“It’s not the same to give a kiss in a hallway or a portal as to do it in the front door”. This is one of the 59 poetic definitions of the words that, exposed in multicolored panels, surround the four walls of the Central Market in Cadiz. Palabra de Cádiz is not just an exhibition, it is the way in which the city has claimed its own language during the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE).
So common in the typical constructions of Cádiz architecture, it is the access door to a house and one of the words chosen from among the dozens of expressions that, for centuries, have been installed in the talk of the town. Professor Pedro Payán Sotomayor collected them in the Cádiz-Spanish dictionary El habla de Cádiz published in 1983 and republished by the City Council of Cádiz and CILE, and the scientific basis of the exhibition conceived a year ago to promote the city as its headquarters of the congress in 2025. But the political instability of Peru forced, a few months ago, to move the congress from Arequipa, where it was supposed to be held this year, to Cádiz, which in a few weeks has organized the event.
Not all the words that make up the GadÃan lexicon have an exact translation; the word is above all the expression of the way of being from Cádiz, so the exhibition of the market, of the Plaza, the only one with a capital letter among the dozens of squares in the city, is not limited to offering a alternative word, but he explains it so that the observer goes into the matter of the language and the personality of the city. In addition, the lexicon shown there has the particularity of going beyond the borders of the city, since many expressions have been adopted in other areas of Spain and also in Latin America. Here are some examples:
It is said when in some places on the beach the sea covers the person. Sometimes signifier and signified merge in a way that makes it fun to pronounce it and this takes us where mothers couldn’t see us. Were you also going to aguatapá?
It comes from the English expression at looking doing.
Small place where drinks are sold, mainly wine. It can be an obstacle on the way, a bad streak, but around here we know that a bump is much more…, and it doesn’t always have to be bad.
Metal closure of commercial establishments. If you know how much it costs to get her up every morning, it is because you know that this game is not played with cards, because in Cadiz a deck is something else.
fresh wind It is equal but not the same; because yes, a biruji is a cold wind, but you know that it’s not cold in Cádiz…, what it does is humidity.
failure It comes from the world of carnival, and is an invention of Quini in the fifties.
Heavy person, insistent. Someone underprivileged. In Bolivia it is blond, in Chile it is the person who limps, in Colombia it is brunette, in Peru it is a monkey and in Spain it is a cuttlefish. But in Cádiz, a choco is a choco.
Rubber shoes for walking on the Laja. You will need them if you go to Laja. And what is Laja? In Colombia they call the ropes like that, and here is what we call the most beautiful thing in La Caleta.
It comes from What’s your name? , which translated means someone normal and ordinary. What comes from What’s your name? Who knows. Because no matter where it comes from, we know how to identify a guachisnai half an hour away.
Heavy person, so insistent that it becomes annoying, or not. It sounds like what it means, it is so Cádiz that it almost defines us and also defines you, because you are part of our candidacy.
That no, that it is not what it seems, that a triple denial is the most Cádiz way of telling you, of telling us, that yes.
small flat When a diminutive says much more than you think… It’s not a small party, it’s a way of living, sometimes of living badly.
haberdashery There are very few of them left, and despite the fact that the dictionary tells you that it is a very fine and well-kept thing, and even though in Mexico it is what they call brandy, around here we know that they are necessary for sewing. Where, if not, where do you buy the buttons and zippers?
