El Caobo
Son Montuno
In 1999 I was on vacation with a friend who had family in Puerto Rico although she had moved to the mainland when she was 12. She was very instrumental in helping me to speak Spanish.
During that vacation, I asked her to take me to a book store. I wanted to find a book that contained words from the indigenous Taíno Indians and African slaves that through the years had become a part of the Puerto Rican variation of Spanish.
We went to several different book stores, with no luck. Then, just after asking an employee of a book store if they had such a book and she told us that they did not, we walked out of the book store and right up to a gentleman seated at a desk outside the book store. We had somehow missed him when we went inside. It turned out that he was selling his own book called, "How to Speak Puerto Rican." Luckily, we had stumbled right into the person I was looking for! Wow! I couldn't believe it. I bought the book and the author signed it. It remains one of the most important aspects of my Spanish language instructional material.
Many, many salsa songs have words and expressions that are used only, or principally, on the island of Puerto Rico. So, I thought that just maybe those words would be of some interest to some members here.
I'll try to give you a word per day. I will give the new word, give it to you in a sentence and invite you to guess its meaning. The next day, I will give the meaning and a new word.
So, let's get started.
The first word is "abombado." Its feminine form is "abombada" and is often pronounced "abombao" and "abombá," respectively. See comments at the end of this message for an explanation of the different pronunciations.
"El baño en ese negocio está abombao."
What is the colloquial meaning of this word?
By the way, Spanish-speakers of Puerto Rico, Cuba and La República Dominicana, have the custom of sort of swallowing the sound of the letter 's' and of pronouncing very softly certain consonants, above all, the 'd,' and especially when it occurs between vowels.
For example, the word "nada" is pronounced better by most English speakers if they concentrate on pronouncing the 'd' as softly as they can, or as sort of a 'th' sound, but with the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth instead of going between the teeth. On a very colloquial level, the 'd' sound is often completely left out in the -ado, -ada, -ido, -ida word endings. New Spanish students should not completely drop the 'd' sound, however. This can be considered extremely poor speech in many circles and/or situations.
During that vacation, I asked her to take me to a book store. I wanted to find a book that contained words from the indigenous Taíno Indians and African slaves that through the years had become a part of the Puerto Rican variation of Spanish.
We went to several different book stores, with no luck. Then, just after asking an employee of a book store if they had such a book and she told us that they did not, we walked out of the book store and right up to a gentleman seated at a desk outside the book store. We had somehow missed him when we went inside. It turned out that he was selling his own book called, "How to Speak Puerto Rican." Luckily, we had stumbled right into the person I was looking for! Wow! I couldn't believe it. I bought the book and the author signed it. It remains one of the most important aspects of my Spanish language instructional material.
Many, many salsa songs have words and expressions that are used only, or principally, on the island of Puerto Rico. So, I thought that just maybe those words would be of some interest to some members here.
I'll try to give you a word per day. I will give the new word, give it to you in a sentence and invite you to guess its meaning. The next day, I will give the meaning and a new word.
So, let's get started.
The first word is "abombado." Its feminine form is "abombada" and is often pronounced "abombao" and "abombá," respectively. See comments at the end of this message for an explanation of the different pronunciations.
"El baño en ese negocio está abombao."
What is the colloquial meaning of this word?
By the way, Spanish-speakers of Puerto Rico, Cuba and La República Dominicana, have the custom of sort of swallowing the sound of the letter 's' and of pronouncing very softly certain consonants, above all, the 'd,' and especially when it occurs between vowels.
For example, the word "nada" is pronounced better by most English speakers if they concentrate on pronouncing the 'd' as softly as they can, or as sort of a 'th' sound, but with the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth instead of going between the teeth. On a very colloquial level, the 'd' sound is often completely left out in the -ado, -ada, -ido, -ida word endings. New Spanish students should not completely drop the 'd' sound, however. This can be considered extremely poor speech in many circles and/or situations.
:lol: