4 ms·
In reverse? Do you mind sharing a couple examples? I’m not a French speaker and this sounds intriguing to me.
by nequo 3y ago
In reverse? Do you mind sharing a couple examples? I’m not a French speaker and this sounds intriguing to me.
- playingalong 3y agoThey likely meant non-standard word order in a sentence. Not reading the words backwards.
- seszett 3y agoNo, 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.
- scrollaway 3y agoLook 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”.
- homarp 3y agoAnd "l'envers" is pronounced lanver
- SV_BubbleTime 3y agoWho has time for that?
- gumby 3y agoIt’s street slang, for the same reason Cockney rhyming slang exists: solidarity and so that their so-called “betters” don’t understand them.
- nicoburns 3y agoI imagine kids/teenagers originally, as with many linguistic innovations. But of course such people grow up and their conventions become mainstream.
- sergiotapia 3y agospanish has the same thing where you call your friend "chupa nepe" instead of "chupa pene".
- uxp8u61q 3y agoWhat do you mean "who has time"? It doesn't take more time to e.g. say "meuf" than to say "femme".
- wk_end 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan
- syncopatience 3y agoI 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan
- tux3 3y agoFrench 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")
- eternauta3k 3y agoCute, same thing in Buenos Aires Spanish.
- darkwater 3y agoTIL and this clicks a lot with Italian slang in the town I growth where we did exactly this as early teenagers 30 years ago.
- iRomain 3y agoHere'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/ https://www.francaisavecpierre.com/le-verlan/