I was just taking one of those lame surveys that livejournal users will be familiar with, and one of the questions was:
Unfortunately, my Spanish is pretty much nonexistent, so I can’t verify whether this is, in fact, the case. And it does seem too good to be true, along the same lines as, like, ‘bite the wax tadpole’.
So, can any Spanish-speakers tell me what’s up here? Would a direct translation of ‘Got milk?’ into Spanish yield these humorous results? Did anyone actually see the ‘Are you lactating?’ ads? I, like, NEED to know about this. My future happiness may depend on it.
There is a verb lactar, meaning to lactate. Literally, “Have you got milk?” translates as “Tienes leche?” I suppose some people could interpret the phrase as referring to lactation (i.e., someone who has milk is someone who is lactating), but it doesn’t necessarily mean that. I think a bigger problem is the number of slang phrases involving leche. I think it’s safe to say that milk has a stronger symbolic content in Hispanic culture and some caution should be exercised. Leche can refer to semen, for one. Also, “tienes leche” can mean “you’re lucky.” Anyway, none of these phrases were used in the La Llorona ad, which ends with “Got milk?” in English.
Well, as Chula states “Got Milk?” translates into “¿Tienes Leche?”
Which really makes much sense as “Got milk?” If you were approached before the adds appeared and were asked that question you would probably have no idea what they were asking about. This is probably the same reaction you would get from the Latino community. I am not sure of what nationality Chula is, but you got to remember that the Latino community is made up of different nationalities (it like saying European and trying to force one identity) so we may use the same word to mean one thing like leche=milk or make it mean other slang terms or regionalisms. As far leche in Northern Mexico, it just means that . .milk. I have not heard it used as slang for “semen” or otherwise.
XicanoreX
What would a person in Mexico say to a grocer to ask if milk is in stock? There must be a simple way in Spanish to ask “Got milk?” without meaning “Are you lactating?”
Certainly slang differs from region to region, but I think it’s safe to say Hispanic culture holds images of mothers and maternity more sacred than American culture. (Actually, just about any culture does.) Another example of the use of leche: An extreme insult is “Me cago en la leche de tu puta madre.” (I don’t remember where this came from - maybe Argentina.) I can’t imagine the phrase having the same weight in English.
Well . …I am not sure where you heard it, what context, or who told you, but as far as I know (and me being Mexican, born in Mexico, raised in Mexico, and having lived in the US-Mexico border all my life for almost 30 years . .but doesn’t mean I am right, just life experience) “leche” is not used as a slang term for semen. Some one might use it in a sexual context, but is not considered a slang term as such. I have heard “chupar arroz con popote” to mean gay, or “engrudo” to mean semen, but . …who knows . .
Yeah, but at least in Mexican culture we hold motherhood figure in very high regard. Examples: The highest insult in Mexico is “ching* tu madre” or even saying “tu madre” (your mother) is enough to start a friggin’ riot. Another example, the Virgin Mary is more often depicted in religious imagery than Christ. There are even some Catholics who considerer themselves *Guadalupanos (Follower of Virgin Guadalupe).
**
Yeah, I also heard that one from an argentinan soccer player yelling at a ref (btw Chula’s statement translated into English is “I st in your whr mother’s milk"). In the US it’s very common to insult "hey motherf***” or say “yeah, I am a mofo”, but in Mexico that’s just a big, big, BIG, BIG INSULT. :eek:
Instead of asking ¿tienes…? you ask ¿hay…?, which is akin to “is there…?” Much bigger issue when asking if the egg truck has made its daily delivery. ¿Hay huevos? is much, much, much better than asking the shopkeeper if he has eggs with ¿Tiene huevos?.
I’ll second Xicanorex’s assertion that leche is not a typical euphemism for semen in Mexico.
I’ve read (can’t remember where!) that the me cago… meme was coined by Hemingway.
I distinctly remember sitting around with some young men who cracked themselves up asking me “Quieres leche?” then asking me if I knew what they meant. I thought it was in Mexico, but it’s possible it took place in some other country. My dictionary that I love because it includes all the bad words lists semen as a vulgar meaning of leche, along with dozens of other slang uses of the word.
The “problem” is that in Mexico, and specially Distrito Federal, may are into the albur (albur = double entendre) and will always find a way to make an innocuous word into some more than it is. So in order to be in the safe side, at least in our region of Northern Mexico, you would ask:
¿Tiene blanquillos? = Do you have eggs?
or
¿Hay blanquillos? = Are there blanquillos
Therefore to counter an albur, you use a non-proper word.
