also employ the word dichoso(a) for good fortune. (The noun 'dicha' means 'joy', but when put in adjective form in Costa Rica it effectively means 'lucky'.) "Qué dichoso", someone might say when you tell him you're going on vacation.

Word of the Day: Ride

If spelled "phonetically" in Spanish this word would be 'raid'. Since there isn't a good word in Spanish for the English noun 'ride', as in getting a ride to school, Costa Ricans simply borrow the English word to mean the same thing. For example, someone may use the imperative "deme un ride"!

Costa Ricans will not say ride to mean a trip in a motor vehicle--as in "it was a bumpy ride from Ciudad Quesada to Guatuso". For this they will most likely say viaje.

If you want to use only Spanish words to ask someone if he wants a ride, simply ask:

"[Ud.] Quiere que lo lleve a San José"?

Translation:

"Do you want me to take you to San José?"

or

"Do you want a ride to San José?"

Word of the Day: Viejo Verde

Viejo verde is a common label for a man who chases younger women. ('Viejo' of course meaning old, and 'verde' meaning 'green' or--in this case--'young'.) To be fair, a woman can also be a vieja verde, but it is much more typical for the man to be older in a relationship. It is not uncommon for a 30-year-old man to date, and eventually marry, a 20-year-old woman. However, if the age difference becomes much more exaggerated than this, people will call the man a viejo verde, the equivalent of "cradle-robber" in American English. This label of viejo verde is also valid when an older man's admiration of a young woman is verbalized but not necessarily acted on. I know many old Costa Ricans who would say sexually suggestive things about young women, who were then gently called viejo verde. 

Another way to say viejo verde in Costa Rica is sátiro.

Word of the Day: Vacaciones!

I'm in Knoxville, Tennessee for the weekend. I'll continue posting the Word of the Day starting Monday. 

Pura Vida, 

Thomas

Costa Rican Spanish Word of the Day: Diino

I have a hard time even calling this a word, but it might be worth noting that [dino] with a slightly prolonged 'i' sound will informally refer to the Spanish divino. A woman in my community once told me that a painting was "super diino". As any normal human being would do, I gave her a funny look. When I asked her what the heck that was, all the other women in the room were in disbelief that I hadn't heard the word before.

Gauging their reaction, maybe it's a more common word than I might think. Maybe it's just a word that women use amongst themselves. Also, perhaps it's a word that is used in other countries, but Costa Rica is the only place where I was able to earn a woman's trust enough to hear her use such informal language with me.

Either way, it's pretty messed up. I wouldn't try using this word. You might get some funny looks.

Peace,

Thomas

Costa Rican Spanish Word of the Day: Si Dios Quiere

Literally translated as "if God wants" (or the more idiomatically correct "God willing" in English), 'si Dios quiere' is an expression that has permeated Costa Rican language and culture.

This expression often throws foreigners through a loop, whether they're believers or not. Many ticos will start or end the future projection of just about anything with 'si Dios quiere' (or 'si Dios permite'). While most people wouldn't have a problem with this, some ticos go a step further to add it onto your sentence when you--wittingly or not--leave it out.

I recall a specific instance when I was telling my neighbor about my graduate school plans. He nodded his head in agreement and said "Sí, si Dios quiere". If it were simply an involuntary cultural reaction I wouldn't have thought much of it, but in this case he was clearly calling attention to my omission of God in the equation.

I am personally not critical of the expression. (Even if I were, my quibbling would be nothing short of futile.) However, others have argued that the pervasiveness of the expression is a sign of--if not an actual cause of--an overreliance on faith and hope instead of self-determination in tico culture. In order to capture this attitude, I wrote the following parody for an underground Peace Corps Costa Rica fake newspaper, "The Times of Tico", which I authored while in the country: "Son's Laziness Mistaken for the Will of God".

Costa Rican Spanish Word of the Day: Gallina de Palo

A common Costa Rican nickname for the iguana is gallina de palo, essentially meaning "chicken of the tree". (The resemblance to the popular brand of tuna in the US is a mere coincidence.) Actually, gallina specifically means 'hen' and 'palo' most formally means 'stick'. However, Costa Ricans will commonly use the word 'palo' whenever talking about a tree. When I first arrived in Costa Rica, I was taken on a walk in the woods and was met with some great confusion when someone was trying to point out a "stick" about 50 feet off the ground. The "stick" turned out to be a pretty big one, firmly planted into the ground!

