Louchébem
Louchébem or loucherbem is Parisian and Lyonnaise butchers' (French boucher) slang, similar to Pig Latin and Verlan. It originated in the mid-19th century and was in common use until the 1950s. Each word is transformed by moving the first consonant to the end; and suffixes such as -ème, -ji, -oc, -muche are added at the end; the letter "L" is placed at the beginning of the new word. Note that spelling often becomes phoneticised.
Louchébem today
Even today, Louchébem is still well-known and used among those working at point-of-sale in the meat retail industry. Some words have even leaked into common, everyday use by the masses; an example is the word loufoque, meaning unsound of mind.
In 1937 E.C. Bentley used the language as a plot point in his short story, 'The Old-Fashioned Apache'.
Examples
Here are a few example Louchébem words.
| English | French | Louchébem |
|---|---|---|
| slang | l'argot | largomuche |
| butcher | boucher | louchébem |
| customer | client | lienclès |
| coffeehouse | café | lafécaisse |
| (don't) understand | comprendre (pas) | lomprenquès (dans le lap) |
| woman (lady) | femme (dame) | lemmefé (lamdé) |
| blunder | gaffe | lafgué |
| boy/waiter | garçon | larçonguesse |
| Roma (ethnicity) | gitan | litjoc |
| leg (of mutton, etc.) | gigot | ligogem |
| insane | fou | louf; loufoque |
| pork | porc | lorpic |
| mackerel | maquereau | lacromuche |
| Sir; Mister; gentleman | monsieur | lesieurmique |
| piece | morceau | lorsomique |
| on top (of) | pardessus | lardeuss (lardeussupem) |
| excuse me?; sorry | pardon | lardonpem |
| to talk | parler | larlépem |
| manager | patron | latronpuche |
| tip | pourboire | lourboirpem |
| bag | sac | lacsé |
| expensive | cher | lerche; lerchem (often in the negative, as pas lerchem) |
| sneakily | en douce | en loucedé; en loucedoc |
| wallet | portefeuille | larfeuille; lortefeuillepem |
| thief, crook | filou | loufiah |
| knife | couteau | louteaucé |
There is another French argot called largonji, which differs from louchébem only in the suffix that is added (-i instead of -em); the term is derived from jargon.[1]
Notes
Bibliography
- Marcel Schwob, Étude sur l’argot français. Paris: Émile Bouillon, 1889.
External links
- "Le loucherbem" (in French). June 1997. Archived from the original on 2000-06-10.