Verlan
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A long tradition exists in France of permuting syllables of words to create slang words. The current version is called verlan, a name which is itself verlan: verlan = lan ver = l'envers (meaning the reverse).
Verlan is formed by inverting syllables. 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.
As most potential readers here are not French, here's an attempted example of English verlan, which could be called versin (inverse inversed).
- My piano is broken, phooey.
might be transformed into
- My nopia is kenbro, eephoo.
One of the reasons that verlan has not caught on in English-speaking countries is precisely that morphology in French is less strict than in English, and so French syllables are more conducive to inversion from linguistic and aesthetic standpoints. (However, a similar manner of speaking, known as Pig Latin or backslang, is occasionally used in English-speaking cultures.)
Verlan generally retains the pronunciation of the original syllables. In particular, French words that end in an e muet (a schwa, eu, such 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, arabe > beur > reubeu (notice the unpredictable change in vocalism with the neutral vowel eu being inserted).
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".
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 understand what many young people living in French suburbs actually say. You might also use those words yourself if you want to ingratiate yourself with these groups.
A very similar process (vesre, from Spanish revés) is used in Argentinian slang Lunfardo, and in Greek slang podana (the reverse form of ana-poda, i.e. backwards).
Verlan has also incorported some non-French (mainly Arabic) words, such as:
- chouf (to look)
- flouze (money)
- niquer (to fuck) sometimes inverted in kéni or ken
- kiffer (to like)
- ouech (hi)
- bled (used by North Africans to talk about their country of origin)
- zob (a man's "dick")
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Examples of verlan
Following are examples of words in contemporary French verlan :
- tromé - métro (underground, subway)
- laisse béton - laisse tomber (drop it, it's not worth it)
- keum - mec (man)
- meuf - femme (girl, woman)
- teuf - fête (party)
- reum - mère (mother)
- reup - père (father)
- remps - parents (parents)
- reuf - frère (brother)
- reus - soeur (sister)
- keuf - flic (policeman, derived from slang flic roughly equivalent to cop, kisdé is also used)
- ouf - fou (crazy, but also great)
- zyva - vas-y (go for it, come on)
- fais ièche - fais chier (literally makes you shit, slang for that sucks)
- céfran - français (Frenchman of French origins)
- rebeu - beur (slang for French people of North African origin; beur itself is believed by most to be verlan for arabe, making rebeu double-verlan)
- rabza - arabe (arab)
- ketur - turc (turkish)
- kebla - black (from the English)
- renoi - noir (black)
- relou - lourd (heavy, generally used to say boring)
- ripou - pourri (corrupt, rotten)
- zarbi - bizarre (weird, zarb is also used)
- chanmé - méchant (wicked !, generally used to say excellent !)
- chelou - louche (shady, weird)
- keutru - truc (stuff)
- cimer - merci (thank you)
- teubé - bête (stupid)
- teub - bite (dick)
- eins - seins (tits)
- ouam - moi (me)
- ouat - toi (you)
- kaïra - racaille (bad boy)
- véner - énervé (angry)
- deurm but demère is better - merde (shit)
- teush - shit (slang for hash, teushi is an equivalent)
- chéper - perché (high, usually about someone on ecstacy)
- tarpé - pétard (literally firecracker, used to describe a joint of marijuana; or for a gun like my "44")
- beuh - herbe (weed)
- rette - barette (a little block of hash, une rette à 20 = a block of hash of 20 euros value)
- téma - mater (to look at)
- guédra - draguer (to hit on)
- pécho - choper (literally to catch, get something - especially drugs or chicks - se faire pécho = get caught while doing something bad - by the cops, by parents...)
- tissor - sortir (to go out)
- tipar - partir (to leave, c'est tipar = let's go)
- méfu - fumer (to smoke, especially weed or hash)
- bégère - gerber (to puke)
- stonba - baston (a fight)
- à oilpé or à oilp - à poil (naked)
- tigen - gentil (kind, nice)
- keus - sac or sec (bag [sac], can also mean dry [sec])
- kom as - comme-ça (this way, sakom can also be used)
- zic - musique (music, zicmu is also used)
- skeud - disque (disc)
- pera - rap (from the English)
- réssoi - soirée (night, often used to say party)
- tepu - pute (whore)
- tasspé - pétasse (whore)
- touze - partouze (gangbang)
- sky - whisky (but pronounced like sky in English)
- rebié - bière (beer)
- rébou - bourré (drunk)
- chébran - branché (trendy)
Verlan in practice
Following are a few phrases incorporating some verlan :
- Nique ta reum ! (Fuck your mother !, roughly used as often as fuck you is in english. NTM [for Nique Ta Mère] (see Suprême NTM) is also a famous French rap group from the 1990s)
- Putain c'est relou ce keutru ! (damn this stuff sucks !)
- Viens chez ouam soir-ce y'a une teuf de ouf, je suis avec l'autre bonasse, j'ai du sky et la race de beuh
Come to my place tonight there is a huge party, I'm with this hot chick, I've got some whiskey and a lot of weed
- Samir était en train de pécho une bonne rette chez Maurice et ce teubé il s'est fait pécho par les keufs
Samir was buying a good block of hash from Maurice and this jackass got caught by the cops
- Ce keum a un tarpé ouf!
This young man has a damn Four-Four (gun).
- Chuis ouf de toi Melissa!
I'm crazy of you Melissa!
As a result, verlan is not much a whole language than a means to underline some words. The fact that a lot of verlan words refer either to sex or drugs stems from its original purpose: to keep expressions secret from the parental or judicial authority. Nobody would solely use verlan while talking. Verlan words and expressions would rather be mixed inside a more general argotique language.
See also
- argot
- language game
- langue verte
- Louchebem
- Pig Latin
- Polari
- šatrovački - same principle as Verlan, in Serbo-Croat (Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian)
- spoonerism
- variety (linguistics)
External links
- BBC report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1892853.stm)
- about.com article (http://french.about.com/library/vocab/bl-verlan.htm)de:Verlan