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Che (Spanish)
Che is a Spanish interjection used commonly in Argentina, and some parts of Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Bolivia, since those countries are close to Argentina, and also in Valencia, Spain . It is an exclamation, often used to get attention or express surprise, and so it corresponds in some ways to exclamations such as "hey!", "eh!" and "wow!". It is also used in a vocative sense as though it meant "friend", and thus corresponds in some ways to expressions such as "mate", "pal", "man", or "dude" that can be found in the speech of various English speakers. Like these words, it may be used both before or after a phrase: "Man, this is some good beer", or, "Let's go get a beer, man."
The word has also spread to southern parts of Portuguese-speaking Brazil (usually written as "Tche").
In other Latin American countries, the term Che is used to refer to someone from Argentina. For example, Ernesto "Che" Guevara earned his nickname from his frequent use of this expression, which, particularly to his Cuban comrades, was a curious feature of his idiolect. Guevara is popularly known simply as el Che in Latin American countries. This sort of appellation based on utterance is common when persons from different cultures interact .
Several tango song names start with the word che . Also, Cheeee! was a catchphrase used by the late Jose Marrone when impersonating the clown Pepitito.
The origin of this word is unclear. It may have derived from several native South American languages: in Guarani language che means simply "I" or "my", in Tehuelche and Puelche (Pampa) languages che means "man", and in Mapudungun language (Mapuche) it means "people". Others, however, argue that the word che is derived from the archaic Spanish word ce, used to call someone's attention. Another theory connects it with the Italian greeting Ciao introduced to South America by Italian immigrants. Che may also be a shortened version of the word "escuche" meaning "listen" and used to capture attention, similar to the "oye", which also means "listen", used in other Spanish speaking countries.
External links
La trama, a very short story by J.L. Borges illustrating use of che.
See also
Lunfardo
Re (exclamation)
Che Guevara
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Che (Spanish)
