Thursday, November 6, 2008

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

2 comments:

Esmit Pérez said...

A closer pronunciation would be
"di-i-no"

or so most my female friends pronounce it :)

Thomas Carmona said...

When I heard it I heard a single 'i' sound with no glottal stop that would signal a new syllable. However, I believe you when you say you hear three syllables. It makes perfect sense that people will often preserve the syllables of the original 'divino'.