Verlan

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In the French language, verlan is the inversion of syllables in a word which is found in slang and youth language. It rests on a long French tradition of permuting syllables of words to create slang words. The name verlan is itself an example: verlan = lan ver = l'envers (meaning the inverse).

1 General characteristics and some examples
2 Cultural significance and similar phenomena in other languages
3 More Examples
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] General characteristics and some examples

Below is an English approximation of verlan, which could be called versin (inverse).

My piano is broken, phooey. /mai pijanou 'iz broukən fuwi:/

might be transformed into

My nopia is kenbro, eephoo. /mai noupija 'iz kenbrou, i:fu/

Verlan generally retains the pronunciation of the original syllables. In particular, French words that end in an e muet (a schwa, eu, such as femme) and words which end in a pronounced consonant and which usually have an e muet added at the end (such as flic) retain the sound of the e muet in verlan. In addition, verlan often drops the final vowel sound after the word is inverted, so femme and flic become meuf and keuf, respectively. Some words have had their syllables inverted twice; for example, femme > meuf > feumeu

Different rules apply when dealing with one-syllable words, and, in certain dialects of verlan, certain words are usually inverted and certain words are not. Words like très remain unchanged in most dialects, while femme is usually inverted. Some verlan words (like meuf, from femme=woman) have become so commonplace that they have been included into the Petit Larousse, that a "verlanised" version was rendered necessary, and the verlanised verlan became "feumeu".

As with many language games, verlan suffers from the fact that it is primarily a spoken language passed down orally, and thus there exists no standardized spelling. While some still argue that the letters should be held over from the original word, in the case of verlan most experts agree that words should be spelt as to best approximate pronunciation, hence the use of verlan as opposed to versl'en.

Theoretically any word can be translated into verlan but by reflex only a few expressions are used in everyday speech. Verbs translated into verlan cannot be conjugated easily. There is no such thing as a verlan grammar so most of the time verbs are used in the infinitive, past participle or progressive form.

For example :

J'étais en train de pécho une bombe but not je pécho[ais] or je p[ais]cho ("I was hitting on a hot chick")

[edit] Cultural significance and similar phenomena in other languages

Verlan is not so much a language as a means to underline certain words. The fact that a lot of verlan words refer either to sex or drugs stems from its original purpose: to keep the communication secret from institutions of social control. Nobody would solely use verlan while talking. Usually, the use of verlan is limited to one or two key words per sentence. Verlan words and expressions would rather be mixed inside a more general argotique language.

Generally speaking, creating a verlan word on the fly from any random French word will result in smirks. However, understanding verlan words heard in specific situations will help one understand what many young people living in French banlieue (suburbs) actually say. Using such words can help one become ingratiated with these groups.

Some verlan words have gained mainstream currency. A notable example is the word beur (from arabe), now widely used to describe a French-born individual of North African descent. (It has since been verlanised a second time by some, into rebeu.)

The use of verlan is less widespread in English-speaking countries, likely because morphology in French is less strict than in English, and so French syllables are more conducive to inversion from linguistic and aesthetic standpoints. However, similar manners of speaking such as Pig Latin or "backslang", are used in English-speaking cultures (see Language game).

[edit] More Examples

Persons

Femme (woman) → meuf
Mec (man) → keum
Pute (whore) → teu-pu
Pétasse (slut) → tasspé
Frère (brother) → reuf
Sœur (sister) → reus
Mère (mother) → reum
Père (father) → reup
Moi (me) → ouam
Toi (you) → ouat
Parents (parents) → remps
Flic (cop) → keuf → fuek (sounds similar to the English curse word)
Arabe (Arab) → `beur → reubeu
Noir (Black person) → renoi
Celui-la (Him) → la-cui, lawis
Celle-la (Her) → la-celle
Français (frenchman) → céfran

Adjectives

Méchant (mean, but also wicked in a positive way) → chanmé
Gentil (friendly, nice) → tigen
Enervé (angry) → véner
Bête (silly) → teubé
Défoncé (stoned) → fonsdé
Louche (weird) → chelou
Pourri (rotten, corrupt) → ripou
Lourd (heavy, boring) → relou
Bizarre (weird) → zarb/ zarbi
Fou (crazy, insane) → ouf
Comme ça (this way) → kom ass or ça com or ass com or ass meuk
Moche (ugly) → cheum → chime

Verbs

Choper (hit on a girl, buy drugs, or generally grab or obtain something) → pécho
Mater (look at) → téma
Fumer (smoke) → méfu
Vas-y (come on) → zyva
Carrot’ (being deceived by someone or steal) → rotca