The American slang ( U.S. slang in English) is a language frequently spoken with the United States, each area of the country and each social environment (with some subtle differences in certain American big cities) having its own slang or at least its own terms, at first sight incomprehensible.

Since the nineteenth century, the inhabitants of the United States as well as the Irish and German immigrants knew to innovate the Anglo-American language which is distinguished from now on from the British English. Since then, much of groups contribute to the vocabulary of the American slang: proletarians of New York, peasants of the Old South, blacks of the campaigns (and later of the big cities), but also Cubans of Miami, the Californian Chicano S or Italian immigrants of the beginning of the twentieth century.

General rules

Contractions of words

The American slang is recognized, firstly, by the contraction of certain words even the assembly of two mots.
Examples:

" What C you think butt my new sunglasses? " (" What do you think of my new sunglasses? ") becomes " Watchu think “end my new sunglasses? ".
" What is up, Antwone? " (" How are you, Antoine? ") becomes " Wassup, Antwone? " even " up, Antwone? ".
" What are you going to C Friday night? " (" What will you make Friday evening? ") becomes " Whatchu gonna C Friday night? " or " Watchu gon” C Friday night? ".
" Give me the bread " (" Give me the pain") becomes " Gimme da bread ".

- > current expressions " going to C " (to go to make) and " want to C " (to want to make) become respectively " gonna C " and " wanna C ".
- > It is not rare to read or hear " ain' T " or " ain' T No " , that wants to say I amndt not (" I am not pas") or I haven' T (" I do not have pas"), according to the sentence. Thus, one can hear " I ain' T No joy " , translate " I am not joyeux" , " I do not feel a joie".
- > terminations in " - er" are used for the words expressing the author of an action ( driver = " conducteur") or for the comparative ones ( better than = better than). Because of pronciation of " - er" (similar to the pronunciation of the letter " a" , in English; " eu" , in French), these words are often slightly contracted, thus driver becomes " driva " and better becomes " betta ".

Expressions

A multitude of usual expressions are employed by the Americans and the English, here is a list of examples with translations and connotations:

" Damn " who means " maudir" or " condamner" is very much used, and in several ways: for " God Damn! " , include/understand " Oh m ** of! " ; translate " You god damn right " by " You ace sacrament raison" and " Damn it! " by " Zut! ".
" Hang " is a verb meaning " accrocher" or " pendre". However, of many expressions as of new verbs were invented starting from this mot. " Hangover " wants to say " Mouth of bois" ; " hang back " mean " hésiter" (to hesitate, in English), " hang one " results in " attendre" (to wait, in English) and " hang out " by " to trail in the rue".
" Wrinkle " is a verb meaning " to make équitation" , however, this verb with almost made disappear " to roll " wanting to say " rouler". " Wrinkle " triple significance has now:

" I wrinkles the white horse " wants to say " literally; I assemble/make horsemanship on/with the horse blanc".
" Wrinkle with me " wants to say " roll with moi" whereas " rouler" results in " to roll".
" Take has wrinkle " or " Let' S wrinkles " wants to say " Roulons" but also " Conduisons" even " Allons-y " , disregarding verb " to drive" (to lead) and of the expression " let' S go" (allons-y).

" I lay me down to sleep " mean " I go coucher". Literally, " lay down " wants to say to lie down while being wounded.

" Chill " wants to say " to release itself, décompresser" , but, the correct direction of this word is " froid" , " to make frissonner" or " refroidir".

Banal grammatical mistakes

The slang being a language more spoken much than written, it is current to find faults of grammaire.
there For example, in English, to express the action in a sentence (" in train of… "), one uses the continuous (termination in " - ing"). Thus to say " I am in the train of manger" , one says: " I' m eating". That makes it possible to distinguish the practice from the action itself.
In slang, this rule is often violated; maybe because the " G " of " - ing" (" is removed; I' m eatin' "), that is to say because the termination in " - ing" disappears and that a " a" is added after the pronoun (" I' my eat "), for a near future, it is the contaction of already contracted gonna (" i' m gonna eat").

Invented words

Many words were invented, impossible of all to index them because each city, each Borough or American district has a pallet of incomprehensible words for the basic tourist, which is perfectly normal.
Certain words are however important to know, as well by their frequent uses as by their significances.

Words of European origin

The European languages (others that English) are always more or less present, especially with regard to the Irish and the Italian . Consequently slangs were formed.

In Italian

The Italians are very present at the United States (with New York, with Chicago…), they gathered, like the Asian ones, in districts of the downtown area. These districts always exist, each big city of the United States of America has its " Little Italy ", of new words thus appeared…

" bookyak " designate a woman pejoratively (equivalent of bitch in English).
" moolie " or " moulinyan " nominate a person with the black skin color (more pejorative than " black" but much less than " nigger").
" giacalone " nominate a person who has very few defects.
" paglia " indicate a cigarette.

