Birra

[Caballero]

Are there any countries that do not use or understand this term for cerveza?

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by Caballero

Are there any countries that do not use or understand this term for cerveza?

I'd say all of them. It sounds like Spanglish to me. The word "birra" doesn't exist in Spanish..

[Perikles]

I don't think it would be understood in England, nor Greece, nor Botswana. In Australia, probably.

[aleCcowaN]

No creo que en otra parte que no sea la Argentina y el Uruguay, y España donde es palabra antigua pero creo de uso reciente. Del italiano birra (cerveza), con refuerzos del francés bière, provenientes de las lenguas germanas, cuyo término desplazó las formas existentes como el céltico-latino cerevisia.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

I'd say all of them. It sounds like Spanglish to me. The word "birra" doesn't exist in Spanish..

I am not sure that doesn't exist in Spanish. I am sure it does not appear in the RAE.

Same thing with the word Ale.

At least the word "Ale" I knew it way before coming to the US, to mean some kind of "cerveza".

[Caballero]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

I'd say all of them. It sounds like Spanglish to me. The word "birra" doesn't exist in Spanish..

According to Wiktionary:
http://es.wiktionary.org/wiki/birra

Bebida alcohólica, espumosa, no destilada, obtenida por fermentación de la cebada germinada y malta en agua, y aromatizada con lúpulo, boj o casia

Uso: Coloquial
Ámbito: Costa Rica, España, Colombia, Río de la Plata
Sinónimos: cerveza, chela (México)

Other websites seem to indicate it is also used in parts of Mexico as well.

I don't think it would be understood in England, nor Greece, nor Botswana.

No duh.

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by chileno

I am not sure that doesn't exist in Spanish. I am sure it does not appear in the RAE.

Te estás contradiciendo, chileno.. Pero en fin aquí lo que dice el DRAE. Yo conocía la palabra "ale" por la famosa Ginger Ale y porque sale a cada rato en los crucigramas. Solo eso.

La palabra birra no está registrada en el Diccionario. Las que se muestran a continuación tienen una escritura cercana.

• bira
• birria
• vira

Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

-----------------------------------------

ale.

1. interj. hala.


Real Academia Española © Todos los derechos reservados

Caballero = Ámbito: Costa Rica, España, Colombia, Río de la Plata

Nací y crecí en Colombia y nunca oí la palabra. Curioso porque mira el brinco que da eso... esos países son lejísimos los unos de los otros, Costa Rica y Colombia los más cercanos pero, aún así, no tienen frontera común.

[Elaina]

Originally Posted by Caballero

Are there any countries that do not use or understand this term for cerveza?

Well, birra would certainly be understood as "beer" in Italy.....

"birria" which is a dish in Mexico usually prepared with goat or lamb is also understood as "beer" in the Southwest USA.

My

[Perikles]

I think everybody in the UK knows that ale and beer used to be different kinds of drinks, because beer manufacturers used to advertise themselves as selling "beers and ales". Nowadays, things have become more complicated, and ale is considered to be a type of beer. And ultimately, who cares?

[Caballero]

Nowadays, things have become more complicated, and ale is considered to be a type of beer.

Really? I never knew what ale was exactly. I always thought it was some sort of liquor. It also sounds old fashioned, even though I know some people drink it today.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Caballero

Other websites seem to indicate it is also used in parts of Mexico as well.

Not at all, and as far as I know it's not even used in Spanglish-speaking areas in the North. Most people here would say "¿birria?", but that's the dish Elaina has mentioned, so they would definitely not understand what "birra" would mean.

[Caballero]

Grr. Why is there so much misinformation on the internet?

[aleCcowaN]

It surprised me a lot that "birra" was used outside Argentina and Uruguay, but I easily found a lot of examples:

From CREA (Real Academia)

"¡La tarima!, the heart of heaviness: Todos los milagritos y detentes a la mano: los amplificadores volasesos, el anuncio de los mahones Caribú, la Z93 por todos lados, ese emblema que hacia el '79 se convirtió en el signo sine qua non de la baratija titeril. Anuncios de Medalla por todo el terraplén -birra, birra everywhere and not a chichaíto to drink-, se trata de la cerveza oficial del veranazo '83."

AÑO: 1989
AUTOR: Rodríguez Juliá, Edgardo
TÍTULO: El cruce de la bahía de Guánica
PAÍS: PUERTO RICO

"...y estuvimos en un columpio haciendo el muermo hasta que unos colegas nos trajeron cerveza gratis, "¡guay, esta noche también voy a pasármela en las nubes!"; pero no, porque era una birra de litro y teníamos que compartirla con mi amigo asqueroso y los cuatro colegas, que eran los que habían sido los amigos de mi hermano;..."

AÑO: 1991
AUTOR: Belbel, Sergi
TÍTULO: Caricias. Diez escenas y un epílogo
PAÍS: ESPAÑA

The mention of Colombia probably came from
"Diccionario comentado del español actual en Colombia: incluye El parlache, jerga de maginados" by Ramiro Montoya, which includes "birra" in an appendix entitled "Madrileño urgente para colombianos"

In Google.books

"-El día en que Krakatoa explotó la onda sísmica le dio tres vueltas a la tierra y la isla del Coco apareció porque es una vena de Krakatoa ¿Qué cuando explotó? A mí que me importa, pero yo sé lo que digo -otra birra por favor-..."

"Bar Roma" de Marco Retana, 2008, Costa Rica.

But 80-90% are from Argentina and Spain. Colloquial language or less.

[poli]

I would bet that almost anywhere where there is a strong Italian presence (like Argentina, Uruguay and even Ecuador) the word birra may appear-- at least on Italian restaurant menus.