For those who don’t know, verlan is when words have their syllables reversed in casual French. Examples include meuf (femme), ouf (fou), relou (lourd), chelou (louche), etc. The word verlan itself is verlan for l’inverse. Verlan famously causes loads of learners to question their choice of language when they first encounter it and wonder how many curveballs French has left to throw at them.
Here’s why verlan shouldn’t discourage you: verlan is only used for extremely common phrases and words.
Verlaning a word is inherently confusing, including for French people when they don’t expect it. So you’ll virtually never see it done for marginal or highly specific words.
This means that every time you see verlan, you’ve just found a very popular piece of French slang that will help you a lot when talking to people your age. Think of it almost like a marker of importance- this word IS used a lot and IS key to communicating with other young people, so you’ve just found a word that’s 100% worth taking some time to familiarise yourself with it!
Happy learning!
After hearing the other day that lots of the characters are based on French names (not sure why I didn’t realize it sooner), I made the connection that Spook’s dialect of eastern street slang could be a reference to the French street language of verlan. For those not familiar it’s a street language spoken by younger people in France which switches word spelling and sometimes grammar mostly through the pronunciation (I.e. French word femme turns into meuf). This strikes me as very similar to how Spook talks in the books. Obviously this doesn’t track as well in Era 2 [AoL]>!because it turns into high imperial!<, but I still think it’s interesting.
Did anyone else catch this connection or am stretching too far? Either way, I still think the inclusion of it in the books is brilliant piece of world building.
Okay, so what is verlan? Sa French language kasi, meron silang reverse slang wherein binabaligtad nila 'yung syllables ng isang word.
Halimbawa:
merci (salamat) = cimer
bonjour (kúmusta) = jourbon
français (Pranses) = céfran
piscine (swimming pool) = cinepi
Maski ang salitang "verlan" ay isang verlan, galing sa salitang l'envers na ang ibig sabihin ay "ang kabaligtaran".
Siguro, alam niyo na kung saan papunta ito. Sa Filipino meron din táyong gan'yan like dehins, tomguts, jaguar, alaws, at marami pang iba.
I feel like miseducating people by referring any reverse slang as "verlan". I mean, if I found another language that features the same type of slang siguro I will refer to the slang as "verlan" as well. 'Yung mga sinasabihan ko naman na verlan ang tawag sa mga 'yun naniniwala din at hindi na kinukwestyon. Nasanay siguro sa there's some foreign word for that. Naniniwala nga sila na may isang word to express ang isang bagay na mas lalong lumala in an honest attempt to improve it -- verschlimmbessern. Ano ang tawag sa ating reverse slang?
I'm been studying French for about 2 years and will work in France for 6 months starting at the beginning of next year. I will stay with my friend is also a native English speaker yet has been living in France since last year and so has a group of native speaking French friends. I have switched my French learning from unusual verbs and complex grammar to everyday expressions and terminologies I can use once I arrive. One thing I have noticed is the absence of Verlan words from my language learning. Apart from my 50 something French teacher talking about how ridiculous the concept was I haven't come across it much however when I watch interviews with young French celebrities they all use Verlan words.
How essential is understanding at least some Verlan if I want to converse with younger French people, I'm 21 for reference? I want to be able to keep up with the conversation somewhat yet there are limited resources explaining Verlan words and how to say them. I will be staying in Paris, am of African descent and want to meet and speak to people of a similar culture to me if that helps:)
Okay, so ever since I started learning french, le verlan always bugged me. It took me years + talking to quite a lot of natives, going to France for me to become comfortable and use it myself. Now, I don't have any troubles but still, what a linguistic phenomenon this is! What are your thoughts on it ? Do someone of you have any idea of the historical background of it? How did even become a thing ? I understand it's mostly slang but how does one even come up with the idea of swapping the syllabes for cool-sounding purposes lol ? Also, do you know another language which does so?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Does anyone know or any French books that use verlan? (Ex. Kiffe Kiffe Demain)
https://preview.redd.it/s9obwni59kv41.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3040a194d9c1575cbfce0092c7824b33890fb67e
So I just found out about a slang way of talking called Verlan that teenagers use in France. Could anyone tell me more about or teach me some words from it?
I recently learned about verlan slang in French and it’s a very interesting concept. My question however is how often is it used and does where you are change which words are used? I know some words like meuf are pretty standarized across French but which just random terms, are some used in certain places more than another?
Verlan is (at least one way) how the French do slang, by swapping the syllables of a word. The word Verlan itself is a verlan word, from l'envers, "upside down"
I was thinking Toki Pona could create slang the same way, since most words are 2 syllables, they could easily be swapped. I present to you: Kito Napo - Cool Slang
Slang terms would be made by swapping the first and last syllables of a word.
toki -> kito: slang
pona -> napo: cool
nimi -> mini: nickname
The meanings are basically less serious versions of the original meaning, but their exact use can vary between speakers, so in order to properly talk to people using this, you need to understand how they use kito. (kito is what I'm going to call the toki pona Verlan from now on)
Not everything flips that cleanly though, and this can be fixed by swapping the positions of consonants and vowels in certain positions, or removing/adding sounds.
jan -> naja: bro, close friend
unpa -> apun: ... I won't say it but you can guess.
So? What do you think? I've talked about this on the discord and the response seems pretty positive. Wanted some feedback from here.
