SPANISH VOCABULARY

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1933, Page 10

SPANISH VOCABULARY

■ AN ENGLISH INVASION. English words are finding their way into the Castilian’s vocabulary, once so free of foreign terms, as the result of Hollywood’s talkies, which predominate in Spanish picture theatres, says the “San Francisco Chronicle.” The word' “gangster” is not yet in the dictionary of the Spanish Academy, but it has become a useful addition to the Spaniard’s vocabulary. Written in quotation marks, as all foreign words are, and sometimes spelled “gangster,” it is frequently seen in newspapers. The Spaniard, however, prefers the native word,“pistolero” to “gunman,” its American equivalent often seen on the screen. Movie-goers have also become acquainted with the word “cowboy.” Many English words adopted by the Grench have drifted across the Pyrenees and are used by Spaniards, who think of them as. French terms. Thus an evening jacket is a “smoking,” a dance ..hall 'a “dancing,” and football “futbol.” The word beefsteak, of course, becomes “bifstek,” but you must specify whether you want a “bifstek” of beef or one of pork. A hamburger steak is called a “bifstek aleman.” or German beefsteak. The “barman” in Madrid will serve you any number of drinks with English names, such as “whisky,” at a “bar Americano.” . You can order a cocktail if you pronounce the word coketile, and he will shake it in a “cocktclero.” In. most sports, actually .he majority of'terms come from the English language, lor Englishmen introduced nearly all sports here except native pastimes, such as jai-alai and bull fighting. In Minorca, the island of the Balearics that was occupied three times by the English, the. vocabulary teems with English words. At Mahon, the capital, that is reminiscent of Cornwall, guides showing tourists around mention with pride the “bevindos,” and point to the bay windows of houses.

Nearly every boy in Minorca plays marbles, called “mairbels,” and during the game the words “knuckle” and “please” are used phonetically. Quarrelsome little Minorcans sometimes get an “till blac,” or black eye. “Bottle” and “kettle,” used phonetically, are household words in Minorca, and “floor” is used to describe one of wood'. Many farmers in Minorca, who call their team “ox,” are much more Anglo-Saxon than Spanish in appearance. In Spain an American is commonly called “Yanqui.” Otherwise lie is a “North American”—not “American" — regardless of the fact that there arc other countries in North America as well as in America as a whole.