One thing I have noticed is a type of slang called verlan that I have only heard used by young French speakers. It comes from the word \u201cenvers\u201d which means inverse. The word itself is inverted to create \u2018verlan\u2019. Essentially, this type of familiar language inverts syllables of words to create the new words. Some of the most popular examples are meuf, the inverse of the word \u201cfemme\u201d which means woman as well as v\u00e9n\u00e8re which is the inverse of \u201c\u00e9n\u00e9rv\u00e9\u201d and means angry. The verlan words always carry roughly the same significance as the original words but can have different connotations. In particular, I would never use verlan in writing or in any sort of professional or formal contexts. Typically it is only spoken and remains between \u2018les jeunes\u2019 (youth), although middle-aged and potentially more aged French speakers may be familiar with some verlan. It is considered not \u201cla langue soutenu\u201d or higher level language, and in a classroom setting, my professor would critique this type of speech. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I also noticed but did not expect is the amount of English words adopted into the French language as slang. These anglicismes <\/em>are also used by young people informally in a manner similar to that of verlan. Notably, the majority of French young people have in the least an intermediate level of English due to their schooling but also a substantial colloquial understanding of English due to the popular consumption of American (and British English) media. Because of this, it is common for young French speakers to adopt various English words like crush (infatuation), date (go out with someone), and cool (impressive), which all carry the same significance as they do in English. There\u2019s also other examples like \u2018dead \u00e7a\u2019 which means \u2018killed it\u2019 or \u2018crushed it\u2019 in French. My host mom, who is in retirement, has never used language like this, and I would not use any of this informal language with her because in the worst case scenario, she would find it rather offensive, and in the least, she would not be able to quite understand or relate. In fact, my host mentioned that she did not understand much English at all, which is different from the average French young person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A heartwarming example is that my host mom uses pet names for my roommate and I. She refers to me as \u2018ma fille\u2019 and refers to him as \u2018mon grand\u2019 which literally translates to \u2018my girl\u2019 and \u2018my big\u2019 but intuitively acts as terms of endearment. I find it sweet, and it makes me feel more comfortable in her home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One thing I have noticed is a type of slang called verlan that I have only heard used by young French speakers. It comes from the word \u201cenvers\u201d which means inverse. The word itself is inverted to create \u2018verlan\u2019. Essentially, this type of familiar language inverts syllables of words to create the new words. Some … Continue reading Guagelan Rencesdiffe<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4266"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3219"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3220,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions\/3220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
One of the main phrases I have picked up on that my host mom uses is \u201c\u00e7a va te faire du bien\/\u00e7a va te faire du mal\u201d, which literally translates to \u2018that will do you well, do you bad\u2019. It is a versatile phrase which just essentially means that something will be helpful\/good to you or not good\/helpful to you. I picked up on how often she uses this phrase, and I gather that it is only used with people who one knows fairly well, as it is somewhat informal and not a phrase that I would use in the classroom or a social setting where higher professional language is required. <\/p>\n\n\n\n