{"id":622,"date":"2013-01-13T10:42:06","date_gmt":"2013-01-13T16:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interfluency.com\/?p=622"},"modified":"2021-02-21T17:19:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T23:19:36","slug":"lagniappe-beef-jerky-and-the-incas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interfluency.com\/en\/2013\/01\/13\/lagniappe-beef-jerky-and-the-incas\/","title":{"rendered":"Lagniappe, beef jerky, and the Incas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A representation of the famous rope bridges of the Inca Empire, one of that culture’s many stunning achievements. From the monumental visual history of Peru,Nueva corónica y buen gobierno<\/em> (1615) by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala.<\/p>\n

Dear reader,<\/p>\n

An Argentine reader of this column asks us how to translate yapa <\/em>into English. <\/p>\n

This fascinating word refers to a small addition of merchandise given to a customer without charge, or more broadly to any small extra amount of something.<\/p>\n

It comes from Quechua, the language of the Inca Empire. Quechua-Spanish contact was massive from 1532; from it come Spanish words like cancha<\/em> (sports field), ñato<\/em> (snub-nosed), choclo <\/em>(ear of corn), poroto<\/em>(bean), papa<\/em> (potato), and mate<\/em> (an herb tea).<\/p>\n

To translate “yapa” into English we use French: the word lagnappe<\/em> (orlagniappe<\/em>).  The road took several turns. Ñapa<\/em> is a palatalized variant ofyapa, <\/em>where the first sound is produced bringing the tongue up to the palate.<\/p>\n

It turns out that French speakers in Louisiana, an area having much contact with Spanish, heard “la ñapa” as one word and spelled it French-style: lagnappe.<\/em> In French (like Italian) ‘gn’ makes the ‘ñ’ sound (ny), but adding the ‘i’ made the pronunciation clearer for English speakers. Lagniappe<\/em> can also mean tip (gratuity) or even kickback.<\/p>\n

In Mexico, the merchant’s small gift to the customer is known as a pilón<\/em> or piloncillo. <\/em>The latter word also means a small pyramid-shaped mass of unrefined sugar. The connection may be that pilloncillos <\/em>themselves were a typicalyapa<\/em>, or perhaps from the idea of the tip that completes the mountain. (Mexico Bob’s entertaining and thorough exploration of the word pilón <\/em>can be found here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

In English, the word “bonus” is common, and the expression “a baker’s dozen” (meaning thirteen) conveys in a picturesque way the idea of a yapa.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another Quechua-derived word, charque<\/em> (or charqui<\/em>) means dried and salted meat. Its English translation, as withyapa,<\/em> preserves the Andean root: “jerky”and the adjectival form, as in Jamaican “jerked chicken”.<\/p>\n

¡Buenas palabras!<\/em><\/p>\n

Pablo<\/p>\n

Copyright ©2013 Pablo J. Davis. All Rights Reserved. An earlier version of this essay was originally written for the January 20, 2013 edition of La Prensa Latina<\/em> (Memphis, Tennessee), as part of the weekly bilingual column Mysteries & Enigmas of Translation\/Misterios y Enigmas de la Traducción.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A representation of the famous rope bridges of the Inca Empire, one of that culture’s many stunning achievements. From the monumental visual history of Peru,Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615) by Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala. Dear reader, An Argentine reader of this column asks us how to translate yapa into English.  This fascinating word refers to a small […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[287,288,289,290,291,59,30,292,10,45,152,36,47,194,12,293,294,295,49,155,174,17,54,19,296],"class_list":{"0":"post-622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-interflows-language-culture-blog","7":"tag-bakers","8":"tag-bakers-doze","9":"tag-bonus","10":"tag-charque","11":"tag-charqui","12":"tag-cultura","13":"tag-culture","14":"tag-dozen","15":"tag-english","16":"tag-espanol","17":"tag-hispana","18":"tag-hispanic","19":"tag-ingles","20":"tag-interprete","21":"tag-interpreter","22":"tag-jerky","23":"tag-lagnappe","24":"tag-lagniappe","25":"tag-latin","26":"tag-latina","27":"tag-latinoamericana","28":"tag-spanish","29":"tag-traduccion","30":"tag-translation","31":"tag-yapa","32":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nLagniappe, beef jerky, and the Incas - Interfluency<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interfluency.com\/en\/2013\/01\/13\/lagniappe-beef-jerky-and-the-incas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lagniappe, beef jerky, and the Incas - Interfluency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A representation of the famous rope bridges of the Inca Empire, one of that culture’s many stunning achievements. 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