Dennis Hollingsworth

Castellano Lessons

Stephanie's next two words that she wants to say more often:

"?Hombre!"

and

"...indeed."

The second is heard in abundance when you watch BBC international. Another word heard with emphasis: "Goodbye." As in "Dismissed!" or "BBC, Out!". So crisp they are.

Indeed.

The first prompts me to scribble a little about "Learning Spanish as a Second Language, 'Cause if it Weren't for English, I Wouldn't Know a Language at All." So, here's a tutorial in all you need to drop into Catalunya/Spain (boy, spelling out their name sure is fraught with implications, a political minefield)... with apologies if need be to Catalunya/Spain.

?HOMBRE!

That's what they say a lot here, ?Hombre!

They say it in exclamation or to punch up a sentence. Hombre!, everybody uses it from kids to our Seventy Nine year old neigbor Victoria (her house, a jewell of a scaled dwelling deserving a bloggy rich post in the near future), she'll say "?Que me digas, Hombre!. That's lesson one.

Lesson two:

"Si, Si, Si."

Say "Si, Si, Si." as much as possible, especially when you understand the conversation. You can draw out the pronouciation of the "Si", as in "Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.", undulating your voice in a faint baritone. A jutting lower jaw and lip pucker does well for effect. Yes's are like kisses, "Si, Si, Si.", "Si, Si, Si.". Nod head and maintain eye contact, "Si, Si, Si.".

How to say no:

"Noooooooo."

Head lower, slow shake to side to side, baritone in modulation.

Another affirmation: "Valley", except the v is pronounced like the b, as in "Balley". "Valley, valley, valley."

"?Si, si, si!

Lesson Three:

Spanish is not called Espa?ol over here, they call it Castellano. Castellano has a bonus in that every letter is pronouncable in every word. There's fewer words in Castellano than in English, so it takes more phrasing to convey the same set of concepts as that in English. There's a lot of alluding goung on. So, I've heard and so far it seems so. There are not many nouns, but there are plenty of verbs. A verb in Castellano can serve the uses of several in English. The trouble is, each verb has fourteen variations, with each of the fourteen possessing six subvariations. Then there's the irregulars, the exceptions to tthe elaborate rules. Then there are colloquial phrases and contractions which abound.

The first thing is that verbs have a chassis called an infinitive. To this, you can bolt many suffixes.

For example, there are three forms of past tense:

-a specific moment in the past, as in "When were you born?" All verbs end in "-?" or "-?", in other words, add an "-eeeeeeeee" to the end of the infinitve as in "grit?" (I shouted) or "gru??" (I grumbled)

-a general past in which you add "-aba", "-abamos", the full conjugation to nearly every verb you find (the ones ending in -ar or "-ia" or "-iamos" to the other ones)

-a compound tense such as "I have eaten." that leads to six other compound tenses: had, shall have, would have, may have and might have. Believe it or not, this simplifies the orginal fourteen to a nut of seven difficult "simple" tenses, five more added to the two above.

Best advice: add "-aba" to every verb in past tense until you learn the other forms. Be shameless.

As for the future, take the infinitive and add an accented "-e" to all. At the last count, there are nine irregulars, a low number.

Lesson Four:

You can get a smile out of a Catalan in the street by saying hello with "?Adeu!", pronounced "A-day-ooooh!". Thank you is "Merci", adn thus you might see the French in Adeu (Adieu). Thanks is "SisPlau" (and I'm typing this phonetically, I cna't find the translation fast enough online). Good day is "Bon dia". You can get a rise out of a hard core Catalan by greeting with ?Buenas dias!, they'll respond "Bon dia." with a lowered gaze. A chirpy "Bon dia" back and they brighten up.

"Venga, venga." is "Bingy,bingy."

Lesson Five:

(well, that's enough of this nonsense...)

Indeed.