Anyway, they call the iguana gallina de palo because it tastes a lot like chicken. Yum!

Todavía en la lucha,

Tom

Costa Rican Spanish Word of the Day: Cachos

Cachos is the most common way to say 'horns' or 'antlers' in Costa Rica. (In other Spanish-speaking countries, cuerno is the more common term.) To "ponerse los cachos" is to cheat on your significant other. The verb can also be used in a transitive sense, as in the following sentence: "Mi novia me puso los cachos." (My girlfriend cheated on me.)

In Costa Rica bakeries will sell pastries called "cachos". They're flaky, cone-like pastries filled with dulce de leche, a product made by slowly boiling milk and sugar until it caramelizes. I was always a sucker for these cachos. When I would go into a bakery to get a cacho, the owner would always have a good "cachos" joke for me. Of course, she was especially proud of her jokes because I was actually dating her daughter...

Siempre en la lucha,

Tom

Costa Rican Spanish Word of the Day: ¡Aca!

¡Aca! is an interjection that Costa Rican farmers will use to yell at their cows. They simply scream it over an over again when trying to herd their cattle.

Perhaps it isn't actually an interjection, which is a word that is "interjected" in a sentence without a market grammatical connection with the other parts within. Perhaps ¡Aca! actually does originate from an actual command, making it a verb--or maybe even shorthand for a longer sentence. I will try to get to the bottom of this etymological issue when I go to Costa Rica in January.

Roy Yo Soy

The following poem was written by my aunt Lola in Miami, Florida. She is a decorated and prolific writer. Upon hearing that I had a new website that captured local language in the US, she was suddenly inspired to write a poem that captures the "pochismo" Spanglish that she hears on a daily basis in Miami. So, here it is. It's a fun adaptation from a Dr. Seuss classic. Enjoy.

Roy Yo Soy

By: Dolores Sendler

(Adapted from GREEN EGGS AND HAM – By: Dr. Seuss)

I am Sam

Sam I am.

Y yo soy Roy

Roy yo soy.

That Roy-yo-soy.

That Roy-yo-soy.

I do not like that Roy-yo-soy.

Do you like bistec con pan?

Do you like it Roy-yo-soy?

I do not like bistec con pan

I do not like it Sam-I-am.

Do you like it aquí o ahí?

Do you like it with ají?

No me gusta aquí o ahí

I do not like it with ají.

I do not like bistec con pan

I do not like it Sam-I-am.

Do you like it with mostaza?

¿En tu casa?

¿Con mi raza?

No me gusta con mostaza.

Ni con ají ni con mi raza.

I do not like bistec con pan!

No me gusta Sam-I-am!

Would you like it in a plato?

With a dog or with a gato?

Not in a plato.

Not with a gato.

Not with a dog.

Not with a hog.

I would not like it with mostaza.

In my house or in your casa.

I would not like it here or there

I would not like it anywhere!

I do not like bistec con pan!

No me gusta Sam-I-am!

Would you? Could you?

En el Cayo?

On a donkey or a caballo?

I will not, could not,

en el Cayo.

On a burro.

Or a caballo!

You may like it

in the sea.

You may like it

in a tree.

Not in the sea.

Not in a tree.

Not in the ocean! You let me be!

No me gusta en el Cayo.

No me gusta a caballo.

I do not like it with maduros.

Or those awful Cuban puros.

I do not like it with a toy,

That they’re calling Roy-yo-soy!

!Yo soy Roy! Not that toy!

I do not like bistec con pan!

I do not like it, Sam-I-am!

!La guagua! !La guagua!

Could you on the Monorail?

Not on la guaga!

Not on the rail!

Not on la micro!

Not on the trail!

Sam let me be!

I would not, could not en el tren.

I could not, would not with a friend.

I will not eat it in a plato.

With a dog or with a gato.

I do not like it en el Cayo.

With a perro or a caballo.

I do not like it on a burro.

With frijoles con maduros.

I do not like it with bizcocho.

In Southwest or Calle Ocho.

I do not like bistec con pan!

I do not like it Sam-I-am!

Say!

