jerigonza
English
Etymology
Noun
jerigonza (uncountable)
- A language game in Spanish in which the letter p is inserted after every syllable.
- 1991, Natalie Lefkowitz, Talking Backwards, Looking Forwards: The French Language Game Verlan, Gunter Narr Verlag, →ISBN, page 12:
- In Jerigonza, a /p/ is placed after each vowel and then is followed by a copy of that vowel.
- 1999, Carlos-Eduardo Pineros, “Head-Dependence in Jerigonza, a Spanish Language Game”, in Advances in Hispanic Linguistics:
- 2005 January 1, Randall Scott Gess, Edward J. Rubin, Theoretical and Experimental Approaches to Romance Linguistics: Selected Papers from the 34th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Salt Lake City, March 2004, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 57:
- In the Spanish language game Jerigonza, often used by younger speakers as a secret speech code, intrusive vowels are invisible.
Spanish
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Occitan gergons, from Old Occitan gergon, from Old French jargon.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /xeɾiˈɡonθa/ [xe.ɾiˈɣ̞õn̟.θa] (Spain)
- IPA(key): /xeɾiˈɡonsa/ [xe.ɾiˈɣ̞õn.sa] (Latin America, Philippines)
- Rhymes: -onθa (Spain)
- Rhymes: -onsa (Latin America, Philippines)
- Syllabification: je‧ri‧gon‧za
Noun
jerigonza f (plural jerigonzas)
- jargon
- 1605, Miguel de Cervantes, “Capítulo XI”, in El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha, Primera parte:
- No entendían los cabreros aquella jerigonza de escuderos y de caballeros andantes, y no hacían otra cosa que comer y callar, y mirar a sus huéspedes, que, con mucho donaire y gana, embaulaban tasajo como el puño.
- The goatherds did not understand this jargon about squires and knights-errant, and all they did was to eat in silence and stare at their guests, who with great elegance and appetite were stowing away pieces as big as one's fist.
- gibberish
- Synonym: galimatías
- a language game like Pig Latin or backslang
- Synonym: vesre
- a game in which the letter p is inserted after every syllable (or sometimes distinguished as jeringozo, if every vowel)
Descendants
- → Portuguese: geringonça
Further reading
- “jerigonza”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024