Fun with Spanish & "Pseudo Spanish"!

I woke up this morning to the sound of our puppy Diablo barking at some other dogs. I went back to sleep. But as I was dozing, I thought I was dreaming about the Spanish...


R-eh, S-ey, Teh...


I resurfaced from my "dream" & realized that Jen was in bed beside me, reading the alphabet in her new Spanish book.


Spanish is certainly in my thoughts. I'm enchanted & amused by this magical language. And I've learned enough now that I'm at the point where I can sort of guesstimate what makes an English word Spanish. Here's my recipe:

1) Take an English word with Romantic roots.
2) Spanish-ize it by adding some vowels (like an E at the beginning & an O at the end).
3) silence &/or soften any harsh (like Germanic) consonants.
4) Done!


Here's an example:
1) Take an English word with Romantic roots? Let's try "spectacle".
2) Spanish-ize it with E--O: So, spectacle becomes EspectaclO.
3) Fix harsh consonants (this works better for words like "strange," which becomes "estran-yeo").
4) Result: espectaclo!!


Never mind that this isn't even a real Spanish word ("espectaculo" is, but it means show). Pseudo Spanish words sound Spanish enough that, strung together in a pseudo-sentence, they will impress your English-speaking friends and, in a restaurant or grocery store, make you seem like a moronic tourist that locals here find so charming (even if they have almost no chance of actually being understood).


Anyway.. speaking of shopping, the other day, Jen & I had some more fun with Spanish. We did a Hi-Five at the deli counter (after finding soe cheap lunch meat or something), & started wondering what "Hi-Five" is in Spanish. Hmmm...


Soon we were wandering thru the grocery store, making an espectaculo of ourselves, hi-fiving & exclaiming: "Ola-Cinco!" "Ola-Cinco!" "Ola-Cinco!"

Ola-cinco epico!

Not until later did it occur to us that the expression isn't "hi-five" (as opposed to bye-five)... It's "high-five" (as opposed to a low-five).. Oh well. Sounds like something a stoner surfer would do, which makes it somehow authentic.


Anyway, gotta run. We're off the egrocerio to practice our Espaneo.


Ola-cinco! See you on the esideo eflipo!