|
|
French slang
French slang is called "l'argot", a language which is best to use in informal situations when an excessive politeness is not required. It would sound appropriate for an evening with your friends, to relax and create a friendly linguistic environment. But be careful, not everyone uses l'argot with the same frequency, as some people use it daily, others prefer avoiding it in general.Verlan
Verlan is undoubtedly the funniest form French slang, as it is a real game of syllables. It is a lively, active language and many verlan words have became so widespread that now they are part of everyday language.Verlan was born as a secret language and was used by youths, criminals or drug addicts in order to send messages in front of authority figures, such as parents or the police. Given to the fact that Verlan is part of everyday language, it is a language in continuous evolution and it is possible that a word is "re-verlaned".
In order to obtain a "verlained word", you simply have to cut it into syllables, change the order and put the word back together. Later, the word might undergo some spelling adjustments, i.e. some letters disappear, others are added. These adjustments do not follow any rules and they are all done to make the pronunciation sound more "French". Verlan is not applied to all French words, but only in order to emphasize, or also hide, the main meaning of that noun.
Let's see a practical example: the starting point is the word l'envers, the French for "reverse". The two syllables which made up this word are "l'en" and "vers", which inverted give "vers l'en"; if you put them together, you obtain "verslen", which with a little spelling adjustmant becomes "verlan". Thus, it is clear that "verlain" is "l'envers" pronounced "à l'envers" (in reverse).
Verlain is also used with a lot of single-syllable words, which are pronounced backwards. For instance, to say "fou", it is pronounced "ouf", or the English "cool" is substituted by "looc".
|
|