Verlan (France) - Revision history

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	Hip-hop music has also created for itself a sub-lexicon of ''Verlan'', in which the most important words within the realm of rap music are almost better known in this form (Marc-Martìnez 2008<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>); examples include the word ''rappeur'' itself, ''verlanised'' into ''peura'', and the name of the well-known artist MC Solaar, also known as ''Laarso''. Unlike the previously discussed ‘common’ ''verlanisations'' of slang words, the rapper Ministère A.M.E.R. has branched out into inverting everyday words (i.e., those not considered to be ''argotique'' or slang) namely ''maneci'' (cinéma) and ''naisco'' (''connais'') (2008:271<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>), thus giving strength to the argument that Verlan is no longer restricted to a cryptic form of usage.		Hip-hop music has also created for itself a sub-lexicon of ''Verlan'', in which the most important words within the realm of rap music are almost better known in this form (Marc-Martìnez 2008<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>); examples include the word ''rappeur'' itself, ''verlanised'' into ''peura'', and the name of the well-known artist MC Solaar, also known as ''Laarso''. Unlike the previously discussed ‘common’ ''verlanisations'' of slang words, the rapper Ministère A.M.E.R. has branched out into inverting everyday words (i.e., those not considered to be ''argotique'' or slang) namely ''maneci'' (cinéma) and ''naisco'' (''connais'') (2008:271<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>), thus giving strength to the argument that Verlan is no longer restricted to a cryptic form of usage.

	The cultural importance of ''verlan'' is highlighted in the 1995 film ''La Haine'', in which the director Matthieu Kassowitz draws on French society's understanding of the slang. The film's events take place against the backdrop of a Parisian council estate, focusing on the frustrations of residents of ''la zone'' (the ‘slum belt’). Kassowitz appears to have made it as ‘viewer-friendly’ as possible whilst also conveying the message that the characters' speech is different from that of the more bourgeois society that they encounter in central Paris. Peters sums this up well:		The cultural importance of ''verlan'' is highlighted in the 1995 film ''La Haine'', in which the director Matthieu Kassowitz draws on French society's understanding of the slang. The film's [[events]] take place against the backdrop of a Parisian council estate, focusing on the frustrations of residents of ''la zone'' (the ‘slum belt’). Kassowitz appears to have made it as ‘viewer-friendly’ as possible whilst also conveying the message that the characters' speech is different from that of the more bourgeois society that they encounter in central Paris. Peters sums this up well:
	<blockquote>‘The characters speak Verlan only amongst themselves, never to adults inside or outside the ''banlieue'' [suburbs]...they use Verlan for drug vocabulary and employ many of the better-known terms: ''keuf'', from ''flic'', (meaning cop or pig)... ''téci'', from ''cité'', (ghetto)’ (2007: 15<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>)</blockquote>		<blockquote>‘The characters speak Verlan only amongst themselves, never to adults inside or outside the ''banlieue'' [suburbs]...they use Verlan for drug vocabulary and employ many of the better-known terms: ''keuf'', from ''flic'', (meaning cop or pig)... ''téci'', from ''cité'', (ghetto)’ (2007: 15<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>)</blockquote>

Editor2018 at 20:33, 17 May 2019

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	{{infobox		{{infobox
	\| nameofpractice = Verlan		\| nameofpractice =Verlan
	\| location = France		\| flagemoji = 🇫🇷
	\| imagemap = France map.png		\| definition =French slang formed by changing the order of syllables
	\| ~~imageflag~~ = France ~~flag.png~~		\| location =France
	\| authorofpiece = Rebecca Stewart		\| imagemap =France map.png
	\| authorinstitution = University College London		\| clusters =
	}}		[[:Category:Solidarity\|Solidarity]] – [[:Category: Normative ambivalence\| Normative ambivalence]] – [[:Category: Non-conformity\| Non-conformity]] – [[:Category: Resistance\| Resistance]]
			\| categories =
			[[:Category:France\|France]] – [[:Category: Europe\| Europe]] – [[:Category: EU\| EU]] – [[:Category: Language\| Language]] – [[:Category: Youth\| Youth]]
			\| authorofpiece =Rebecca Stewart
			\| authorinstitution =Department of Education, University College London, UK
			\| authorwebsite =[http://ioe.academia.edu/RebeccaStewart Profile page at Academia.edu]}}
			<big>'''By Rebecca Stewart, Department of Education, University College London, UK'''</big>
			[[Category:Solidarity]]
			[[Category: Normative ambivalence]]
			[[Category: Non-conformity]]
			[[Category: Resistance]]
			[[Category:France]]
			[[Category: Europe]]
			[[Category: EU]]
			[[Category: Language]]
			[[Category: Youth]]
			[[Category:Entry]]
			[[Category: Volume 1]]
			{\| class="wikitable"
			\|-
			\|style="font-size:1.1em;"\| ''Verlan'' is a form of French slang featuring the inversion of syllables to create new words and was originally used by the first generation of children born in France to North African immigrants as an in-group or secret language. Its proliferation in the housing projects in the outer suburbs of Paris became an exhaustive area of study in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Bachmann and Basier 1984<ref>Bachmann, C. and Basier, L. 1984. ‘Le verlan: argot d'école ou langue des Keums?’ Mots, 8(1): 169-187.</ref>; Méla 1991<ref>Méla, V. 1991. Le verlan ou le langage du miroir. Langages, 101: 73-94.</ref>).

	'''''~~Original text by Rebecca Stewart~~'''''		''Verlan'' quickly gained notoriety as a method of disguising criminal activity in the ''banlieues'' (city outskirts) from the police. These days, ''Verlan'' appears to be used much less maliciously and by a wider social spectrum, although some of the original prejudices against its use still remain.
			\|}

	~~<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">~~		In Europe in particular there is a plethora of slang lexicons, such as ''Rotwelsch'' in German, ''furbesco'' in Italian and of course ''argot'' in French (Burke and Porter 1995<ref>Burke, P. and Porter, R. (eds.). (1995). Languages and jargons: contributions to a social history of language. Polity Press.</ref>). It would appear that ''Verlan'' has its roots in the French slang of ''argot'', which François-Geiger (1991<ref>François-Geiger, D. 1991.‘Panorama des argots contemporains’, Langue française, 90: 5-9.</ref>) splits into two main categories; firstly, its original intended use was as a cryptolect by various gangs in nineteenth century France as a means of concealing criminal activity; and secondly, the ''parlers branchés'' (this could be translated as ‘trendy speech’) was employed within different areas of culture as a means of both identification and to disguise meaning.
	~~''Verlan''~~ is a ~~form~~ of ~~French~~ slang ~~featuring the inversion of syllables to create new words and was originally used by the first generation of children born in France to North African immigrants~~ as an in~~-group or secret language. Its proliferation~~ in ~~the housing projects in the outer suburbs~~ of ~~Paris became an exhaustive area of study~~ in ~~the late 1980s and early 1990s~~ (~~Bachmann~~ and ~~Basier 1984~~<ref>~~Bachmann~~, C. and ~~Basier~~, L. ~~1984~~. ~~‘Le verlan: argot d'école ou langue des Keums?’ Mots, 8~~(1): ~~169-187~~.</ref>~~; Méla~~ 1991<ref>~~Méla~~, V. 1991. ~~Le verlan ou le langage du miroir. Langages~~, ~~101~~: 73-94.</ref>)~~. ''Verlan'' quickly gained notoriety~~ as a ~~method~~ of ~~disguising~~ criminal activity in the ''~~banlieues~~'' (~~city outskirts~~) ~~from the police. These days, ''Verlan'' appears to be used much less maliciously and by~~ a ~~wider social spectrum, although some~~ of ~~the original prejudices against its use still remain~~.

	~~<div class="mw-collapsible-content">~~		In some ways, ''Verlan'' can be viewed as a revival of the traditional functions of ''argot''; a fundamentally oral phenomenon, it is particularly prevalent in large urban conurbations and in some cases has similar functions, the most important of which is as a means of masking certain topics of conversation from outsiders (''ibid''). With its use of syllabic inversion, Verlan falls into the category of ‘reversal ludlings’ (Bagemihl 2005<ref>Bagemihl, B. 1995. ‘Language games and related areas’, in John A. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory, Oxford: Blackwell: 697-712.</ref>), present in Europe in the forms of Pig Latin (Treiman 1989<ref>Treiman, R.1989. ‘The internal structure of the syllable’, In Linguistic structure in language processing Springer Netherlands: 27-52.</ref>) and some aspects of Cant or Shelta (Kirk and Ò Baoill 2002<ref>Kirk, J. M. and Ó Baoill, D.P. (eds.), 2002. Travellers and their Language (Vol. 4). Cló Ollscoil na Banríona.</ref>).
	In Europe in particular there is a plethora of slang lexicons, such as ''Rotwelsch'' in German, ''furbesco'' in Italian and of course ''argot'' in French (Burke and Porter 1995<ref>Burke, P. and Porter, R. (eds.). (1995). Languages and jargons: contributions to a social history of language. Polity Press.</ref>). It would appear that ''Verlan'' has its roots in the French slang of ''argot'', which François-Geiger (1991<ref>François-Geiger, D. 1991.‘Panorama des argots contemporains’, Langue française, 90: 5-9.</ref>) splits into two main categories; firstly, its original intended use was as a cryptolect by various gangs in nineteenth century France as a means of concealing criminal activity; and secondly, the ''parlers branchés'' (this could be translated as ‘trendy speech’) was employed within different areas of culture as a means of both identification and to disguise meaning. In some ways, ''Verlan'' can be viewed as a revival of the traditional functions of ''argot''; a fundamentally oral phenomenon, it is particularly prevalent in large urban conurbations and in some cases has similar functions, the most important of which is as a means of masking certain topics of conversation from outsiders (''ibid''). With its use of syllabic inversion, Verlan falls into the category of ‘reversal ludlings’ (Bagemihl 2005<ref>Bagemihl, B. 1995. ‘Language games and related areas’, in John A. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory, Oxford: Blackwell: 697-712.</ref>), present in Europe in the forms of Pig Latin (Treiman 1989<ref>Treiman, R.1989. ‘The internal structure of the syllable’, In Linguistic structure in language processing Springer Netherlands: 27-52.</ref>) and some aspects of Cant or Shelta (Kirk and Ò Baoill 2002<ref>Kirk, J. M. and Ó Baoill, D.P. (eds.), 2002. Travellers and their Language (Vol. 4). Cló Ollscoil na Banríona.</ref>). However, it is perhaps the Balkan slang ''Šatrovački'' which is the most similar to ''Verlan'', given its popularity amongst young immigrant populations, its function of disguising criminal activity, and the choice of words it incorporates into its lexicon, which tend to be drug- or crime-based (Rizzolo 2004<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>; Rìos 2009<ref>Ríos, J. V. 2009. Linguistique et sociolinguistique du verlan à travers le monde. Analecta Malacitana, (26):197-214.</ref>). Rizzolo gives as examples the Serbo-Croat words ''džok'', meaning ‘joint’, which becomes ''kədžo'', and ''nož'' (‘knife’) which turns into ''žəno'' (2004:276-7<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>).
			However, it is perhaps the Balkan slang ''Šatrovački'' which is the most similar to ''Verlan'', given its popularity amongst young immigrant populations, its function of disguising criminal activity, and the choice of words it incorporates into its lexicon, which tend to be drug- or crime-based (Rizzolo 2004<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>; Rìos 2009<ref>Ríos, J. V. 2009. Linguistique et sociolinguistique du verlan à travers le monde. Analecta Malacitana, (26):197-214.</ref>). Rizzolo gives as examples the Serbo-Croat words ''džok'', meaning ‘joint’, which becomes ''kədžo'', and ''nož'' (‘knife’) which turns into ''žəno'' (2004:276-7<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>).

