It certainly isn''t pretty...

One very noticeable thing about modern languages is the extent to which they borrow words from other languages. Sometimes this is done because the native speakers of a language feel that they don't have a word to express something that is very useful - for example, until very recently, Spanish had no verb "to become". This obviously meant that certain things were difficult to express. They have since adopted and adapted the Italian verb "diventare", meaning, "to become".

There are some other words that would be useful in Spanish but that I have never been able to find - one example that I come across regularly is the word "compromise". In Spanish they do have a word "compromiso" but this means "commitment" - in fact, it can be amusing to hear English speakers using "compromiso" in a sentence when they just presume that it means "compromise": you hear things like, "We made a commitment about our plans" when, what they wanted to say was, "we compromised on our plan".

There are many examples of words being transferred to other languages directly. Their meaning is often changed, as, indeed, is their spelling.

One example that has become very common here in Panama is the English word "pretty". Sometimes this maintains the English spelling but, more often than not, it is spelled phonetically, according to Spanish language pronunciation and becomes "priti", "prity" or some other variation. However, and if you don't spot this, "priti" doesn't mean "pretty" in the normal English sense of the word. In fact, the English meaning of the word seems strange to the Panamanian young people and they find it hilarious that we use the word differently - many of them, in fact, seem to be convinced that we have got it wrong in English, and that we are using a Spanish word - it's curious how quickly culture develops.

Back to "priti" - here is means what the English word "cool" has come to mean; ie, something that is good, fashionable, desirable etc. Thus, it is not unusual to here the lads here speaking about a meal being pretty, even a lecture being pretty, or, to my surprise, even myself being referred to as pretty: when I heard that I realised it was time to explain what the word means here.

So, it seems, that, at least in Panama, priti ain't pretty.