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regional.bo.lexicon-everyday

Everyday Bolivian words: chango, yapa, jailón

Starter kit: chango/a (kid), imilla (girl), wawa (baby), yapa (a little extra), pucha (darn), elay (look! — camba), jailón (posh), casero/a (regular vendor).

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Explanation

A starter kit: chango/changa (kid/young person), imilla (girl, Quechua), wawa (baby), yapa (a little extra thrown in), pucha (mild 'darn'), elay (look!/there it is — lowland), jailón (posh/snob), casero/a (regular vendor), trufi and micro (shared transport).

Lowland (camba) and highland (colla) vocabularies differ; 'elay', the clipped 'pue', and faster speech mark the east. Picking up a dozen of these words unlocks most casual conversation.

A few more high-frequency items round out the kit: the tag ¿no ve? ('right?'), harto/a for 'a lot' (hay harta gente), pe as a clipped pues, and macana for 'what a shame' (qué macana). Many of these are shared across the Andes with Peru, so they travel well within the highland world.

Examples

Dame la yapa, casero.
Throw in a little extra, (regular vendor).

Region: BO

Ese chango es bien jailón.
That kid is really posh.

Region: BO

Qué macana, ya se fue el micro.
What a shame, the bus already left.

Region: BO

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