Verlan (from “à l’envers”, backwards-ish) is still used fairly frequently today in common parlance, for many things, and well worth learning, in addition to standard French.
Ah yes, that usage I did know - sacré Prévert !
We took ours from real life… “Aunt Kate” would be shouted at whoever blithely said something which had already been said… (she was always a little late joining any conversation…)
That particular Great Aunt was such a sweet person, but she could try the patience of a saint (as Grandad would frequently declare…)
pregnant pause : I see what you did there. But while we say gravide for horses, embarazada is Spanish. Are you thinking of pleine and rassasiée perhaps? The usual term for people is enceinte.
there’s also DH, as well as OH. Can be developed into DD, DS etc
I keep reading that as sacred pervert.
Word play is something that I view as a normal part of life in English. My father found the language quite funny, and to my cost, inherited may of his favourite phrases and quips, causing considerable puzzlement among those who had no idea what was going on.
I have not the least idea what Verlan is (sadly “à l’envers”, backwards-ish means nothing yet) and standard French is difficult enough without things getting more complicated. Eventually I may become fluent enough to diddle about with French too, though that seems extremely unlikely right now.
It is just slang, you reverse the syllables so mec = keum and femme = meuf. Mère is reum so you get collégiens telling their friends je demande à ma reum. A joint is un oinge . Your local corner shop in Paris is often called chez les rabza, and so on.
It is in a poem called l’inventaire by Prévert. Children often have to learn it off by heart.
Yes indeed!
I was thinking of ‘gravide’ in Italian, ‘embarassada’ in Catalan. The more languages we access the more possibilities for accidents
Algospeak The newest slang!
Recently, I have been looking at etymology and trying to find a clear path for a dyslexic pupil. He is French and finds the buffet of English very daunting. He suggested that French, to quote l’Academie, has ‘rules’. Yes but I replied, the young have invented the argot Verlan as a sort of youth code, something that reminds me a bit of pig-latin
(Qu'est-ce que l'algospeak, le langage des tiktokeurs contre la censure ?)
Qu’est-ce que l’algospeak, le langage des tiktokeurs contre la censure ?
Certains créateurs de vidéos sont très inventifs pour tenter de contourner les algorithmes de censure des réseaux sociaux. En anglais un vibromasseur devient « spicy eggplant » par exemple.
And now, both in French and in English, to circumvent the censorship algorithms of social media, particularly Tik Tok, which is insanely popular amongst young persons, there is ‘algospeak’. I kid you not. Where sex becomes “seggs”, L.B.G.T.Q. Becomes “leg booty”, and homophobia rather ironically becomes “cornucopia”. Of course, there are more…
This all sounds a little like polari.
Same function, if I say I’m going to bung on some fantabulosa aunt nelly fakes and a load of slap and go for a bona wallop with my HP maties who is to know what is going on?
Kenneth Williams.
Beat me to it, I have just completed a marathon catchup of this particular thread and was going to mention polari. Kenneth Williams and High Paddick of blessed memory.
Professor Unwin used to have us in fits… for all that he talked “rubbish”… we still managed to understand…
It just illustrates how there is nothing new under the sun, with old ways rediscovered again and again, massaged to fit the latest needs.
And if someone calls you “teubé” or “teub”, they don’t mean you’re fat, just stupid (bête)
Equally if someone talks about your corpulence. They are not necessarily talking about you being fat, but just your build.
You need to be careful with teub, when it is used by yoof it is generally a part of the anatomy (bite) they mean.
There are so many faux amis
The Cantonese in south China call bald men 灯泡 (dung pau) lightbulb, for obvious reasons.
Further north, in Mandarin speaking China, 灯泡 means “third wheel”, for the person who gets in the way of two lovers
So, the marvellous language offers you two insults, you just need to decide which depending on who is speaking or where you are