Lunfardo and Parlache: two argots united by tango

Abstract

This paper shows, through a research of collection and lexical comparison, the influence of Lunfardo in the Parlache and its presence in the current lexicon in the city of Medellín, Colombia. In order to detect the presence of Lunfardo in the lexicon of the Parlache, an update of the argotic lexicon was made through interviews, questionnaires and life stories, with the purpose of reviewing and completing the database for a new version of the Parlache dictionary. For the comparison, a search was carried out in José Gobello and Irene Amuchástegui’s dictionary, Ideological Vocabulary of Lunfardo (1998) and in the Oscar Conde’s Etymological Dictionary of Lunfardo (2010), whose voices were compared with those that are equivalent or similar in the Luz Stella Castañeda and José Ignacio Henao’s Dictionary of Parlache Use (2015). The result of the comparison is presented in tables, taking into account the dictionary with which it is contrasted the definition in Parlache, an example in context and the meaning in Lunfardo and, finally, it is indicated if it has the same meaning or a similar one in the two argotic varieties.