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 transposing syllables of individual words to create slang words. The name verlan is itself an example: verlan = lan ver = l'envers (meaning the inverse).

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[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 or arabe > beur > reub/rebeu.

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 doubly "verlanised" version was rendered necessary, and the singly verlanised meuf became "feumeu".

As with many language games, the study of 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 of underlining 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 into rebeu, which is now widely used.)

Verlan is popular as a form of expression in French hip-hop.[1] It fits nicely with the musical medium because "form ranks way over substance," although it must conform to experts' ideas of how hip-hop should sound.[2]

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). A form of slang very similar to verlan is used in Greek, called "podana", itself an inversed form of "anapoda" (i.e. backwards). Verlan is also very similar, if not identical, to the slang often used in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia in the Serbo-croat languages and Macedonian. This slang, "satrovacki" and sometimes labeled as the 8th case, is popular among the youth in especially Sarajevo and Belgrade.

[edit] More Examples

[edit] Persons

  • Femme (woman) → meuf
  • Mec (guy) → 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 → rebeu
  • Noir (Black person) → renoi ("keubla" from English "black" is also widely used)
  • Celui-la (Him) → la-cui, lawis
  • Celle-la (Her) → la-celle
  • Français (frenchman) → céfran

[edit] Adjectives

  • Méchant (mean, but also wicked in a positive way) → chanmé
  • Gentil (friendly, nice) → tigen
  • Enervé (angry) → vénèr
  • Bête (silly) → teubé
  • Défoncé (stoned) → fonsdé
  • Louche (weird) → chelou
  • Pourri (rotten, corrupt) → ripou
  • Cher (expensive) → reuch
  • Sec (skinny) → keus
  • Lourd (heavy, boring) → relou
  • Bizarre (weird) → zarb/ zarbi
  • Fou (crazy, insane) → ouf
  • Comme ça (this way) → kom ass or ça com or ass com
  • Moche (ugly) → cheum/ cheumo
  • Vite fait (quickly made/done, too quick so it's badly done)→ vite aif
  • Speed (same as in English) → deuspi (to do something quickly: "en deuspi")

[edit] Verbs and verbal forms

  • Choper (hit on a girl, buy drugs, or generally grab or obtain something), also "se faire choper" (get caught) → pécho
  • Mater (check out) → téma
  • Fumer (smoke) → méfu
  • Vas-y (come on) → zyva
  • Carrot’ (being deceived by someone or steal) → rotca
  • Branché (trendy, stylish, in) → chébran

[edit] Nouns

  • Métro (subway) → tromé or trom
  • Truc (stuff) → keutru
  • Soirée (party) → réssoi
  • Cigarette (cigarette) → garetci → garo
  • Gramme (gram) → meug
  • Herbe (weed) → beuher → beuh
  • Barette (stick of hash) → retba
  • Shit (slang for hashish) → teuchi or teuch
  • Disque (CD) → skeud
  • Joint (spliff) → oinj
  • Fête (party) → teuf
  • Pétard (joint) → tarpé
  • Chien (dog, insulting : selfish person) → ienche
  • Racaille (rabble, in french very insulting) → Kaïra
  • Chatte (in the sense of vagina) → Teucha → teuch
  • Bite (dick) → teub

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rosen, Jody. 10 November 2005. "David Brooks, Playa Hater." Slate Magazine. http://www.slate.com/id/2130120. Accessed 21 March 2008.
  2. ^ St. Alse, Yaka. 21 January 2005. Notes to "Wardsback." Open Brackets: Lost in Translation. http://openbrackets.com/article/640/wardsback. Accessed 21 March 2008.