Lunfardo
Formerly, Lunfardo was a colorful, slangy argot of the Spanish language which developed at the end of the 19th century in the lower classes in and around Buenos Aires.
Many of the expressions arrived with European immigrants, such as Italians, French, Portuguese, and Poles; other words arrived from the pampa by means of the gauchos; yet others emerged from Argentina's black population. Some come from wordplay like the vesre (reversing the syllables). Tango becomes gotan and café con leche ("white coffee") becomes feca con chele.
Some sources believe that it originated in jails, as a mean used by the prisioners to talk freely without being understood by the jailers.
Many Lunfardo expressions have entered into the popular language and have become an integral part of the Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay.
Lunfardo is frequently found in the lyrics of tangos, supplying nuances and double-entendres with overtones of sex, drugs, and the criminal world.
Nowadays in Argentina, unless referring to tango, Lunfardo means non-standard use of words, use (or misuse) of foreign words, and creation of new ones. It closely resembles the English language concept of slang.
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