Category Archives: Folk speech

A Saying on the Nature of Life

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican
  • Age: 50
  • Occupation: N/A
  • Residence: Los Angeles 
  • Primary language: Spanish 
  • Relationship: mother 

Text:

EP provided me with the following folk speech in Spanish, “La vida está llena de lágrimas y ricas.” The literal english translation is, “Life is full of tears and laughs.”

Context:

EP immigrated from Mexico to the united states about 23 years ago. She brought with her all the sayings, folkspeech, and proverbs from her culture. The informant first heard this saying from her mother. She emphasizes that her mother always repeated this to her because she recalls that her mother “sufre mucho.” Sufria mucho means that she suffered a lot. Growing up in her household, EP remembers her mother saying the proverb when there was family problems or when someone would die. EP said, “Ahora te estas riendo con esa persona, y mañana ya esta muerta.” This means that today you can be laughing with a person, and tomorrow that person could be dead. 

Interpretation:

I, myself have grown up hearing this saying as well, and I was first introduced to it by my mom. When she first told me it, I remember being in a crisis and it was her way of telling me it was okay. I interpreted this proverb as meaning life is full of ups and downs. There will be moments of suffering, but also joy. It is a way of accepting that life comes with difficulties, but we must also remember all the good moments. I know that this folk speech is typically said amongst Latin-x communities. The phrase is usually told during moments of hardship, mourning, or sadness. 

A Latin-x Proverb directed at Women

Informant Info:

  • Nationality: Mexican
  • Age: 22
  • Occupation: full time student
  • Residence: Los Angeles
  • Primary language: English
  • Relationship: Friend

Text:

“Calladita te ves más bonita”

English translation: “The more quiet you are, the prettier you look”

Context:

ES grew up here in Los Angeles, but her parents are from Mexico. The proverb pertains to her Mexican culture and household. She first heard the proverb above from her grandmother. Her grandmother would tell her “Calladita te ves más bonita” as a form of advice. ES told me, “I always interpreted it meaning that oversharing can be dangerous from listening ears, or the less you say the better.” She also told me that she remembers her and her aunt would use the phrase as a comeback in a lighthearted way to make each other laugh. ES pointed out that she never had realized it before, but the phrase is targeted towards girls/women. 

Analysis:

I also grew up hearing the proverb in my culture, and I greatly identified with the informants take on the phrase. When discussing the proverb with her, I too realized that it is a saying that isn’t really said to men/boys. In Spanish the ending of a word is meant to distinguish between genders. If the word ends with ‘a’ it is usually feminine. The words ‘calladita’ and ‘bonita’ end with an ‘a’ and are feminine. If it were targeted towards men, the words would end with ‘o’ and be considered masculine. Growing up, I never heard the saying told to my male companions. Sometimes in Latin-x culture, there can be a lot of toxic masculinity or “machismo.” Machismo means a sense of strong masculine pride, male overbearing control over the wife and family, and sexist ideology. Younger I didn’t really associate toxic masculinity with the saying, but now from an older, more mature point of view, I can acknowledge that it is present. ES and I were having a conversation about how in our latino culture, it is very much embedded into women from a young age to sit still, look pretty, and be quiet. Of course, we aren’t trying to stereotype our culture from this lens, we are simply acknowledging some patterns we noticed. 

Lanzi-ism proverbs

A proverb a calculus BC teacher used to say was “up a creek without a buck to buy a paddle”. Students called these proverbs “Lanzi-isms, because the professor’s last name is Lanzi-Sheaman. If one says “Lanzi-ism” to anyone who took Calc BC at the high school (in San Diego), they would know it’s one of the strange proverbs she used.

Informant from San Diego that took the Calc class

Boston saying – “Wiched Pissah”

People in Boston, particularly those with a strong Boston Accent will say “Wicked Pissah”, which is Wicked Pisser but the Boston Accent doesn’t really pronounce the “r’s” so it becomes Pisa. Basically it just means that something is really awesome. You can say it about a person or a thing. It’s also somewhat of a joke at this point because it’s a cliche Boston Accent thing to say. So it’s ironic to say but also not ironic in another sense.

Informant is from Boston.

Wordplay In Korea

Context

In Korea, young Koreans in their tweens and 20s tend to abbreviate long words like Iced Americano and Starbucks to “Ah ah” and “Supuck.” Those who do this tend to do so to show that they are young and keeping with the trends. Therefore, it is easy to tell who is trendy and in touch with Korean culture through the way they speak. Usually nouns are shortened.

Analysis

This phenomenon reminds me of similar things in popular culture in the U.S. as well. For example, a self proclaimed fan of Five Nights At Freddy’s or Identity V would be called out if they didn’t know what the abbreviated forms of the names were: FNAF and IDV respectively. In this way, dialect is able to draw a hard line between those within and outside of groups in the know.