	In Chomskyan terms, ''Verlan'' is a not a grammatical practice but a social one (Azra & Cheneau 1994<ref>Azra, J. L. and Cheneau, V. 1994. ‘Jeux de langage et théorie phonologique. Verlan et structure syllabique du français’, Journal of French language studies, 4(2): 147-170.</ref>), regardless of the morphological processes a word must undergo to become ''verlan''ised. In Peters' words, ‘...''Verlan'' serves primarily as an identity marker, not as a semantic addition to a sentence’ (2007:3<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>). Spoken as a means of rebellion against the purity of the French language, which is more strictly regulated than most by the ''Académie Française'', it is often seen as a means of association and solidarity with a very particular social group. In its early incarnations, the offspring of immigrants from former French colonies and Muslim countries such as Algeria, Morocco and Turkey who as first-generation French citizens struggled to fit in with both their parents' and French culture, employed ''Verlan'' (itself an inversion of the word ''l'envers'', literally ‘back to front’) as a way of self-identification. This section of society was, and still is, disproportionately socially excluded, often confined to high-rise developments on the outskirts of large cities such as Paris and Marseilles. As a result they created for themselves a kind of underground society within which ''Verlan'' was the primary means of excluding the uninitiated.		In Chomskyan terms, ''Verlan'' is a not a grammatical practice but a social one (Azra & Cheneau 1994<ref>Azra, J. L. and Cheneau, V. 1994. ‘Jeux de langage et théorie phonologique. Verlan et structure syllabique du français’, Journal of French language studies, 4(2): 147-170.</ref>), regardless of the morphological processes a word must undergo to become ''verlan''ised. In Peters' words, ‘...''Verlan'' serves primarily as an identity marker, not as a semantic addition to a sentence’ (2007:3<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>). Spoken as a means of rebellion against the purity of the French language, which is more strictly regulated than most by the ''Académie Française'', it is often seen as a means of association and solidarity with a very particular social group. In its early incarnations, the offspring of immigrants from former French colonies and Muslim countries such as Algeria, Morocco and Turkey who as first-generation French citizens struggled to fit in with both their parents' and French culture, employed ''Verlan'' (itself an inversion of the word ''l'envers'', literally ‘back to front’) as a way of self-identification. This section of society was, and still is, disproportionately socially excluded, often confined to high-rise developments on the outskirts of large cities such as Paris and Marseilles. As a result they created for themselves a kind of underground society within which ''Verlan'' was the primary means of excluding the uninitiated.
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	Furthermore, although the characters never use more than a few words of ''Verlan'' at a time (presumably to facilitate the comprehension of the viewer), what is considered to be the most important word in the sentence is usually the one that is ''verlanised'', giving that word some kind of emphatic quality (Black and Sloutsky 2010<ref>Black, C. and Sloutsky, L. 2010. Évolution du verlan, marqueur social et identitaire, dans les films: La Haine (1995) et L’Esquive (2004). Synergies Canada, (2).		Furthermore, although the characters never use more than a few words of ''Verlan'' at a time (presumably to facilitate the comprehension of the viewer), what is considered to be the most important word in the sentence is usually the one that is ''verlanised'', giving that word some kind of emphatic quality (Black and Sloutsky 2010<ref>Black, C. and Sloutsky, L. 2010. Évolution du verlan, marqueur social et identitaire, dans les films: La Haine (1995) et L’Esquive (2004). Synergies Canada, (2).
	</ref>).		</ref>).
	~~</div>~~
	~~</div>~~

