Lunfardo

Lunfardo (Spanish pronunciation: [luɱˈfaɾðo]; from the Italian lombardo, '"of Lombardy"') is an argot originated and developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the lower classes in the Río de la Plata region (encompassing the port cities of Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in Uruguay) and from there spread to other urban areas nearby, such as the Greater Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and Rosario. Lunfardo originated from the mixture of languages and dialects produced due to the massive European immigration, mainly Italian and Spanish, which arrived in the ports of the region since the end of the 19th century. It was originally a slang used by criminals and soon by other people of the lower and lower-middle classes. Later, many of its words and phrases were introduced in the vernacular and disseminated in the Spanish of Argentina, and Uruguay. Nevertheless, since the early 20th century, Lunfardo has spread among all social strata and classes by habitual use or because it was common in the lyrics of tango. Today, the meaning of the term lunfardo has been extended to designate any slang or jargon used in Buenos Aires.