Tuesday, May 31, 2011

FINO' I MAN ÅMKO' : DESPUES DE LA BURUKA, YÅNTO

Despues de la buruka, yånto.

After the noise, weeping.



Children screaming wildly, jumping over furniture, laughing hysterically, throwing household items at each other in gleeful play.

Three minutes later....

They are wailing, tears streaming down their faces.

Someone tripped and got cut.  Someone got punched. 

This isn't so fun anymore.  Despues de la buruka, yånto.

Every single word is Spanish, and in their spelling it would be, "Después de la burruca, llanto."

But there's a problem. "Burruca" is not common in the Spanish language, and is never used for "noise."  It means "little female donkey."  Perhaps someone on Guam years ago described noisy, wild kids as "burruca."  It goes to show that, even in the Marianas, local Spanish slang could arise - just like we've created our own slang in English, as in "air con."

For this reason, and because we use the Chamorro pronunciation for "llanto," I am not using the original Spanish spelling for the entire phrase.

From the word "buruka" we get "burukento," or "noisy, unruly, rambunctious, raucous."

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