Verlan Totally Explained

Everything about Verlan totally explained

In the French language, verlan is the inversion of syllables in a word which is found in slang and youth language. It rests on a long French tradition of transposing syllables of individual words to create slang words. The name verlan is itself an example: verlan = lan ver = l'envers (meaning the inverse).

General characteristics and some examples

Below is an English approximation of verlan, which could be called versin (inverse). ť My piano is broken, phooey. /mai pijanou 'iz broukən fuwi:/

might be transformed into ť My nopia is kenbro, eephoo. /mai noupija 'iz kenbrou, i:fu/

Verlan generally retains the pronunciation of the original syllables. In particular, French words that end in an e muet (a schwa, eu, such as 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, femme > meuf > feumeu or arabe > beur > reub/rebeu.
   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've been included into the Petit Larousse, that a doubly "verlanised" version was rendered necessary, and the singly verlanised meuf became "feumeu".
   As with many language games, the study of verlan suffers from the fact that it's 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.
   Theoretically any word can be translated into verlan but by reflex only a few expressions are used in everyday speech. Verbs translated into verlan can't be conjugated easily. There is no such thing as a verlan grammar so most of the time verbs are used in the infinitive, past participle or progressive form.
   For example :

J'étais en train de pécho une bombe but not je pécho[ais] or je p[ais]cho ("I was hitting on a hot chick")

Cultural significance and similar phenomena in other languages

Verlan isn't so much a language as a means of underlining certain words. The fact that a lot of verlan words refer either to sex or drugs stems from its original purpose: to keep the communication secret from institutions of social control. Nobody would solely use verlan while talking. Usually, the use of verlan is limited to one or two key words per sentence. Verlan words and expressions would rather be mixed inside a more general argotique language.
   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 one understand what many young people living in French banlieue (suburbs) actually say. Using such words can help one become ingratiated with these groups.
   Some verlan words have gained mainstream currency. A notable example is the word beur (from arabe), now widely used to describe a French-born individual of North African descent. (It has since been verlanised a second time into rebeu, which is now widely used.) Verlan is popular as a form of expression in French hip-hop. It fits nicely with the musical medium because "form ranks way over substance," although it must conform to experts' ideas of how hip-hop should sound.
   The use of verlan is less widespread in English-speaking countries, likely because morphology in French is less strict than in English, and so French syllables are more conducive to inversion from linguistic and aesthetic standpoints. However, similar manners of speaking such as Pig Latin or "backslang", are used in English-speaking cultures (see Language game). A form of slang very similar to verlan is used in Greek, called "podana", itself an inversed form of "anapoda" (for example backwards).

More Examples

Persons

Femme (woman) → meuf

Mec (guy) → keum

Pute (whore) → teu-pu

Pétasse (slut) → tasspé

Frère (brother) → reuf

Sœur (sister) → reus

Mère (mother) → reum

Père (father) → reup

Moi (me) → ouam

Toi (you) → ouat

Parents (parents) → remps

Flic (cop) → keuf → fuek (sounds similar to the English curse word)

Arabe (Arab) → `beur → rebeu

Noir (Black person) → renoi ("keubla" from english "black" is also widely used)

Celui-la (Him) → la-cui, lawis

Celle-la (Her) → la-celle

Français (frenchman) → céfran

Adjectives

Méchant (mean, but also wicked in a positive way) → chanmé

Gentil (friendly, nice) → tigen

Enervé (angry) → vénèr

Bête (silly) → teubé

Défoncé (stoned) → fonsdé

Louche (weird) → chelou

Pourri (rotten, corrupt) → ripou

Cher (expensive) → reuch

Sec (skinny) → keus

Lourd (heavy, boring) → relou

Bizarre (weird) → zarb/ zarbi

Fou (crazy, insane) → ouf

Comme ça (this way) → kom ass or ça com or ass com

Moche (ugly) → cheum/ cheumo

Vite fait (quickly made/done, too quick so it's badly done)→ vite aif

Speed (same as in English) → deuspi (to do something quickly: "en deuspi")

Verbs and verbal forms

Choper (hit on a girl, buy drugs, or generally grab or obtain something), also "se faire choper" (get caught) → pécho

Mater (check out) → téma

Fumer (smoke) → méfu

Vas-y (come on) → zyva

Carrot’ (being deceived by someone or steal) → rotca

Branché (trendy, stylish, in) → chébran

Nouns

Métro (subway) → tromé or trom

Truc (stuff) → keutru

Soirée (party) → réssoi

Cigarette (cigarette) → garetci → garo

Gramme (gram) → meug

Herbe (weed) → beuher → beuh

Barette (stick of hash) → retba

Shit (slang for hashish) → teuchi or teuch

Disque (CD) → skeud

Joint (spliff) → oinj

Fête (party) → teuf

Pétard (joint) → tarpé

Chien (dog, insulting : selfish person) → ienche

Racaille (rabble, in french very insulting) → Kaïra

Chatte (in the sense of vagina) → Teucha → teuch

Bite (dick) → teubFurther Information

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