At the mall?

At Dadeland Mall!

Would you, could you at the mall?

I would not, could not,

At the mall.

Would you, could you with a ball?

I would not, could not with a ball.

Not at the mall! Not in a train!

Not with a gato! Not in the rain!

I do not like it at the beach.

With a mango or with a peach.

I do not like it with maduros.

With frijoles or with puros.

Not with tostones! Not in a house!

Not with condones! Not with a mouse!

I will not eat it con el gato.

With refritos on a plato.

Not at Viscaya.

Not at the playa.

Not with coffee or cortaditos.

Caja China or with mojitos.

I will not eat it here or there.

I will not eat it anywhere!

You do not like bistec con pan?

¡No me gusta Sam-I-am!

Would you, could you,

con un flan?

I would not, could not,

with a flan!

Could you, would you,

in Hialeah?

Would you, maybe,

in Key Biscayne?

I would not,

could not,

in Hialeah.

I would not,

in Key Biscayne!

That’s insane!

Key Biscayne is our bahía!

It’s a terrible idea!

I could not, would not, with a mouse.

In a condo or in a house.

I will not, will not, a caballo.

In Key West or in Key Largo.

I will not eat it with maduros.

With cigars they’re calling puros.

I will not eat it on a plato.

Wih the dog or with el gato.

Not with mojitos! Not cafecitos!

Not with salsita! Not cortaditos!

I do not like it with bizcocho.

At the mall on Calle Ocho!

I do not like it with mondonga.

Cha-cha-chá, mambo, or conga.

I do not like it with Katrina,

She destroyed our Caja China.

I do not like it here or there.

I do no like it ANYWHERE!

I do not like bistec con pan!

¡No me gusta Sam-I-am!

You do not like it?

So you say.

!Pruébalo!

Taste it!

And you may.

Try it hoy,

Roy-yo soy.

Try it today!

I say.

Try it!

And you may.

If you will let me be,

I will try it.

You will see……

Say!

!Caramba!

I like bistec con pan!

And I like it with maduros.

With tostones and with flan!

And I would eat it in a boat,

And I would eat it with a goat.

And I will eat it in the rain.

On the guagua or on the train.

And in the dark. At Bayside Park.

And on the bridge or in the bay.

I will eat it every day!

And I will eat it at the games.

With tormenta and hurricanes.

I will eat them with potatoes.

With ajiaco and with tomatoes.

At Metrozoo in Metromover.

I will eat it on a scooter.

Chimichurri I will favor.

To replace that ketchup flavor!

Miami Beach! The lower Keys!

No more sipping spot-of tea!

It is so good, so good you see.

So I will eat it with sambuca.

Mojo Criollo, arroz and yucca.

And I will eat it in a plato.

With my perro and my gato.

At the playa! At Viscaya!

And I will eat it in a house.

And I will eat it with a mouse.

And I will eat it here and there.

!Vaya! I will eat it ANYWHERE!

I do so like

!Bistec con pan!

¡Gracias!

¡Gracias!

Sam-I-am!

Dolores C. Sendler - Miami, Florida

So Long, Diphthong!

In Costa Rica I have noticed the elimination of diphthongs in certain words. For example, the word achiote (crushed annato seeds made into a paste for red food coloring) is most often pronounced [achote], effectively cutting off the '-io-' diphthong.

This isn't the only strange vowel-related phenomenon I've encountered. I wrote about the weakening of strong vowels in my article, "Not the King's Spanish". Check it out.

Pura Vida,

Thomas

Piña

Sure, piña means pineapple in Costa Rica, but it has a very different use as well. If you go to some rural fiestas in Costa Rica you can almost always buy tamales. They'll come in pairs, the two tamales wrapped together with twine. This is una piña de tamales.

I learned this one the hard way. I was at some fiestas and ordered a tamal. The server asked me if I wanted a "piña". After giving her my best look of disbelief I repeated that I wanted un tamal. After realizing why I was confused, she explained to me that tamales are usually served in piñas, or pairs of tamales.

Man, did I feel zampaguavas!