	==~~Notes~~==		==References==
	<references />		<references />

	~~[[Category:Informal Practices]]~~
	~~[[Category:EU]]~~
	~~[[Category:France]]~~
	~~[[Category:Non conformism]]~~
	~~[[Category:Entry]]~~

Admin at 13:12, 3 July 2018

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Admin: Admin moved page Verlan to Verlan (France) without leaving a redirect

2018-06-01T11:58:19Z

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{{infobox
| nameofpractice = Verlan
| location = France
| imagemap = France map.png
| imageflag = France flag.png
| authorofpiece = Rebecca Stewart
| authorinstitution = University College London
}}

'''''Original text by Rebecca Stewart'''''

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
''Verlan'' is a form of French slang featuring the inversion of syllables to create new words and was originally used by the first generation of children born in France to North African immigrants as an in-group or secret language. Its proliferation in the housing projects in the outer suburbs of Paris became an exhaustive area of study in the late 1980s and early 1990s (Bachmann and Basier 1984<ref>Bachmann, C. and Basier, L. 1984. ‘Le verlan: argot d'école ou langue des Keums?’ Mots, 8(1): 169-187.</ref>; Méla 1991<ref>Méla, V. 1991. Le verlan ou le langage du miroir. Langages, 101: 73-94.</ref>). ''Verlan'' quickly gained notoriety as a method of disguising criminal activity in the ''banlieues'' (city outskirts) from the police. These days, ''Verlan'' appears to be used much less maliciously and by a wider social spectrum, although some of the original prejudices against its use still remain.

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
In Europe in particular there is a plethora of slang lexicons, such as ''Rotwelsch'' in German, ''furbesco'' in Italian and of course ''argot'' in French (Burke and Porter 1995<ref>Burke, P. and Porter, R. (eds.). (1995). Languages and jargons: contributions to a social history of language. Polity Press.</ref>). It would appear that ''Verlan'' has its roots in the French slang of ''argot'', which François-Geiger (1991<ref>François-Geiger, D. 1991.‘Panorama des argots contemporains’, Langue française, 90: 5-9.</ref>) splits into two main categories; firstly, its original intended use was as a cryptolect by various gangs in nineteenth century France as a means of concealing criminal activity; and secondly, the ''parlers branchés'' (this could be translated as ‘trendy speech’) was employed within different areas of culture as a means of both identification and to disguise meaning. In some ways, ''Verlan'' can be viewed as a revival of the traditional functions of ''argot''; a fundamentally oral phenomenon, it is particularly prevalent in large urban conurbations and in some cases has similar functions, the most important of which is as a means of masking certain topics of conversation from outsiders (''ibid''). With its use of syllabic inversion, Verlan falls into the category of ‘reversal ludlings’ (Bagemihl 2005<ref>Bagemihl, B. 1995. ‘Language games and related areas’, in John A. Goldsmith (ed.), The handbook of phonological theory, Oxford: Blackwell: 697-712.</ref>), present in Europe in the forms of Pig Latin (Treiman 1989<ref>Treiman, R.1989. ‘The internal structure of the syllable’, In Linguistic structure in language processing Springer Netherlands: 27-52.</ref>) and some aspects of Cant or Shelta (Kirk and Ò Baoill 2002<ref>Kirk, J. M. and Ó Baoill, D.P. (eds.), 2002. Travellers and their Language (Vol. 4). Cló Ollscoil na Banríona.</ref>). However, it is perhaps the Balkan slang ''Šatrovački'' which is the most similar to ''Verlan'', given its popularity amongst young immigrant populations, its function of disguising criminal activity, and the choice of words it incorporates into its lexicon, which tend to be drug- or crime-based (Rizzolo 2004<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>; Rìos 2009<ref>Ríos, J. V. 2009. Linguistique et sociolinguistique du verlan à travers le monde. Analecta Malacitana, (26):197-214.</ref>). Rizzolo gives as examples the Serbo-Croat words ''džok'', meaning ‘joint’, which becomes ''kədžo'', and ''nož'' (‘knife’) which turns into ''žəno'' (2004:276-7<ref>Rizzolo, O. 2004. Šatrovački: la construction et l’exploitation d’un corpus de verlan serbo-croate. Corpus, (3).</ref>).

