Publication details
Caló: qué ha sido, qué es y qué hay detrás del término
| Title in English | Caló: what it has been, what it is and what lies behind the name |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Caló is in the European Spanish a polysemy word that has often combined history with an imagined reality or a myth. Today it usually designates ‘the language of Spanish Gypsies’ but in the past it meant ‘criminal slang’ or the two notions together, without excluding one from the other. The aim of the paper is to study “what was being talked about when caló was being talked about” through the history. In first place we will see in certain detail historical sources for the study of caló. We will be interested in how their authors perceived and characterized caló and what ideological attitudes they used. In the case of older sources these are always focused from the point of view of the majority society because testimonies coming from Gypsy authors were not available until today. In this paper we propose to trace a general overview of the evolution of the term conditioned by exogenic as well as endogenic point of view. We will pay attention on who made use of the word and with what ideological attitudes. Another question would be whether the point of view of the majority society has influenced on the perception and value of the word as it is seen today from the endogenic point of view of some authors of the Spanish Gypsy origin. |