oy vey!
When I was young, in about 2nd-7th grade, there used to be an expression used to express suprinse or a general sence of "whoa!" among the local kids.
Ala vey!
When I mean local I mean that they came from families that have been living in Valencia county for at least 100 years or so. I'm not a local, my Dad comes from southern Colorado and my mom comes from Jalisco, Mexico, so me and my family are relatively fresh blood.
What brought this post about was hearing the Jewish expression "Oy vey!" on the radio. On a local Albuquerque radio station, there are these two guys who do weekly movie reviews. Stereotypical Jew and stereotypical Mexican... anyhow this morning they got caught up in a certian call and response thing...
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!" and so on...
The simularity in the use of "oy vey!" and "ala vey!" suddenly hit me, and I finally had the last piece of the "ala vey!" puzzle. Since I was a kid and learned the meaning of Allah, I wondered where the expression "ala vey!" came from and if it had any connection to the Arab word Allah.
The connection was at least plausible. Much of Spain was under Muslim control for many centuries, and New Mexico had a weird connection with Spain, even after Mexico declared independance. New Mexico was isolated from Mexico for the most part, and most of the settlers came directly from Spain. They continued to speak Old Spanish, even after Mexican and Spanish Spanish evolved away from Old Spanish, especially in Northern New Mexico and (present day) Southern Colorado. The old folk up north still identify more closely with the Spanish than the Mexicans. Could "ala vey!" be an artifact of muslim times?
But then came along the "oy vey!" connection. Duh! Who were the people who settled New Mexico? Catholic Jews! If you look hard enough, you start noticing a certian Jewishness in the customs and superstitions of the locals here. But what about the "ala" part of "ala vey!"? This is quite a week connection, but during the Spain's Muslim period, the Muslims "tolerated" other religions (tolerated meaning they didn't kill adherents of other faiths, but they still did not allow non-muslims to hold any political power). Spain became a haven for Jews, who were not tolerated elsewhere in Europe. When the nortern Christian kingdoms took the peninsula from the Muslims, they weren't so tolerant and forced the Jews to become Catholic, move out, or be killed. A lot that converted moved out anyway and many wound up here.
That's kind of weak. Really, Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages, so Allah and the "ala" in "ala vey!" could have the same root, just not the same meaning. But why "ala vey!" and not "oy vey!"? What does "oy vey!" mean anyway?
Hehe... some variations on "ala vey!"
"Ala vaygers!" more extreme
"Ala vegras!"
"Ala vegaras!" a pun
"Hola viagras!" lol, butts
It was kind of the "lol, internets" of my youth. lol interwarbs
Was "ala vey!" used in Albuquerque or elsewhere? It seems to have disappeared from the Los Lunas vocabulary.
Ala vey!
When I mean local I mean that they came from families that have been living in Valencia county for at least 100 years or so. I'm not a local, my Dad comes from southern Colorado and my mom comes from Jalisco, Mexico, so me and my family are relatively fresh blood.
What brought this post about was hearing the Jewish expression "Oy vey!" on the radio. On a local Albuquerque radio station, there are these two guys who do weekly movie reviews. Stereotypical Jew and stereotypical Mexican... anyhow this morning they got caught up in a certian call and response thing...
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!"
"Oy vey!"
"Horalé!" and so on...
The simularity in the use of "oy vey!" and "ala vey!" suddenly hit me, and I finally had the last piece of the "ala vey!" puzzle. Since I was a kid and learned the meaning of Allah, I wondered where the expression "ala vey!" came from and if it had any connection to the Arab word Allah.
The connection was at least plausible. Much of Spain was under Muslim control for many centuries, and New Mexico had a weird connection with Spain, even after Mexico declared independance. New Mexico was isolated from Mexico for the most part, and most of the settlers came directly from Spain. They continued to speak Old Spanish, even after Mexican and Spanish Spanish evolved away from Old Spanish, especially in Northern New Mexico and (present day) Southern Colorado. The old folk up north still identify more closely with the Spanish than the Mexicans. Could "ala vey!" be an artifact of muslim times?
But then came along the "oy vey!" connection. Duh! Who were the people who settled New Mexico? Catholic Jews! If you look hard enough, you start noticing a certian Jewishness in the customs and superstitions of the locals here. But what about the "ala" part of "ala vey!"? This is quite a week connection, but during the Spain's Muslim period, the Muslims "tolerated" other religions (tolerated meaning they didn't kill adherents of other faiths, but they still did not allow non-muslims to hold any political power). Spain became a haven for Jews, who were not tolerated elsewhere in Europe. When the nortern Christian kingdoms took the peninsula from the Muslims, they weren't so tolerant and forced the Jews to become Catholic, move out, or be killed. A lot that converted moved out anyway and many wound up here.
That's kind of weak. Really, Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages, so Allah and the "ala" in "ala vey!" could have the same root, just not the same meaning. But why "ala vey!" and not "oy vey!"? What does "oy vey!" mean anyway?
Hehe... some variations on "ala vey!"
"Ala vaygers!" more extreme
"Ala vegras!"
"Ala vegaras!" a pun
"Hola viagras!" lol, butts
It was kind of the "lol, internets" of my youth. lol interwarbs
Was "ala vey!" used in Albuquerque or elsewhere? It seems to have disappeared from the Los Lunas vocabulary.