In Chomskyan terms, ''Verlan'' is a not a grammatical practice but a social one (Azra & Cheneau 1994<ref>Azra, J. L. and Cheneau, V. 1994. ‘Jeux de langage et théorie phonologique. Verlan et structure syllabique du français’, Journal of French language studies, 4(2): 147-170.</ref>), regardless of the morphological processes a word must undergo to become ''verlan''ised. In Peters' words, ‘...''Verlan'' serves primarily as an identity marker, not as a semantic addition to a sentence’ (2007:3<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>). Spoken as a means of rebellion against the purity of the French language, which is more strictly regulated than most by the ''Académie Française'', it is often seen as a means of association and solidarity with a very particular social group. In its early incarnations, the offspring of immigrants from former French colonies and Muslim countries such as Algeria, Morocco and Turkey who as first-generation French citizens struggled to fit in with both their parents' and French culture, employed ''Verlan'' (itself an inversion of the word ''l'envers'', literally ‘back to front’) as a way of self-identification. This section of society was, and still is, disproportionately socially excluded, often confined to high-rise developments on the outskirts of large cities such as Paris and Marseilles. As a result they created for themselves a kind of underground society within which ''Verlan'' was the primary means of excluding the uninitiated.

''Verlan'' is not only a means of inclusion, but as with many other in-group languages, a way to ‘scramble’ a word or message to hide criminal or dubious activity, for example ''teshi'' from ''le shit'' (a French slang term for cannabis) and ''keuf'' for ''flic'', a rather derogatory name for a police officer (Méla 1991<ref>Méla, V. 1991. Le verlan ou le langage du miroir. Langages, 101: 73-94.</ref>). It is also extremely prevalent in the lexical fields of sex and relationships, the body, ethnicity, drugs and violence. This can be accredited to the fact that a ''Verlan'' term may be ‘softer’, less brash, and without the connotations and taboos of the original word; take the very common ''beur'' used in place of ''arabe'', or ''caillera'', the inversion of ''racaille'', a word which president Nicolas Sarkozy used in 2005, akin to the English word ‘scum’, to describe delinquent members of society.

These days, many French people use some degree of ''Verlan'' regardless of race, age, gender or social class (Méla 1997<ref>Méla, V. 1997. VERLAN 2000. Langue française, 16-34.</ref>). As would be expected, different varieties of ''Verlan'' have developed over time, almost certainly from diatopic (from experience, Lyonnais ''Verlan'' is quite different to the Parisian variety) and diastratic points of view. As has been noted ‘...it can (...) distinguish yuppies from street kids’ (Peters 2007:9<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>). Lefkowitz (1991<ref>Lefkowitz, N. 1991. Talking backwards, looking forwards: The French language game verlan (Vol. 3). Gunter Narr Verlag.</ref>) claims that some members of the bourgeoisie may try to show empathy or awareness of social problems by using ''Verlan''. Indeed even at Presidential levels there is evidence of deliberately using ''Verlan'' to be current. As Azra and Cheneau report:
<blockquote>''‘On se souviendra de Mitterand'' (François, the former French president) ''répondant à un journaliste lui demandant ce que signifie chébran; "Ça veut dire branché...”’'' (‘We remember Mitterand responding to a journalist who had asked him what ''chébran'' meant; ‘It means trendy...’)(1994:149<ref>Azra, J. L. and Cheneau, V. 1994. ‘Jeux de langage et théorie phonologique. Verlan et structure syllabique du français’, Journal of French language studies, 4(2): 147-170.</ref>)</blockquote>

