Meaning
Parlache is the name for a Colombian urban social dialect or jargon that developed in popular and marginalized sectors of Medellín and later spread through wider social groups, media, literature, music, and Colombian usage.
How it is used
Universidad de Antioquia research describes parlache as a social dialect that arose and developed in popular sectors of Medellín and its metropolitan area. ASALE defines parlache more broadly as jargon used by certain popular or marginalized urban groups in Colombia, reflecting the spread beyond its original geography.
Examples
- “La universidad ha investigado el parlache durante décadas.”
- “No toda palabra paisa es parlache, ni todo hablante de Medellín usa el mismo repertorio.”
Pronunciation
/paɾˈlatʃe/ · par-LAH-cheh
Tone and register
The term is legitimate in linguistic and cultural discussion but can become stigmatizing when outsiders use it to reduce Medellín speech to poverty, violence, narcotics, or criminality.
Visitor guidance
Use parlache for the documented social variety and its lexicon, not as a synonym for all Medellín or Paisa Spanish. Never infer criminality, class, education, neighborhood, or personal history from a speaker’s use of one associated word.
Cultural context
Early scholarship links parlache to social exclusion and the realities of popular Medellín neighborhoods, while later work documents its creativity, rapid lexical change, and diffusion through radio, television, literature, film, music, humor, and the internet. Its history matters, but modern circulation makes simple social profiling unreliable.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.