Consonant Assimilation

This linguistic phenomenon is not limited to Spanish, and certainly not to Costa Rica, but it nonetheless rears its ugly head in interesting ways in Costa Rica. To catch you up to speed, there are several cases in Spanish when consonants change their sounds based on the letter that follows. (We're not just talking about letters, but also phonemes, but I'll just call them letters for the sake of simplicity.) Consider the following examples:

The word 'rasgo' means physical characteristic or trait. The 's', which is normally an unvoiced sibilant, becomes a voiced sibilant like the 'z' in the English word 'zoo' because the 'g' that follows is a voiced consonant. This is consonant assimilation.

Another common example of consonant assimilation is the assimilation of 'n', an alveolar nasal consonant, to an 'm', a bilabial nasal consonant. In the noun phrase 'un barco' (a boat) the 'n', which is normally formed by pressing your tongue against your alveolar ridge just behind your upper front teeth, becomes a bilabial 'm' because the consonant the follows ('b') is also bilabial.

Anyway, I was prompted to think of this consonant assimilation when I came across a sign outside of the movie theater in Ciudad Quesada de San Carlos. The sign read 'Niños del Honbre', which according to the proper spelling of the words would be 'Niños del Hombre'. This was not the first time I had seen this misspelling, but it was perhaps the third time, and was what compelled me to consider it something more than a typo (or a 'write-o' or a 'placing letters on the sign outside of a movie theater...-o'). I can only explain it as a hypercorrection certain native speakers employ when they hear an 'm' but think they're supposed to write an 'n'. In Spanish you will always write 'un barco', even though there's an 'm' sound. On the other hand, within single words, you can NEVER have an 'n' before a 'b' or a 'p'. It's a rule. (We also have this rule in English; e.g., incoherent, but then imperfection.) So, when the 'n' is separated from the 'b' or 'p' by a word break, then it remains an 'n', but within the same word as a 'b' or a 'p', it simply can't be a written 'n'. My conjecture is that whichever case rings truer in the mind of a less-than-perfect speller is the one that is applied to the other case. It makes perfect sense to me that a Spanish speaker would sooner misspell 'hombre' than he would 'un', the latter of which is as essential to Spanish as 'a' or 'an' is to English. If this is true, then the misspelling of 'hombre' should be seen as a hypercorrection of the 'n' remaining an 'n' in the case of 'un barco' where it is pronounced like an 'm'.

In case you want another case of consonant assimilation in Spanish, here it is:

In the word 'banco' the 'n' takes on the sound of the 'ng' in the English word 'gong'. This happens because the 'n' will always assimilate to a velar 'c', 'k', or 'g' by becoming a velar 'ng'.

Pura Vida

Inside-Out

In rural Costa Rica the words 'inside' and 'outside' provide just one example of a set of vague directional references that locals will employ to confuse the hell out of you.

Adentro, to a Costa Rican living in a rural area, is a directional reference meaning "further into the country (boondocks)".

Afuera, as you may expect, means "toward the city". ("Cities" in Costa Rica are often of quite modest size.)

When city folk comes to the Costa Rican countryside, they often get confused by these references. I was witness to a conversation a Costa Rican had with a city-dwelling American when this issue caused major confusion. The rural Costa Rican asked the American (U.S.) "do you like living afuera"? The American then went on to explaining that, no, he prefers the city. The Costa Rican stopped listening at some point (as he normally does) and ended the conversation thinking that the guy actually preferred living in a rural setting. When I brought this up later on, he became defensive, assuring me that the guy didn't like living "afuera".

If you've ever tried confrontation with a Costa Rican, you'll know that it's a futile endeavor. The culture has a high level of avoidance and a distaste for 'necios' who challenge other people. As a result, I didn't try convincing this guy of the cultural divide that the conversation exemplified.

_______________

Other confusing directional references include arriba and abajo. the rural Costa Rican has a surprisingly detailed picture of his area's topography in his head. He'll tell you, "voy pa' bajo", which means nothing to a city slicker. What he'll probably tell you, though, if you care to ask the right questions, is that the town that neighbors him to the south is at about 20 vertical meters below his own. I always wonder: "Couldn't he just tell me the name of the town"?!!? This wondering often gets you nowhere.

Also, Costa Ricans offer gestures to replace descriptive directional cues. Costa Ricans will point at things, whether near or far, with their lips. They press them together and stick them out, as if to make a duckbill, and nod their head in a slight upward motion in the indicated direction.

