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A comment on How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book at a Time. Parent comment

Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by nequo on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:48PM (#38676793)
In reverse? Do you mind sharing a couple examples? I’m not a French speaker and this sounds intriguing to me.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by tux3 on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:57PM (#38676871)
French has "verlan", which is when you swap some of the syllables of a word to give it a slang or "street" vibe.

The world "verlan" itself is verlan for "envers" ("in reverse")

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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by eternauta3k on Monday December 18, 2023 @01:02AM (#38679685)
Cute, same thing in Buenos Aires Spanish.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by darkwater on Monday December 18, 2023 @05:18AM (#38680874)
TIL and this clicks a lot with Italian slang in the town I growth where we did exactly this as early teenagers 30 years ago.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by syncopatience on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:56PM (#38676857)
I think the reference is to Verlan, where the syllables in a word are inverted. It reminds me of "Pig Latin": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by wk_end on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:56PM (#38676853)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by scrollaway on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:55PM (#38676846)
Look up verlan. It’s a type of French slang where you reverse syllables or sounds of words.

“Verlan” itself comes from the reverse of “l’envers” which means “reverse”.

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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by homarp on Sunday December 17, 2023 @05:11PM (#38676984)
And "l'envers" is pronounced lanver
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by SV_BubbleTime on Sunday December 17, 2023 @05:18PM (#38677031)
Who has time for that?
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by gumby on Sunday December 17, 2023 @05:28PM (#38677100)
It’s street slang, for the same reason Cockney rhyming slang exists: solidarity and so that their so-called “betters” don’t understand them.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by nicoburns on Sunday December 17, 2023 @06:01PM (#38677292)
I imagine kids/teenagers originally, as with many linguistic innovations. But of course such people grow up and their conventions become mainstream.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by sergiotapia on Sunday December 17, 2023 @06:30PM (#38677513)
spanish has the same thing where you call your friend "chupa nepe" instead of "chupa pene".
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by uxp8u61q on Monday December 18, 2023 @02:22AM (#38680030)
What do you mean "who has time"? It doesn't take more time to e.g. say "meuf" than to say "femme".
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by playingalong on Sunday December 17, 2023 @04:54PM (#38676834)
They likely meant non-standard word order in a sentence. Not reading the words backwards.
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by seszett on Sunday December 17, 2023 @05:20PM (#38677044)
No, it's speaking the word backwards, syllable-wise.

L'envers becomes verlan, femme becomes meuf, fête teuf, louche is chelou and merci is cimer, for the most common, everyday words.

It can even go further, with Arabe becoming Beur which itself gets verlanised into Rebeu. Or meuf, femeu.

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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by ttoinou on Sunday December 17, 2023 @09:59PM (#38678783)
I thought Beur was from Beurre and its yellow color
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by uxp8u61q on Monday December 18, 2023 @02:23AM (#38680035)
The (racist) stereotype is that Asians have yellow skin, not Arabs...?!
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by ttoinou on Monday December 18, 2023 @09:33AM (#38683029)
What color would be associated with the Arabic ethnotype ?
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Re:How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book... by iRomain on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @03:22AM (#38693163)
Here's a classic example :

Je suis allé à une teuf de ouf => je suis allé à une fête de fou

Literally :

I went to an zeecray teepar => I went to a crazy party

C'est pas oim => c'est pas moi (It's not me)

Fais pas ièch => fais pas chier (stop bothering /(f*cking with) me)

Je l'ai ken => je l'ai niqué(e) (I screwed him/her)

Found that with a quick Google search: https://www.francaisavecpierre.com/le-verlan/

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