How Africans Are Changing French – One Joke, Rap and Book at a Time

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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