Bonjour à tous!!1
J´étudie actuellement les stéréotypes du verlan à Paris. Si ça vous interesse, ET VOUZ VENEZ DE PARIS, veuillez remplir mon questionnaire ici:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1bCgHoASIT4Po_AsTN_dc_qCaLLvJFsxcvuL2ErJmXc0/edit
Si vous avez des questions ou vous voulez ajouter votre avis, dites-moi viiiiiiiiite, je vais fermer les réponses samedi prochain! (15 février)
Cimeeeeeeerrrrrrr :D
Or is it just strange if you use it like pig Latin
I just encountered for the first time syllable inversion in Japanese. It was ザギン (ギンザ Ginza) and シースー (スシ Sushi). I've never knew about that for all the years of learning and now katakana got challenging again. Just wanted to share it with you so you will be prepared when you see it. Be careful guys and good luck on you journey!
Hi! So I’ve been watching a lot of Skam France lately and I’ve encountered many slang/verlan words and I’m not too sure about what they mean exactly so if anyone could explain the definition of these words that’d be great
Draguer
Capter
Fixer
Ouf ( de ouf, un ouf )
Boss
Merci beaucoup!
pensée de douche
In France, there is a kind of slang called "Verlan" (which is a neologisme made by inverting the component of l'envers). How did this type of slang appear, and are there equivalents in other languages ?
Is verlan considered rude or crass? Where is it commonly spoken and when is it okay to use verlan?
"Per verlan si intende una particolare forma di linguaggio gergale usata in Francia. È caratterizzata da parole nuove ottenute soprattutto mediante inversione sillabica. La stessa parola "verlan" (veʀ'lɑ̃) è in codice: significa à l'envers (a lɑ̃'vɛʀ), ossia "al contrario"."
Sento usare il verlan spesso nel rap francese e mi sono domandato se esiste una forma di verlan in Italia? E se non esiste come si potrebbe creare per le parole italiane?
i just want to know do Norway Denmark and Sweden have their own cryptolect or cant or argot language like Ireland had shelta and France had verlan?
I'm coming up with ideas for a research project and hope to hear from people on their personal experiences. Google isn't very helpful with these things, so I would like to gather some preliminary information: How old are you? Where do you live? Do you use verlan or see your friends use it? If so, where? What are your feelings/thoughts about verlan? And finally, are there any other trends in slang conspicuous to you and how do you feel about those?
Répondez en français et en anglais s'il vous plait, j'apprécie toutes les réponses!
Encontré este video de Luisito Comunica. Me llamó la atención el uso de la palabra "nopor" en lugar de "porno" porque es muy semejante al verlan, un argot francés. Hablantes del verlan cambian las sílabas de una palabra para decirla al revés, por ejemplo, "stromae" en lugar de "maestro." Aunque es un fenómeno muy común del francés, me da curiosidad si se encuentra el verlan en español también.
¿Ustedes lo han escuchado en español? ¡Gracias!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cvvmIfTWCao
Bonjour! Vous avez probablement déjà entendu de cet artiste lol. J’ai écouté à cette chanson depuis plusieurs année mais je n’ai jamais arrivé à comprendre ce qu’ils disent au début de la vidéo (« On y vas? » ... « Si, [qqch] »). J’écoutais à cette chanson hier soir et tout à coup j’ai remarqué que c’est possible que Stromae a dit « Si, on y va », mais il utilisait le verlan. Qu’en pensez-vous? Si oui, est-ce que les français utilisent très souvent le verlan avec « on »?
Switching to English real quick—it’s been a while since I’ve spoken with someone in French and even longer since I’ve written in it. I’m anticipating errors/weird phrasing on my part. Please feel totally free to point them out and correct them- I ain’t gonna take it personally and it helps me stay on my game ;)
Merci beaucoup pour votre temps!
Édit: Merci pour les réponses!
Salut à tous! Je m'appelle Kyle (on peut m'appeler Antoine). Je suis né au Canada, et ma langue maternelle est l'anglais. J'apprends le français pendant 2 ans.
Le verlan; Est-ce un truc des jeunes ou quoi? Est-ce que toutes les autres l'utilise aussi?
Je rencontrais des français millénaires et plus vieux, et beaucoup d'eux ont dit que c'est un truc des jeunes haha.
Est-ce qu'on peut confirmer ou réfuter? Merci!
I understand that you don't conjugate verlan verbs. So how does it work? Like this?
Je téma
tu téma
nous téma
vous téma
ils/elles téma
Je veux téma?
I don't even remember how I first heard of him, but one day I stumbled upon his book, "The Great and Abominbale Church of the Devil" and I've been hooked ever since. I've ordered all his books and I can't get enough of them. My mind has been blown so many times as I've read his work over the past few months. Has anyone else here had their mind blown by Elder Andersen?
Have you heard of Verlan in French?
How important is learning and using verlan? As an intermediate-level French speaker, I cannot even begin to venture into learning slang before I have mastered standard French. Is it only really necessary among younger generations like teenagers and university students?
Bonsoir les amis, j'ai une curiosité. Je viens de l'étranger mais maintenant je vis en France et un truc que j'adore entendre c'est le verlan (je l'utilise pas souvent parce que avec mon accent italien j'ai pas trop de crédibilité ahahah).
Fin, je me demandais si vous connaissez des mots en verlan "originaux", qu'on entend pas souvent, ou que peut-être vous utilisez qu'avec vos potes. Quelque chose de plus des typiques ouf, och, renoi, rebeu, et des mots comme relou ou chelou qui sont désormais patrimoine commun.
Surprenez-moi potos de la téci !
