SALITANG KANTO is the direct opposite of Coño English in terms of its speakers, because this is the jargon of the poor. Among the characteristics of this language is the switching of syllables in a word and the use of code words.
Salitang kalye (from Spanish, calle or "street"), salitang kanto (street corner) and salitang balbal are the Tagalog terms for "slang". Kalye means "street", thus salitang kalye implies that "slang" is pedestrian language. Kanto means "street corner" where most bums while their time away. Balbal is the Tagalog word that means a term or phrase borrowed from a foreign language used by commoners or less educated people, the form of which is altered to suit certain usage
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TAGALOG - SALITANG KANTO - ENGLISH
handaan -
tipar - party
kasamahan -
resbak - backers, allies or back-up
nanay -
ermat - mother
pera -
datung - money
pulis -
parak - police
sigarilyo -
yosi - cigarette
tatay -
erpat - father
tiyo/tsong -
chong - uncle (can be used like man, dude, bro)
usap-usapan -
tsismis - gossip
Beware of this:
* gago, putang ina, sira ulo, ulol, kupal, tarantado, pakshit are some commonly used cuss words. Generally speaking, these are what we call “bad words”. But times have changed, thus, they came to be a part of everyday conversations and are widely used as common expressions or interjections. These curses are considered as “salitang kanto” because we rarely hear the rich utter them.