***Please note that this lip pointing is also a popular way for a Costa Rican man to point out an attractive woman to another dude***

Voy pa' Chepe

Mexico is well known for the nicknames it has for specific given names. Francisco can be either "Paco" or "Pancho". Ignacio you can call "Nacho" (even to his face). José can be "Pepe", but in Costa Rica, he's "Chepe". (Sometimes even Josué will become Chepe.)

As you may already know, Costa Rica's capital is San José. Even the capital de la patria cannot avoid this playful tico nomenclature. Costa Ricans outside of San José will often refer to San José as "Chepe", especially when they're making a trip to the city. (It seems that the farther you get from San José, the more often it's called "Chepe".)

"Voy pa' Chepe" is all I ever needed to say when I was leaving town.

In the Campo

The word 'campo' most people learn as a word meaning 'countryside'. This meaning is still valid in Costa Rica, but perhaps a more common usage, even in "el campo" itself, employs the word as a synonym for 'space'.

For example, if someone is trying to squeeze through a small space around another person, she'll say "deme campo por favor".

The first time I heard someone asking me for some 'campo', I didn't know what to make of it. (I was either too slow to pick up on contextual clues, or I was just too caught up in the new language to function as a normal human being.) I ended up getting out of the way, but it was about a minute later when I fully understood that the person was not only asking for a little space, but that campo actually means 'space'. A real epiphany, I know.

¡Dame campo o dame la muerte! Sounds like a country song.

Pura Vida,

Thomas

¡Diay!

***Please note the informative commentary below on what--unexpectedly--turned out to be a fairly controversial blog post***

This word, 'diay', is used quite frequently in Costa Rican Spanish in a number of different situations. Most notably, 'diay' is used for what in English would be something like "wtf?" (I prefer not to spell that out for you.)

For example, if I ask someone if he went to his AA meeting last night, to which he responded "no", I would say "diay"? (Just in case you didn't know, punctuation goes outside of quotation marks in written Spanish.) In one simple word I can express the following sentence: "I can't believe you didn't go to your AA meeting, you really should've gone, and you should be ashamed of yourself."

What other word can say so much?

You can also use 'diay' as filler before starting something you're gonna say. In this case it is used like the English 'well' as in "Well...I didn't go to my AA meeting because I had a doctor's appointment."

***Clarification on this post, ¡Diay!***

I must clarify a few issues brought up by the comments found below. I see why people might take issue with my lackluster effort at determining a translation for 'diay'.

First of all, 'wtf' is not the best translation. 'Diay' is perhaps best translated as 'what happened', 'why not', or a number of similar phrases that can express surprise and wonderment. My problem with using these phrases was that they are too numerous. It's my fault for succumbing to my laziness and trying to come up with a catch-all phrase, which wasn't appropriate for the situation. I thought 'wtf' would be a good example of a translation because it not only asks what happened (or what didn't happen) effectively but also expresses the surprise of an expected--or an unacceptable--outcome. (There are a number of occasions when you would ask "What happened?", but you'd most commonly say 'Diay?' when the outcome was unexpected or unacceptable.)

Also, people might rightly take issue with the vulgarity of 'wtf', which might imply that 'diay' is somehow a vulgar word, which it is not. I simply meant to convey to English speakers, in a concise way, what might be a possible replacement for 'wtf'. I think 'diay' does indeed work for the majority of these cases. This semantic problem arises when you try to make this translation reciprocal. I would never imply that Costa Ricans are really trying to say something as vulgar as 'wtf' when saying 'diay'. More importantly, I would never recommend that a Costa Rican start saying 'wtf' in English instead of 'diay', especially because it often won't even make sense.

If there's something to be learned here (this is certainly something I have learned) it's that translations can be very tricky. In this case I will concede that my original use of 'wtf' alone as a translation for 'diay' was innacurrate in that it was extremely inadequate.

The Double Plural

In rural areas of Costa Rica you'll sometimes hear double plurals. The most common one would be for parents, popularly referred to as 'papases.' To make 'papá' plural to mean parents you really only need to add a single 's' at the end. Many Ticos, however, think of the plural 'papás' as the word for a single set of parents. When they're talking about a group of parents, though, they'll say 'papases'.

