Caló language
Caló is a mixed language spoken by the gitanos of Spain and the ciganos of Portugal. In Romani linguistics, it is considered a Para-Romani language based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items, through language shift by the Romani community. Catalan, Galician, Portuguese, and Spanish caló are closely related varieties that share a common root.
Spanish caló, or Spanish Romani, was originally known as zincaló. Portuguese caló, or Portuguese Romani, also goes by the term lusitano-romani; it used to be referred to as calão, but this word has since acquired the general sense of jargon or slang, often with a negative undertone.
The language is also spoken in Brazil, France, Venezuela, Portugal and Colombia.
Some Caló expressions have been borrowed into modern Spanish jerga, such as camelar, currar and dar lache.
Etymology
Calé is the endonym of the Romani people in Iberia, and caló means 'the language spoken by the calé'. However, the calé are commonly known in Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking countries by the exonyms ciganos and gitanos.In caló and other varieties of Romani, kalo means 'black' or 'absorbing all light', hence closely resembling words for 'black' and/or 'dark' in Indo-Aryan languages . Hence caló and calé may have originated as ancient exonyms.
Linguistic features
Phonology
Caló has six vowels:| Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | |||
| Mid | |||
| Open |
It has the following consonant inventory:
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
| Nasal | ||||||
| Plosive | ⠀ | ⠀ | ⠀ | |||
| Affricate | ⠀ | ⠀ | ||||
| Fricative | ||||||
| Approximant | ||||||
| Tap | ||||||
| Trill |
Notable phonological features of Iberian Caló are:
- the loss of the distinction between aspirated, unaspirated and voiced.
- the merger of and – betacism.
- affrication of to before the front vowels and cf. Brazilian Portuguese, >,.
Samples
Compare with a Spanish version:
The Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer has often been used as a parallel text:Spanish Caló:
Lovara Balkans Romani:
Spanish:
Loans
Spanish
Many Caló terms have been borrowed in Spanish, often through flamenco lyrics and criminal jargon.Examples are gachó/gachí, chaval, parné, currelar or currar, fetén, pinreles, biruji, churumbel, gilí, chachi, debel or debla, mengue, chorar or chorrar in Spain, molar, piltra, acais, chola, jeró, napia, muí, lache, pitingo, chungo, guripa, ful, paripé, juncal, pure or pureta, sobar, quer or queli, garito, jalar, cate, jiñar, diñar, palmar, chinarse, langui, chalado or pirado, pirarse, changar, chivarse, chivato, hacerse el longuis, pringar, chingar, chinorri, najar, privar, mangar, nanay, chorizo, achantar, pispar, birlar, achanta la muí, canguelo or cangueli, cañí, calé, caló, calas, curda, menda, and galochi, payo.
Some words underwent a shift in meaning in the process: camelar in colloquial Spanish has the meaning of "to woo, to seduce, to deceive by adulation", but in Caló it more closely matches the Spanish meanings of querer. In addition camelar and the noun camelo can also mean either "lie" or "con".
Caló also appears to have influenced Madrid slang cheli and quinqui, the language of another Iberian group of travellers who are not ethnically Romani.
Gacería, a cant spoken by makers of agricultural equipment in a village of Segovia, also derives some words from Caló.
Catalan
To a lesser extent than in Spanish, Caló terms have also been adapted into Catalan as slangisms and colloquialisms, most of which were taken adopted from Spanish slang.Examples are halar, xaval, dinyar, palmar, cangueli, paio, calés, caló, cangrí, pispar, birlar, xorar, mangar, molar, pringar, pirar, sobar, privar,, laxe, catipén, xaxi, xivar-se'n, xivato, xinar, fer el llonguis and potra.
Portuguese
There are a small number of words of Caló origin and many of those are indirect loans, borrowed via Spanish.The examples generally understood by most or all speakers of Portuguese include gajo, chavalo, chunga, chibar-se, chibo, baque, pileque, chulé, pirar-se, pirado and chalado.
Language maintenance
There is a growing awareness and appreciation for Caló: "...until the recent work by Luisa Rojo, in the Autonomous University of Madrid, not even the linguistics community recognized the significance and problems of Caló and its world." Its world includes songs, poetry and flamenco.As Iberian Romani proper is extinct and as Caló is endangered, some people are trying to revitalise the language. The Spanish politician Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia promotes Romanò-Kalò, a variant of International Romani, enriched by Caló words. His goal is to reunify the Caló and Romani roots.