View source for Vesre

{{short description|Secret language game}}
{{More references|date=February 2024}}
{{originalresearch|date=December 2014}}
'''Vesre''' (from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ''(al) revés'' 'reverse') is the reversing of the order of syllables within a word in [[Spanish language|Spanish]]. It is a feature of [[Rioplatense Spanish]] slang and [[Tango music|Tango]] lyrics, and is associated with [[lunfardo]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sorbet |first1=Piotr |title=Análisis lingüístico del vesre porteño |journal=Roczniki Humanistyczne |date=2014 |volume=LXII |issue=5 |pages=123–134 |url=https://www.academia.edu/11894811 |access-date=4 February 2024}}</ref>

Vesre is mostly from [[Buenos Aires]], and other cities in Argentina have their own customs. [[Rosario]] has its "[[Rosarigasino]]" method for obfuscating words, and [[Córdoba, Argentina|Córdoba]] has an entirely different set of colloquial conventions. Yet, most Argentines and [[Uruguay]]ans have been exposed to vesre through [[tango]] lyrics or the media.

Even though vesre has spread to other countries, and can be heard in [[Peru]], [[Chile]] and [[Ecuador]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]] speakers outside the [[Río de la Plata]] area are usually less inclined to use it. Popular speech has created some instances; for example, natives of [[Barranquilla]], Colombia often call their city ''Curramba'', in a stylized form of vesre.

When the syllables of the noun are switched, the original gender - masculine or feminine - is kept; e.g., "un café -> un feca"

==Examples==
Examples include: 
*revés → vesre (reverse; backwards). "verre" is much more commonly used in Argentina, as in: "Nosotros hablamos al vesre, ¿viste? ("We speak wardsback, see?")
*café → feca (coffee) e.g., "¿Querés un feca?" (Would you like some coffee?")
*caballo → llobaca (horse)
*botella → llatebo (bottle)
*pelo → lope (hair)
*leche → chele (milk, used primarily to refer to [[semen]])
*libro → broli (book) e.g., (usually plural) "¡Che, agarrá los brolis más seguido!" (Dude, get the books and learn something!)
*amigo → gomía (friend) e.g., "¡Eh!, ¡¿qué hacés gomía?!" (Hey! How goes it, my friend?!)
*doctor → tordo (doctor, usually meaning ''physician'' but also used for lawyers. ''"Tordo"'' is also the name in Argentina of the opportunistic [[shiny cowbird]]).
*carne → nerca (meat, not to be confused with "merca")
*pizza → zapi ("Zapi" even became the name of a pizza chain)
*maestro → troesma (master)

Occasionally, vesre is a stepping-stone towards further obfuscation, achieved by evolving into a longer word. For example:

*coche (car) → checo → checonato (after a once-famous sportsman named Cecconatto)
*cinco (the number five) → cocín → cocinero (literally ''cook''; used mostly on the [[race track|racetrack]] to mean "the five horse")

The original and ''vesre'' versions of a word are not always [[synonym]]s; sometimes the reversal adds some extra nuance to the meaning. For instance, the word ''hotel'' bears the same meaning as in English (i.e. a normal tourist hotel), whereas ''telo'' implies that the establishment is actually a [[love hotel]].

These reversed words are only spoken; rarely found in writing.

==In other languages==

* Colloquial [[French language|French]] has a form of intentional [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]] known as [[verlan]].
* [[Greek language|Greek]] has [[Podaná]] with the same morphological construction.
* [[Serbian language|Serbian]] has a form of slang called [[Šatrovački]] followed in the 1990s with a more ambiguous slang called [[utrovački]].
* [[Romanian language|Romanian]] has [[Totoiana]] with a similar morphological construction, spoken in the village of [[Totoi]].
* [[Italian language|Italian]] has ''[[riocontra]]'' featuring inversion of syllables, spoken in [[Milan]] and ''trancorio'', spoken in the Mompiano neighborhood of [[Brescia]].
* [[English language|English]] has [[Pig Latin]], with a similar morphological construction, moving the first consonant to the end of the word and following in with the suffix ''-ay''.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Languages of Argentina}}
{{Languages of Uruguay}}

[[Category:Buenos Aires]]
[[Category:Tango]]
[[Category:Language games]]
[[Category:Cant languages]]
[[Category:Spanish slang]]
[[Category:Languages of Argentina]]
[[Category:Languages of Uruguay]]