<$ "International Bear Brotherhood"
Part 7

Unpublished Excerpt from the book
Bears on Bears by Ron Suresha

Discussions with

Eduardo Chavez (Mexico)
Seumas Hyslop (Australia)
Xavier Navarro (Spain)
Marcelo Perales (Argentina)
Glen Purdon (South Africa)
Mali Sahin (Turkey)
Woody Shimko (U.S./Japan)
Justin Spooner (Wales)

Ron: I'd like to ask the group about your local Bear-lingo, meaning, how have Bear-related idioms, such as "husbear" and "cub," been adopted into your native languages? Woody, what word do the Japanese use for "Bear"?

Woody: "Bear" - same as in the States.

Ron: Are there other Japanese terms they use to refer to the subculture?

Woody: Not that I know of - but it's all so new to Japanese culture that Bears are only discussed among other Bears. Other gay people who are not Bears just don't feel any need to associate with them.

Ed: "Husbear" is common here.

Glen: Same here.

Xavi: In Spanish, we're lucky: almost forty percent of the adjectives end in -oso (oso means "bear")!

Ed: Yeah, so you can twist a lot of words.

Xavi: "Machas" is how effeminate men call masculine men. It's local slang, not real Spanish.

Xavi: Here our word for "husbear" is "espOso," but the common word, though, is marido.

Mali: We have many idioms like that, but it's very common to use original English idioms here. "KocaAyi" is "husbear" here.

Ed: Xavi, let's be honest: you guys don't like American words mixed up with Spanish, but we do.

Xavi: That's true, Eduardo: in Spain, we reject foreign idioms.

Ron: Hopefully, the Spaniards aren't as linguistically snobbish as the French! What are some of the other unique "Bearisms" in Turkish and Spanish that you use commonly?

Xavi: Oso, osazo (big Bear), osote (friendly Bear), osa (effeminate Bear).

Ed: "Woof" is universal - although Xavi goes "Arf! Arf!"

Ron: Personally, I like "grrrr." Turkbears go "vuf"! Do you distinguish among grizzly Bears, koalas, cubs, otters, wolves, and such?

Ed: Down here some people do, I do, but don't enforce it. I'm a big bad Bear cub with an attitude, but when you say "cub," people think of submissive bottom, which is not entirely true.

Ron: Yes, people use cub often to mean submissive or bottom.

Mali: Words such as Bear, Chub/chubby, otter, and daddy are very common words here too. People prefer to use English words instead of Turkish ayi, tombul, baba, and so on.

Xavi: We tend to translate the terms into Spanish: oso, osezno (cub), nutria (otter); or in Catalan (we're bilingual), ûs, osset, lledriga. Daddy Bear is papi-oso, o pare-ûs.

Ed: We use oso (Bear), cachorro (cub), y nutria (otter).

Xavi: ¡Menos mal! [Just as well!] Something you say in real Spanish.

Ron: How about "bearfriend" for "Bear + boyfriend"?

Xavi: Just friend: amigo.

Mali: We use many words, but none matches "bearfriend." We prefer to add "-ayi" for everything, as original words cannot completely be translated. Bear = ayi, Bears = ayilar, daddy Bear = baba ayi, otter = zayif ayi, cub = yavru ayi.

Ed: We use pareja (partner); we don't use novio (boyfriend).

Ron: But you don't combine "bear" + every possible word to make so many cutesy combos, do you? Such as: anybear (anybody), somebear (somebody), hibearnation, celeb-bear-ty, cybearspace, bearotica.

Xavi: Not here, Ron. You see, Anglo culture takes things more seriously than Latin ones.

Ron: I'm not sure if it's about seriousness, though. It can actually represent a certain playfulness with language, don't you think?

Xavi: Sure, Ron. Our parties are called "Cave Tours" - Ruta de cuevas or Ruta de caus.

Mali: We do. For example, we named our August event "AYIstos," which sounds very similar to agustos, Turkish for August.

Ed: We use "PrimaBEARotica" which stands for our spring Bear party, and "Ursine Fall" for our event in October.

Mali: It is very common to greet your IRC/ICQ friends as "naBEAR" here. "NaBEAR" and original Turkish greeting "n'aber" ("how ya doin'?") sounds the same.

Ron: When I visited Istanbul a few years ago, I went to a couple of gay bars and nobody said even one word to me.

Mali: Sounds like you were in the wrong places, buddy. Sorry that I could not guide you there.

Ed: Well, you didn't use the "na'bear" greeting! At least now you can go back and say it, and then switch right back to English!

Ron: Oh, was that the problem?

Etiketler: a bear's story, ayı, bear idioms, bears, bears on bers, chubbears, chubby, dady, eşcinsel, International Bear Brotherhood, kitap, Ron Suresha, tombul, Unpublished Excerpt, woof, words