Spanish language of Central America: El Salvador
I came to El Salvador after Dominican Republic and Guatemala. While I was pretty familiar with both: Dominican and Guatemalan slang, El Salvador became for me the first Spanish-speaking country where I felt a little bit confused with the amount of unfamiliar words. Yet, as you can guess, I was enjoying learning them (and bothering my Salvadoran friends asking for their meaning). Salvadoran slang has many words similar or identical to its neighbors – Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, but it also has looots of words and expressions used only in this small Central American country. Entonces, vamos a ver!
ESTÁ YUCA: it’s difficult, hard. Exactly like a yuca root that is very hard when it’s raw. It has a negative meaning and is used to describe difficult life situations.
CHERO/A: simply ‘amigo’. But first I was like: whaaat?
BIEN CHICHE: yep, ‘chiche’ does mean ‘breast’. But in El Sal it is also used to say ‘easy’.
CHIVO: correct - 🐐. As well as ‘cool, fantastic, amazing ’ 😎. Cool, no?
CHOTA: the police!
CHULON/A: I was familiar with all those papis chulos in the DR, you know... However, ‘chulon’ doesn’t have nothing to do with being ‘hot and sexy’ in El Sal. It just means ‘naked’🤷🏻♀️. (Should it be mixed though: papi chulo está chulon. Just imagine 😍).
PUYA: wow!
PUCHICHA: oh man! Damn!
TRAVEX: ‘again’. When you lazy to say ‘otra vez’.
TUMBLIBLI: sounds so funny and playful for me! But it actually means ‘f*** off’, but not as harsh 😐.
VERGÓN: ‘cool, dope’.
FUFURUFO: used for someone who feels they are superior; is dressed with expensive and fancy clothes.
VAYA PUES: literally means ‘go than’, but is used in place ‘okay’.
BAYUNCO: ‘crazy’. Don’t except to hear ‘loco’ en El Salvador. It feels like people in El Salvador drive like bayuncos 😄.
As always when it comes to slang - it’s just a small part! Even though, in most of Latin American countries official language is Spanish, it is vert diverse in its pronunciation, intonation and vocabulary. And El Salvador isn’t an exception.
⠀I will never get tired of saying how much I liked El Salvador, and promoting for this cozy beautiful country full of amazing people. Travel to El Salvador and learn Salvadoran slang 😉.
