Every country has a flag, food and symbols that identify them. But what about a single word?
During the 6th International Congress of the Spanish Language (VI Congreso Internacional de la Lengua Española) celebrated in Panama, the blog Papeles Perdidos, created by the newspaper El País, published an atlas of the representative words of Spanish-speaking countries. They asked 20 writers which word they consider “best reflects your country.” The storytellers, poets and essayists responded with what they consider the most authentic words from their country, and this the word from Ecuador:
The Ecuadorian Word in Spanish YAPA
Mariá Gabriela Alemán Salvador, an Ecuadorian writer, indicates that the Quechua word yapa is the best Spanish word that represents her country. Yapa is something a little extra, or a bonus. “When I was ten years old, all bakeries in Quito gave a yapa to the regular customer. It was one or two loaves of bread that established a pact of friendship.” This word led to the creation of others, like ñapa in Spanish and lagniappe in English.
Check out these other Ecuadorian Spanish Slang Word articles.