It may seem weird, but there's actually some decent reason behind it. Plus, it sounds kind of cool. I dig it.

If you want to read more extensive articles on rural Costa Rican Spanish, go to the Costa Rican Spanish articles on my website. If you're into the linguistic aspects of Costa Rican language, I recommend the two with the title "Not the King's Spanish". There are also some lighter reads as well.

Rapu Davi ;)

Christmas Bonus

Continuing the work theme, an important work vocab word for Costa Rica is the aguinaldo. Hold on to your hats, folks. In Costa Rica the state actually enforces an obligatory wage in the month of December for all employees, whether employed by the state or not, equivalent to a full month's salary (the average monthly salary for the year) on top of that month's salary. This aguinaldo has become a huge part of Costa Rican culture, as Ticos await this bookoo cash for holiday purchases.

Personally, I think the concept is a bit strange, especially since it's mandatory, but I must admit that it has its virtues. For example, it's nice to receive something at the end of the year. It's like Christmas, but for adults. Also, it does leave something to spend at the end of the year, whereas many people would otherwise spend their extra wages if they were evenly dispersed in their yearly paychecks.

One perceived virtue of the aguinaldo that, in my mind, is not a virtue at all is the idea of "free money" or "extra money." Costa Ricans often tell me, "it's so bad that there's no aguinaldo in the United States--the extra money at the end of the year helps us out." Now, as I stated before, the aguinaldo does help people save for the end of the year, but not everyone is best off with this "big brother" approach. If you ask me, I'd rather have that money dispersed in all of my paychecks, which is what my employer would use to calculate average monthly costs anyway! That's right, it's not free money. Employers know how much they'll need to spend on aguinaldos, so they'll pay you less than they otherwise would on a monthly basis to make up for it. Even more, they'll pocket that money they would have otherwise paid you each month until the very end of the year. So, they have your money for a whole year, leaving you to pay the opportunity cost of that cash, effectively decreasing--not increasing--your average monthly pay in real terms.

Ticos like their aguinaldo and I'm glad for it. I, however, would like my money now.

Work in Costa Rica

No, this isn't a how-to on getting a work visa. I'm going to introduce a few Costa Rican words that relate to work. Consider the following:

Brete, also used as a verb bretear, means job. This is a slang word, something you wouldn't find in the paper or on the news. However, Ticos will use this word in informal situations.

Oficio is another word for work, but it refers to household chores. In Costa Rica this is traditionally a woman's work. (I don't make the rules, I swear.) In rural areas you'll often hear women say "I need to get back home to hacer el oficio." (Please excuse the Spanglish.) This usually involves mopping the tile floors and, in rural areas, sweeping ceilings for cobwebs, termites, or wasp nests.

Terms for remuneration include chamba, which is a considerable amount of earnings, as well as una millonada, which would be a huge amount of money in the millions of colones, which essentially means thousands of US dollars. (Millonada is used most frequently in reference to lottery earnings.) These aren't particularly Tico words, but I hear them used often nonetheless.

Perhaps the most important work vocabulary has to do with what some would consider passive income. (Hey, it's no knock the Ticos--who doesn't like free money?) Pensión can refer to a pension earned after retirement ('retired' in Costa Rican Spanish is 'pensionado' whether or not the retiree has a pension to speak of), which for many government employees equals full pay for life. Pensión also refers to the child support that a Tico pays for each child not in his custody. Fortunately, the Costa Rican government does a good job of enforcing child support laws. Unfortunately, however, many Costa Rican men make a habit of having children with multiple women. (Again, don't blame the messenger--I don't make the rules!) I really don't know how they do it....well at least the part about them actually paying all that child support. Kids are expensive--even in Costa Rica.

Alright, good talk.

;)

Where 1 means I

In Costa Rica, when a person uses 'uno' as a subject pronoun, she will almost always be speaking in the first person. 'Uno', in such a case, would essentially mean 'yo'. This is a very important cultural aspect of Costa Rican language that shows the Ticos' indirect nature.

