





Some time ago, we were severely chastised over our lack of familiarity with a certain Latino slang word. A quick poll around the office revealed that almost none of us had ever heard of it. Which made us wonder if there aren’t many words that we can all share with one another. After all, Latino culture is a diverse thing. And so, it is to that end that we present the Guanabee Glossary.
meng
Cuban pronunciation of “man.”
I texted my roommate at the Daddy Yankee concert, “Where R jew, meng?”
Earlier: Guanabee Glossary: Perreo

No joden!!!
That’s an easy one! You don’t have to live in Hialeah to figure that one out. The “Tony Montana” tag gave it away.
coño would have been a far better inclusion. I’m just sayin’…it still has so many non-Carribean wabs confused as to its meaning.
Posted by pocho_guey_al_norte | October 10, 2007
It thot it was MANG.
Posted by cacy | October 10, 2007
@pocho … laughed and laughed at your comment.
Those Caribbean words are really pesky. On occasion, my mother describes how she would cry from the utter frustration of not understanding the Caribbean latinos in NY.
Otros terminos favoritos y probablemente desconocidos:
verraquera,chiflado
Posted by La emperatriz | October 10, 2007
Palabra-final /n/ has been changing to [ng] all over South American languages and norteamericano Spanish, apparently, in a change equivalent to the Great Vowel Shift.
I have a friend who is Catalan and her speech is full of them.
Linguists call the -ng sound “engma”, which I think sounds kinda dirty.
Posted by Transuranic | October 10, 2007
Gracias, Emperatriz.
Wouldn’t it be ‘chifla’o’?
Carribean Spanish can be like Portuguese on my worst days. I understand your mom’s agony.
But it’s music to my ears when hearing the 10 Cubans in Boston yukking it up at la esquina del sabor.
Posted by pocho_guey_al_norte | October 10, 2007
Pocho_guey_al_norte: We say chiflado pronouncing the ‘d’. Have you heard people say “ese pecao e’taba rico”? My mother feigns annoyance and usually responds with “lo que se come es pe*s*cado no pecado.” Though I imagine both (literally and figuratively) can be tasty. Anyway, us ‘rolos’ tend to pronounce words as they’re spelled …
Is that Brazilian-Portuguese or Euro-Portuguese? I ask because my S.O. speaks Brazilian-Portuguese and jokingly chides me for sounding like a Euro-Portuguese speaker.
Posted by La emperatriz | October 10, 2007
Perdoname, La emperatriz: I was Carribeanizing ‘chiflado’ for comic effect. It fell flat.
I had Brazilian Portuguese in mind. It’s the variety I hear around here most, so I automatically took it for generic Portuguese.
Posted by pocho_guey_al_norte | October 10, 2007
Lo siento, pocho_guey_al_norte … pa’ mi ‘sta to’o bien, chico, po’que me hici’te reir con tus primera’ palabras. :)
Posted by *~.:La emperatriz:.~* | October 10, 2007
oye, empeh’latliz…no hay pena, chica.
and eew, Transuranic, get that engma away from me. : ) Would it then be spelled, ‘meŋ’ or ‘mŋ’?
Posted by pocho_guey_al_norte | October 10, 2007
You had really never seen meng before? I’ve been typing it for youears… This isn’t like perreo, meng. This is the REAL DEAL.
Anyone wanna explain any of that batshit crazy Mexican slang to me? Kgrcs
Posted by Marco | October 10, 2007
@Marco: “Here’s a very basic Mexican slang glossary”.:http://www.ocweekly.com/web/web/ask-a-mexican-glossary/25290/ Highly subjective, but it’s a start. Some of the definitions could use some re-working, though.
Posted by pocho_guey_al_norte | October 11, 2007
Ah, this one is close to my heart. Do I get extra points for using in a post just last week?
Also, props to it’s synonyms “brode” “asere” and “mi socio”
Posted by fulanita | October 11, 2007