Contemporary French slang

the contemporary French slang is a form of Argot spoken in France by part of the Jeunesse.

It is called also language djeunz , (of djeunz , which means " jeunes" in this slang) because its Locuteur S forms primarily part of youth, or by language of the cities or slang of the cities , because he speaks himself particularly in the popular quarters (cities) about France.

The contemporary slang answers the same finalities as the traditional slang. It preserves in particular the same functions exclusive and identity, even if it is the latter which prevails. However, the appearance of the Language SMS and especially the diffusion of the culture Hip-hop on a broad scale allowed two evolutions:

On the one hand it made it possible to diffuse this slang in the company apart from the popular quarters where it was used mainly, which moved part of the specific vocabulary to this slang in the familiar register .

In addition, it allowed a relative unification of this slang to the level of the country, even if local and regional nuances continue to exist.

History

The appearance of the contemporary slang seems concomitant with the massive urbanization of the suburbs in the Années 1970, and the creation of large popular quarters intended to place the populations of Ouvrier S and Employé S, in majority Immigrés.

This one was constituted gradually starting from a base brought by the slang traditional, with words like cop or daron , supplemented by new various words of origin, like garrot coming from Arabic and probably brought by the lexicon of the population immigrant, or of new creations resulting from old mechanisms like the Verlan. It is this whole of words which characterizes the modern popular slang nowadays.

On the other hand, the effective marginalisation of most of the " young people of the banlieues" , which in general knows in particular a level of study lower than that of the young people and a rate of higher Chômage, the development of this language supported, by effect of fold on oneself. In this direction, one can say that the contemporary slang is a Sociolecte.

Construction

If the contemporary French slang modifies the Syntaxe French by simplifying it, its construction marries forms similar to that of the traditional slang. As in any slang differentiation is mainly of order Lexical; it is at the level of the Vocabulaire.

See in connection with the forms of construction the principal article Slang.

The features characteristic of the contemporary French slang, which distinguishes it from the traditional slang, are:

the use of the Verlan: the Verlan makes it possible to create a new vocabulary with like limit the number of words of the source language, even if the words of more than three syllables are the subject seldom of an inversion.

Example: My reup, it was too venerates. (My father was very irritated): Père gives Reup and Enervé Venère .

Verlan of ouf is not certain, there is also louf in the loubchem which is a potential origin. -->

Example: the Arab word gave Beur (which passed to the familiar register), to then give rebeu , which is thus a " Verlan of Verlan ". It is amusing to note that Beur does not designate the Arabs as a whole, but French resulting parents of Maghrebian origin , i.e. initial creators of the word Beur .

However, the use of the Verlan is not in oneself a new phenomenon. See the article dedicated for more precise details.

the use of foreign words: it is often related at the national origin of the families of the speakers, who are frequently bilingual besides, but also to the omnipresence of the Franglais.

Example: Misquina, it makes tièp ( misquine = low in Arabic and tièp = pity in Verlan: The poor one, it makes pity).

Example: I am speed (I am in a hurry).

Example: this go, it bédave not (Of go = girl in Bambara, derived from English girl and bédave = to smoke, in Gipsy: This girl does not smoke).

Thus, the French of Maghrebian origin being an important component of the populations of the popular quarters, the Arab naturally holds a choice place in the vocabulary of the contemporary slang.

The influences of the foreign languages in the slang are obviously influenced by the origins of the immigrants according to the time. Exception being the Romanian, which provides an enormous quantity of words to the French slang, largely exceeding the only community gipsy, and this since the origin even of the slang. The examples abound: rodave, piyave, shourav, bikrav, rayav, maramé, gadjo, gadji, candav, pashav, etc etc etc….

Sociological implications

By the number of its speakers, the contemporary French slang is a social phenomenon of great width.

Some, following the example linguist Alain Bentolila, stress that this slang is a factor of Exclusion young people of the suburbs. It estimates that the proportion of the young people not speaking that this language would be from 10% to 15% in France. It is not caught any with the contemporary slang as such, but the speakers of the contemporary slang would have a vocabulary less rich than the French-speaking people in general, which would support a Community fold. According to Bentolila, the promotion of the contemporary slang, in particular through the texts of Rap, constitutes a demagogic speech aiming at masking a linguistic inequality nourishing exclusion and feeding it in its turn.

The sociologist Bernard Lahire opposes Bentolila, in particular while advancing that this last takes as presupposed that the control of the language, and in a broader measurement of the culture, makes it possible in oneself to resist temptation communautarist and to be integrated in the company. Lahire reproaches Bentolila for placing the Illettrisme like one of the main causes of exclusion, and for neglecting the socio-economic aspects of the question, which for Lahire would be determining. Of this fact Bentolila would forget to place the causes of exclusion in the good order, and would be a judging intellectual, with the ell of its own intellectual capital, which is worthy to be socialized, and which is not it.

Concerning the use of the contemporary slang like one of the instruments of construction of the texts of rap, some stress that the poetic and evocative power of this language contributed to the radiation of the French-speaking culture hip-hop, and integrated, in fact, the contemporary French slang with the general French-speaking culture, as well as the traditional slang with the dialogs of Michel Audiard or the detective novels of San-Antonio. It should however be noticed that the contemporary slang is not the only mode of expression of the rapeurs. The Slam is another form of popular expression which has emerged in France for a few years.

Others, on the contrary, estimate that the poetic value of the contemporary French slang is quite relative, and is only one revealing moreover of the socio-economic and cultural ditch existing in France.

This controversy is far from being new in the French cultural landscape. Indeed, it already take place at last century when the cursed poets, car-qualified the declining ones chose to disguise the language to obtain a clean language. One finds at that time, and from time immemorial this polemic opposing enrichment of the language, imagery and poetic richness with a possible decrepitude of the speech, as illustrated by this Citation of Voltaire: Never employ a new word, unless it does not have these three qualities: to be necessary, understandable, and sound. Novel ideas, especially in physics, require new expressions; but to substitute for a word of use another word which does not have that the merit of the innovation, it is not to enrich the language, it is to spoil it.

It would seem that the language is perpetually reinvented by each new generation, anxious to renew its vocabulary for better adapting it. This should not however mask questionings of a sociological nature, but makes it possible to relativize the use of the study of the popular language as measuring instrument of the sociological evolution.

Thus, it is undeniable, any other consideration put aside, that the fact of speaking the slang about the suburbs marks the speaker (and it is one of the functions of the slang in general) like coming from a socio-geographical medium determined, which can lead its interlocutors, that they are or not same Social environment, to act according to prejudices which they would have with respect to such or such group. In this direction, one can say that the contemporary slang is a social marker rather than a factor of exclusion as tel.

Words or expressions

See the article Vocabulary of the contemporary French slang.

References

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