To demonstrate exactly what I'm referring to, here's a quick example to get you caught up:

Uno no podría montar a caballo por tanto tiempo
[translation] I wouldn't be able to ride a horse for so much time

Perhaps this way of speaking first originated from Costa Ricans' tendency to speak indirectly and always take the explicit personal nature out of what they say. However, this language has become so pervasive over time that 'uno' simply means 'I' (or 'me'). Even more, the use of 'uno' to mean a more general 'one', as used in English, simply does not exist in Costa Rica. I know this because I've tried using 'one' in the more general third person sense and have confused the hell out of people as a result. I was doing a presentation for a rural community group and said something along the lines of "one not being able to do something." Well, that something was apparently a personal core competency. Admitting that "one" couldn't do it compelled everyone in the room to give me odd looks. I wasn't trying to refer to myself, but everyone in the room thought I was. I clarified the situation very quickly and moved on, but many foreigners never pick up on this subtlety because it goes much deeper than conventional, direct translations between English and Spanish. So, "one" can certainly sympathize ;)

Tamaño Poco

The Spanish word 'tamaño' is a noun meaning 'size', but in Costa Rica it can be used as an adjective as part of an idiomatic expression. The phrase 'tamaño poco', which shouldn't make sense by any stretch of standard Spanish, in Costa Rica means 'a lot of' or 'a substantial amount of'. For example:

Antes era un pobre, pero ahora tiene tamaño poco ganado.
[Translation] Before he was a poor man, but now he has a considerable amount of cattle.

You will hear stuff like this all the time in the Costa Rican countryside. Now, read the following example that highlights an important characteristic of this Costa Rican idiom:

Antes era un pobre, pero ahora tiene tamaño poco plata.

[Translation] Before he was a poor man, but now he has a considerable amount of money.

After seeing this example, and thinking of 'tamaño poco' as 'a lot' or the Spanish 'mucho/a', you might expect the former to take on the gender of the noun it's describing like most Spanish adjectives. 'Tamaño poco', however, effectively functions as a noun phrase that leads into a prepositional phrase. That's why I prefer to say that 'tamaño poco' means 'a considerable amount of' or 'a substantial amount of' instead of simply say it means 'a lot'.

Costa Rican National Anthem - Himno Nacional de Costa Rica

The Costa Rican National Anthem was adopted in 1853 and composed by Manuel María Gutiérrez. The lyrics to the anthem have been in use since 1949. Every morning in a typical Costa Rican public primary school, the National Anthem is preceded by everyone reciting Hail Mary, Our Father, and a prayer prepared by and individual student. (Roman Catholicism is the official state religion in Costa Rica.)

Posted below are the Spanish lyrics to the Himno followed by their approximate English translation.

Noble patria tu hermosa bandera
expresión de tu vida nos da
bajo el límpido azul de tu cielo
blanca y pura descansa la paz

En la lucha tenaz, de fecunda labor
que enrojece del hombre la faz
conquistaron tus hijos labriegos, sencillos
eterno prestigio, estima y honor
eterno presitigio, estima y honor

Salve oh tierra gentil
Salve oh madre de amor
Cuando alguien pretenda tu gloria manchar
verás a tu pueblo valiente y viril
la tosca herramienta en arma trocar

Noble patria tu pródigo suelo
dulce abrigo y sustento nos da
bajo el límpido azul de tu cielo
vivan siempre el trabajo y la paz

[English]

Noble homeland your beautiful flag
expression of your life it gives us.
Beneath the limpid blue of your sky
white and pure rests peace.

In the tenacious fight of fruitful labor
that reddens the man's face
your simple laborer sons conquered
eternal prestige, esteem and honor
eternal prestige, esteem and honor

Hail oh gentile country
Hail oh mother of love
If someone intends to stain your glory
you will see your people, brave and virile
the rough tool turns into weapon.

Hail oh homeland your fertile soil
sweet shelter and sustenance it gives us.
Beneath the limpid blue of your sky
may work and peace live forever!

Rapu Davi

El estilo pachuco, the way Costa Ricans describe a very "ordinario" way of speaking, has a different way to say just about anything. If you ever meet a hopeless pachuco, someone who makes a point of using the slang version of EVERYTHING, he might even give you a different variation of Costa Rica's signature 'pura vida'. "Rapu davi, jema," he might say to you. Please note that this utterance is simply the juxtaposition of syllables in the words 'pura vida, maje'. (Note that 'maje' is now popularly pronounced and spelled 'mae' and is often used in the same way and with the same frequency as 'dude' in English.)

