Editing Quinqui jargon (section)

{{Short description|Spanish dialect}}
{{redirect|Quinqui|the film genre|Quinqui (film genre)}}
{{Unreferenced|date=December 2021}}
{{infobox language
|name=Quinqui
|states=Spain
|region=Edges of towns
|speakers=?<!--no speaker numbers in the Ethnologue 18-->
|familycolor=mixed
|family=[[Cant (language)|Cant]]
|iso3=quq
|glotto=quin1236
|glottorefname=Quinqui
}}

'''Quinqui [[jargon]]''' is associated with ''quincalleros'' (an [[Itinerant groups in Europe|itinerant group]]). They are a semi-nomadic people who live mainly in the northern half of [[Spain]]. They prefer to be called ''mercheros''. They have declined in number from earlier reports and are possibly vanishing as a distinct ethnic group.

The language is based on ''[[Germanía]]'', an old [[Spanish language|Spanish]] criminal [[argot]]. It has elements of [[Caló language|''Caló'']], a dialect of the Spanish [[Romani people|Roma]].  The term comes from the word ''quincallería'' (ironmongery), from [[ironmonger]]s who first used this [[Cant (language)|cant]] as part of their trade.  

Because the men were frequently blamed for petty crime, the word is associated in modern Spanish with delinquents, [[petty thief|petty thieves]], or hoodlums. The mercheros identify as a distinct group separate from the Roma ''[[gitanos]]''.

Scholars have many theories about the social origins of ''mercheros'', summarized as the following:  
*Descendants of mechanical workers who arrived in Spain from central Europe in the 16th century;
*Descendants of peasants who lost their land in the 16th century; 
*Descendants of intermarriage between the Roma and non-Roma populations; 
*[[Morisco|Descendants of Muslims]] who became nomads after the expulsion in the 15th century to escape persecution; and/or 
*A mixture of the above.