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Verlan

Verlan is formed by inverting syllables. As with many language games, Verlan suffers from the fact that it is primarily a spoken language passed down orally, and thus there exists no standardized spelling. While some still argue that the letters should be held over from the original word, in the case of Verlan most experts agree that words should be spelt as to best approximate pronunciation, hence the use of verlan as opposed to versl'en.

As most potential readers here are not French, here's an attempted example of English verlan, which could be called the versin (inversed inverse).

My piano is broken, phooey.

My nopyan is kenbro, eefoo.

Verlan generally retains the pronunciation of the original syllables. In particular, French words that end in an e muet (a schwa, eu, such femme) and words which end in a pronounced consonant and which usually have an e muet added at the end (such as flic) retain the sound of the e muet in verlan. In addition, verlan often drops the final vowel sound after the word is inverted, so femme and flic become meuf and keuf. Some words have had their syllables inverted twice; for example, arabe > beur > reubeu (notice the unpredictable change in vocalism with the neutral vowel eu being inserted).

Different rules apply when dealing with one-syllable words, and, in certain dialects of verlan, certain words are usually inverted and certain words are not. Words like très remain unchanged in most dialects, while femme is usually inverted.

Generally speaking, creating a verlan word on the fly from any random French word will result in smirks. However, understanding verlan words heard in specific situations will help understand what many young people living in French suburbs actually say. You might also use those words yourself if you want to incorporate these groups.

A very similar process (vesre, from Spanish revés) is used in Argentinian slang Lunfardo.

Verlan has also incorported some non-French (mainly Arabic) words, such as:

• chouf (look)
• flouze (money)
• niquer (to fuck) sometimes inverted in kéni or ken
• kiffer (to like)

Table of contents

1 Examples of verlan 2 See also 3 External links

Examples of verlan

• tromé - métro (possibly the most widely-used example)
• laisse béton - laisse tomber (drop it, stop it)
• keum - mec (slang for man)
• meuf - femme (girl, woman)
• reum - mère (mother)
• reup - père (father)
• keuf - flic (policeman derived from slang flic roughly equivalent to cop)
• ouf - fou (crazy)
• zyva - vas-y (go for it)
• fais ièche - fais chier (slang for it's boring)
• céfran - français
• reubeu - beur (slang for French people of North African origin; beur itself is believed by most to be verlan for arabe, making reubeu double-verlan)
• relou - lourd (heavy, generally used to say boring)
• zarbi - bizarre (strange)
• chanmé - méchant (wicked!, excellent!)
• chelou - louche (shady)
• keutru - truc (stuff)

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• Langue verte
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• BBC report
• about.com article