Rapu davi, goami. :::wink:::

By the way, I just Googled 'rapu davi' and one of the top web results was a page about Chile's Easter Island, or 'Rapa Nui' in the local tongue. (That is, Easter Island's natives' language, not Spanish.) I don't really care to research that one much more, but every time I had previously thought of 'rapu davi', Easter Island had come to mind. Maybe I'm not the only one...

Holy Smokes!!!

In Costa Rica, you might hear an old woman exclaim "diantres!" I used to always wonder why one of my neighbors would always say that when she was shocked by something. Good ol' Mailí, an Evangelical Christian, eventually explained to me that it is an acceptable way to avoid saying 'diablos', which means 'devils'. It seems that it's not only English that has those loopholes for saying quite nearly what you mean, but without the negative stigma of actually doing it.

Interesante, ¿es o no es?

Pura Vida,

;)

You'll Enjoy this Post (God Willing)

The use of 'God' in Costa Rican Spanish can be quite perplexing to the lay observer. Costa Ricans, whether particularly religious or not, will invoke 'Dios' for all sorts of circumstances. Below are a few of the most common expressions that use the lord's name:

Gracias a Dios - Meaning 'thanks to God', this expression follows the telling of good news. "My son got into the University of his choice, gracias a Dios", a Costa Rican might say. "I'm doing great today, gracias a Dios". You get the point.

Si Dios quiere - Costa Ricans can hardly ever make any sort of future projection without putting 'God willing' before or after it. Even things that seem largely within the control of the speaker are accompanied by 'si Dios quiere'. This expression often causes confusion between Costa Ricans and foreigners. Gringos often wonder, "will this person actually attend the 4 o'clock meeting, or will he just pray for it to be so?" Very often, ONLY GOD KNOWS!!! ***For an entertaining little parody that exemplifies this cultural phenomenon, although in an exaggerated manner, visit http://www.ruralcostarica.com/si-dios-quiere.asp.

There are several more references to God that I'll touch on in the next post.

Dios me los bendiga ;)

Futbol vs. Fútbol

Soccer in Costa Rica is pronounced futbol, with the accent over the last syllable. This is different from the standard Spanish fútbol that people say in other parts of the Spanish-speaking world. Interestingly enough, though, Costa Ricans will still spell soccer with the standard 'fútbol' orthography.

Ir v. Irse

In Costa Rica use irse only when someone is going away for good. Anything that is only temporary only warrants the verb ir. So, if you're going to the United States to visit your family, say "Voy a los Estados Unidos". Don't say "Me voy para los Estados Unidos", unless you really are moving back to the United States. I used this last sentence once, which prompted a number of mushy text messages to my cell phone. After realizing what had happened, I had to notify people that I would be back within a few weeks.

Pura Vida,

;)

¿Quién es más macho?

In Costa Rica macho doesn't mean macho. Well, it does, but it most often means blonde. Just like any other Spanish adjective, it has a masculine and feminine form, so a macha would be a blonde female. The word rubio/a is understood in Costa Rica, but the preferred term is macho/a. (You will most often hear rubia when referring to the local beer Pilsen, which is a blonde)

So, if you, as a light-haired foreigner, hear someone call you macho, don't get all weird about it. She's likely not coming onto you, but simply identifying you with respect to your hair color. (Foreigners in any Latin country should get used to commentary on physical attributes, as Latinos have no shame in telling you that you're very fat, skinny, pale, or dark-skinned) Also, don't be alarmed if someone calls you gringo, as Americans are very well-liked in Costa Rica and the word gringo does not carry the same negative connotation like in other places and time periods in Latin America.

Pura Vida...

Tico Matrimony

Ticos, although very Catholic in a number of ways, stray from traditional Catholic values in their marriages...in that they often don't exist. Many Ticos will refer to their live-in boyfriends and girlfriends as mi marido or mi mujer, respectively. This kind of pre-marital co-habitation happens all the time in Costa Rica. Instead of casados the two parties are considered juntados. They use the verb juntarse to describe formation of these uniones libres, as they call them. I found it very surprising that these arrangements are not only common, but are also widely accepted in the mainstream culture. It makes you wonder what it really means to be Catholic. Obviously it differs from one culture to another. More deep thoughts to follow...