Verlan – French on the chopping block!

For those of us old enough to remember pig Latin—and thinking ourselves clever to be able to talk in a secret code—France has taken this concept and really run with it. Of course they have a more grown up name for it—verlan—which is in itself a wonderful play on itself.

Let me explain: verlan is a form of argotic (slang) French that consists of cutting up, inverting and re-assembling particular words so that they make up a whole new set of words. This morning, I gave a presentation on verlan to my group at French school and as our prof explained, for students of French it’s important to understand verlan and how it works—so you can recognise when it’s used rather than trying to incorporate it into your active vocabulary!!

The word verlan itself demonstrates how verlan works. In French, the word l’envers (meaning to invert) forms a new “verlanised” word as follows: 

l'envers... l'en vers... vers l'en... versl'en... verslen... verlen... verlan.

This is not a new concept. Although verlan itself emerged relatively recently and gained popularity after the second world war, the devices used to create verlan words have been around for many centuries.  The first certain use of what linguists call “metathesis” occurred in 1690, when Antoine Furetière, in his universal dictionary, defined the word verjus, saying “c'est verjus ou jus vert , ca pour dire: c'est la même chose” (it’s verjus or jus vert, that is to say, it’s the same thing). And for all of us who cook and think verjus is a relatively recent invention, that puts that idea to rest as well!

Since that time, many other examples of word play appeared regularly in literature. Verlan usage developed particularly after the second world war; initially it was used as a secret or code language by works and immigrants in the Paris suburbs, so as to keep information from certain “social control” organisations, such as the police. Since then its use has spread more widely and rapidly across all stratas of society, because of its use in music and in film.

Verlan is less a language than a means of creating new words to be used within a broader social context. Many verlan words were about sex or drugs in keeping with their initial objective to keep communication secret from others. Verlan is generally limited to one or two key words per sentence, and verlan is usually mixed into a more general form of french slang or argot.

Use of verlan will give away much about one’s connections and social standing. It’s particularly used to identify with (or exclude from) a particular group, especially the young in cities and the suburbs. Verlan is not usually created “on the fly” as a consequence. It is the capacity to use and understand verlan words and expressions that allows someone to be identified as belonging to a particular social group.

Some verlan words have gained more widespread awareness and use. A notable example is the word “beur” which derives from the French word for Arab (arabe) to describe a french-born person of north African descent. Beur has more recently taken a new verlan form (been re-verlanised) to form a new word rebeu, which tends to be used to describe the second generation of north African descendants.

The early 1990s saw the emergence of hip-hop, which created a massive interest and usage of verlan, with widespread awareness created through music and in film. A film titled “Les Ripoux” that came out in 1984, has forever cemented the verlan word ripou (from pourri, meaning rotten or decaying) into mainstream french. A handy word to have when talking about politicians, police or other vulnerable professions!

For those with a smattering of french—here are some relatively common examples of verlan to get you started.

Verlan word	Original word (fr)	English meaning
céfran	français	french
chanmé	méchant	nasty
chébran	branché	trendy, fashionable
une cinepi	une piscine	swimming pool
une deban	une bande	gang
un skeud	un disque	disc, record
un féca	un café	café, coffee
geudin	dingue	crazy
jourbon	bonjour	good day
kéblo	bloqué	barred
laisse béton	laisse tomber	let something go (lit, fig)
looc	cool	cool
une meuf	une femme	a woman/wife
ouf	fou	crazy, mad
une péclot	une clope	fag, cigarette (slang)
les rempa	les parents	parents
un reuf	un frère	brother
une reum	une mère	mother
un reup	un père	father
une reus	une sœur	sister
ripou	pourri	rotten, decaying
la siquemu / la sicmu	la musique	music
un sub	un bus	bus
une teibou	une bouteille	bottle
une teuf	une fête	party
tirape	partir	to leave
tisor	Sortir	to go out
une tof	une photo	photo
la tourv	la voiture	car
le tromé	métro	metro, subway
zarbi	bizarre	bizarre