In Medellin and its metropolitan area, as occurs in any city in the world, there exists a subculture that arose from marginality that developed its own linguistic expression. In the case of the capital of Antioquia, with components of colloquial, youth, criminal, prison and drug addiction speech. It is called parlache, and two researchers assert that artists such as Juanes or Karol G have legitimized it.
Parlache, which is an acronym that results from the words “parla” (speech) and “parche” (meeting place), has been studied by now retired professors from the University of Antioquia Luz Stella Castaneda and Jose Ignacio Henao. They compiled in 2006 the first dictionary of that social dialect.
The work, as reviewed by Carlos Garcia Zapata, also from the University of Antioquia, in the journal Linguistica y Literatura (No. 50, 2006), takes as its basis a sufficiently representative data corpus (more than 2,600 words and expressions) that reveals the complex reality mixture of illicit activities, violence, marginality, of this community of urban speakers. “The lexicon of parlache, as a reflection of the customs and of the countercultural ideology of its speakers, contributes to meaning clearly connotative values, most often pejorative,” Garcia Zapata added.
An explanation of the origin of parlache
Regarding the origin of parlache, professor Luz Stella Castaneda explained in El Pais of Spain: “The social gap in Medellin of the nineteen eighties had a reflection in how young people from popular neighborhoods communicated, in response to the context of marginalization, exclusion and violence in which they lived. Initially it was perceived as a coarse language, but now it is in newspaper headlines or in presidential campaigns.”
And her life and research partner, professor Jose Ignacio Henao, added in the same outlet: “It is a process of creation and transformation of words and expressions, some borrowed from calo, from lunfardo, from English… And it shows the transformation of values: a murder is a job.”
Referring to what could have allowed that leap in scale, Henao had no doubts: “These expressions are ephemeral, but this one permeated other social sectors, through contact in the street, although it is later used with nuances,” he explained in the newspaper. “Journalistic articles about the situation of young people from the comunas and literature were key. And now, also the use made by artists such as Juanes or Karol G or series such as Narcos, have legitimized and spread that social dialect already at a global level. Que chimba!, by Maluma, is pure parlache.”
More words enrich parlache
Professor Castaneda also recalls that for the 22nd edition of the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) the lexicon related to violence was addressed in a specific way. “The Colombian Academy of Language knew our work, which at that time was merely a glossary of about 1,500 words and raised it to deliberations,” she said, and professor Henao added: “In 2001, 31 of those lexical pieces were accepted such as bacano (great or good), fierro (firearm), duro (person with power), chichipato (person or matter of little value), cuero (ugly woman)…”
In this regard, the review made by professor Garcia Zapata 20 years ago is illustrative, because he presented the dictionary of Castaneda and Henao divided into six lexical units of great variety, here only with some examples:
- Lexicon of colloquial speech: “brujiar”, “cacharro”, “locha”, “mamera”.
- Lexicon of youth speech: “desparchado”, “empeliculado”, “intenso”, “peye”
- Lexicon of criminal slang: “aparato”, “chuliar”, “enfierrado”, “gatillero”
- Prison lexicon: “bodegon”, “caspete”, “bongo”, “cana”
- Lexicon of drug addiction: “gotera”, “mono”, “nieve”, “perico”
- Lexicon of other times and origins: “cachoniar”, “enfurruscarse”, “despelote”
But professors Castaneda and Henao are already on the third revision of their dictionary, with 2,500 entries, and they referred to what has changed: “It has a stable base and a fraction very related to encrypting information in illicit activities, which does vary. In 2015, I asked a high school student who also led a gang if ‘tola’ or ‘la nina’ was still used to refer to pistols, as we had identified in 2001. He told me that is how old people spoke! He called it ‘fory’ [a borrowing from English, related to the caliber of the pistol]”.