One of the most telling indicators that ''Verlan'' is not just a passing fad has been its diffusion across French media. A mode of speech that was once only heard on news reports from the Parisian ''banlieues'' is now omnipresent in France's film and music industry. Isabelle Marc Martínez’s book, ''Le rap français. Esthétique et poétique des textes'', 1990-1995 gives an in-depth account of the use of ''Verlan'' in popular music, and specifically rap music, which in France tends to be produced and listened to by the ''maghrébin'' population (2008<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>). It would appear that when ''Verlan'' is used in rap music, it is not used as cryptically, but instead allows the listener to feel part of the movement as well as emphasising the message of the music. As Marc-Martìnez puts it:
<blockquote>‘''[Verlan] n'a pas pour fonction de brouiller le message, mais, au contraire, de l'intensifier par l'accumulation de synonymes.''’ (‘[Verlan] does not seek to scramble the message; but rather to intensify it through the accumulation of synonyms.’) (2008:271<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>)</blockquote>
However, it is also important to consider the roots of French hip-hop. Mitchell (2000<ref>Mitchell, T. 2000. ‘Doin’ damage in my native language: The use of “resistance vernaculars” in hip hop in France, Italy, and Aotearoa/New Zealand’, Popular Music & Society, 24 (3): 41-54.</ref>) maintains that rappers and hip-hop artists have always looked to their ethnic backgrounds for inspiration, and have used this to forge a strong identity; although he does not explicitly mention ''Verlan'', it can clearly be considered an important feature of this identity.

Hip-hop music has also created for itself a sub-lexicon of ''Verlan'', in which the most important words within the realm of rap music are almost better known in this form (Marc-Martìnez 2008<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>); examples include the word ''rappeur'' itself, ''verlanised'' into ''peura'', and the name of the well-known artist MC Solaar, also known as ''Laarso''. Unlike the previously discussed ‘common’ ''verlanisations'' of slang words, the rapper Ministère A.M.E.R. has branched out into inverting everyday words (i.e., those not considered to be ''argotique'' or slang) namely ''maneci'' (cinéma) and ''naisco'' (''connais'') (2008:271<ref>Martínez, I. M. 2008. Le rap français: esthétique et poétique des textes (1990-1995) (Vol. 9). Peter Lang.</ref>), thus giving strength to the argument that Verlan is no longer restricted to a cryptic form of usage.

The cultural importance of ''verlan'' is highlighted in the 1995 film ''La Haine'', in which the director Matthieu Kassowitz draws on French society's understanding of the slang. The film's events take place against the backdrop of a Parisian council estate, focusing on the frustrations of residents of ''la zone'' (the ‘slum belt’). Kassowitz appears to have made it as ‘viewer-friendly’ as possible whilst also conveying the message that the characters' speech is different from that of the more bourgeois society that they encounter in central Paris. Peters sums this up well:
<blockquote>‘The characters speak Verlan only amongst themselves, never to adults inside or outside the ''banlieue'' [suburbs]...they use Verlan for drug vocabulary and employ many of the better-known terms: ''keuf'', from ''flic'', (meaning cop or pig)... ''téci'', from ''cité'', (ghetto)’ (2007: 15<ref>Peters, N. 2007. C'est pas blesipo: Variations of Verlan. BA dissertation. Swarthmore College.</ref>)</blockquote>

Furthermore, although the characters never use more than a few words of ''Verlan'' at a time (presumably to facilitate the comprehension of the viewer), what is considered to be the most important word in the sentence is usually the one that is ''verlanised'', giving that word some kind of emphatic quality (Black and Sloutsky 2010<ref>Black, C. and Sloutsky, L. 2010. Évolution du verlan, marqueur social et identitaire, dans les films: La Haine (1995) et L’Esquive (2004). Synergies Canada, (2).
</ref>).
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==Notes==
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[[Category:Informal Practices]]
[[Category:EU]]
[[Category:France]]
[[Category:Non conformism]]