How to speak like a Bolivian (part 1)

Alright, after 11 months, I am no longer drowning in the Spanish that I am hearing in conversations with co-workers and friends. Though, I continue to butcher the language and horribly misconstrue things on a daily basis, I have managed to grasp most of the the basics of what is going on around me. Recently, I have also come to appreciate some of the unique features of Cochabambino-speak. The Spanish spoken in Cochabambino and around many parts of Bolivia has been morphed and influenced over time by the presence Quechua and Aymara that is spoken widely across Bolivia.

One important feature of Cocha-speak is the diminutive. A diminutive is a small suffix that is tacked to the end of word in Spanish to give it a new feel or meaning. The use of the diminutive in Cocha-speak has the effect of sugar-coating the language, a cute, but at times slightly bothersome habit. Here are a few examples.

Among friends it is common to start a conversation with a simple greeting like "Qué tal, amigo?". Here, this common greeting would be identical, except that amigo would become "amigito" - which would translate to something like - "way cool friend of mine", or "special buddy". Papa - is morphed to Papito - which I have heard used to mean, "Daddy-o", "little cutie", and "french fry" depending on the context. Of course grandparents are termed, el abuelito and la abuelita.

Along with affectionate uses of the diminutive, many Cochabambinos use this cultural convention to bargain with you. Taxi drivers, fruit sales-people and others will try to make a slightly, or heavily overpriced item sound reasonable by offering the price with a touch of their linguistic sugar and Cocha-speak. Instead of 10 Bolivianos for a cab ride, you will often hear "Sólo 10 Bolianitos", which is the same price, but is adjusted to sound warmer and more acceptable to the buyer.

Finally, the word for "now" is "ahora" in spanish, but don´t expect to hear it in this form here in Cochabamba. Here, it is "AhorrrrrrrITA". This is a special case of the use of the diminutive. It is not being used affectionately, nor to sell a product. I once thought, it was signifying sooner than later, or right now, but I have learned differently. In restaurants, when your waiter tells you "ahorrita, llevaráita la comidita" (your food is coming). The amount of time can be clocked between 5 minutes and half an hour. And so, I am still trying to decipher in general, what, if any meaning this term holds in Cocha-speak.

Reggie, my old Bolivian host father, and a Spanish teacher of 35 years, was fond of reminding me that the "subjectivity" of the Spanish language is not a teachable thing. Rather, it something, that can really only be absorbed from a language through the ears of a child or teenager. I am now grasping the meaning of his wisdom, as I notice the infinite regional and individual expressions used here among the people. One of many differences here, is the sugary, sometimes sneaky -- dimunitive "ito" or "ita" that you find used in endless forms and styles within the Cochabanbino lexicon.

Ummm, like, you gotta love d´em Bolivanos an´da way they talk, pretty cool, huh...