In Irish

American of Irish origin is very numerous and, those which one called the " potatoes eater" (potato eaters, to see file on the Great famine in Ireland), now are very integrated in the american company because of language (Irish speaks English mainly). However, certain expressions remained:

" eejit " mean " idiot". Word very much used today in the U.S.A.
" what' S the story " (literally " which is the history? ") hello or what' S up means? (" what is nine? ").
" ballicks " mean " nul" or " without intérêt" , English says bollocks .
" codswollop " wants to say, about " that does not have a sens".
" yokes " mean " cocaïne".

Words of origin Afro-American

The community Afro-américaine is present a little everywhere at the United States, the populations of cities like the New-Orleans, Philadelphia, Detroit or New York often consists of more than 30% of Afro-américains.
Moreover, this community with a history which goes up with the birth of the United States, as slaves, black-American invented dances as well as linguistic terms that only they could include/understand being given the atmosphere of oppression which was exerted on them with this époque.
Today, this community lives mainly in " ghettos" , of the poor districts present in all the states-uniennes cities of more than 100.000 habitants.

Often, English words finishing in " - or" or in " - ure" finish themselves quite simply in " o" , in slang Afro-American. That is due to the accent of the West Africa that many black-American were due to conserver.
Ainsi, " for" (" pour") becomes " foe " or " fo " and " for sure" (" well sur") becomes " fo' sho ".
the young Afro-Americans living in the ghettos also invented words such as " cheda " and " scrilla " to indicate the money, " dome " to say head (" tête") or " homie " and " dawg " to say friend (" ami").
the young inhabitants of these districts also inserted the word " da ", very often used with the oral examination (pronounce " deu"), that wants simply to say the (the determinants " le" and " la").

Words invented by the chicanos

In the United States of America, the Hispanic community is extremely strong and is more and more. This community is divided into several nationalities and a geography is necessary to locate the various origins of this large communauté.
In the north-eastern quarter of the United States (areas of Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington…) one finds a majority of natives of Puerto Rico; in the south of the United States (is Sun Belt: Florida primarily) one finds a very strong community Cubain E and in the west of the United States (in California, with the Texas…) one finds the major part of the Hispanic population living with the U.S.A: the Mexicain s.
Formerly, the South-western part of the United States was Mexican, the activists of the Mexican community living on these grounds call this place the " Aztlan Nacion".
At the beginning of the 20th century, a strong Mexican immigration in direction of the South of California began, the immigrants settled with San Diego, in the South Central Los Angeles as in the east of Los Angeles.
This part of the population will call the Chicano S, speaking English and Spanish they invented the Spanglish like certain slang terms (the language " Caló ") :

" carucha " wants to say because (in English), stage coach (in Spanish) and " voiture" in French.
" fusca " mean gun in English (" flingue" in French).
" trucha " is an expression which means watch out (" make gaffe").
" Califas " results in California (the state of California).
" borlo " party (" wants to say; fête" in French).
" calcos " or " chanclas " mean shoes (" chaussures" in French).
" chamaco " in kid (" results; gamin" in French).
" carnál " brother (" wants to say; frère" , " friend of long date").
" frajo " mean cigarette .
" jaina " or " hyna " in woman (" results; femme" in French).
" jale " job (" wants to say; boulot" , " travail" in French).
" varrio " neighborhood (" wants to say; quartier" , " place of habitation" in French) and comes from the Spanish word barrio (even significance).
" pinta " results in prison .
" Ranfla " mean because or Lowrider (kind of private car).
" vato " wants to say Guy or dude (" mec" , " gars" in French).
" yeyo " term popularized by the film " Scarface" of Brian de Palma with Al Pacino and which indicates cocaine.

The dialect " - izzle"

This form of slang comes from the " Bay Area" (the Bay of San Francisco) and very recently, popularized by the Californian rappeurs E-40 and Snoop Dogg appeared.
This language consists in keeping the first or the first two letters of a word and addition to that the suffix " - izzle".
Examples:

" fo' shizzle " = for sour (" well sur"), sour starting with " known-" but pronocant " sho-" (" sheu" in French).
" my nizzle " = my nigger (" my négro" with the emotional direction of the term: my friend, my brother).
" you my sizzle " = you' Re my sister (" you are my sœur").
" i' L wear myself in wizzle, tonizzle " = i' L wear myself in white, tonight (" I will get dressed in white, this soir").
" what has broad hizzle! " = what has broad house! (" what a large house! ").

Bonds

Internal bonds

External bonds

http://www.urbandictionary.com
http://www.rapdict.org/Main_Page
http://www.slangsite.com
http://www.slangcity.com

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