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magikmw ,

My wife being bemused I don't understand french in Paris after learning french for 3 years. Dude, they speak such sloppy french I'm impressed they understand each other.

Glitterbomb ,

Agreed...I was especially impressed after I learned about their Verlan. As far as I can tell it's basically pig Latin that they take seriously and use regularly as slang? As a quick example, the word Verlan is Verlan for l'envers. They can keep their secrets I guess haha.

gentooer ,

I think Verlan is pretty neat. We had a full lesson on it in middle school because of one of our country's most popular musicians, Stromae, which is Verlan for Maestro.

Glitterbomb ,

Fantastic! Stromae is actually the reason I learned verlan existed! I got to see him live in the US, and it was one of the coolest live shows I've ever seen. The majority of the video for quand c'est is an actual part of the live show, and I wasn't expecting it at all

Teodomo ,

Wait, Verlan is l'envers, stromae is maestro... Is this Verlan thing just like Rioplatense Spanish's Vesre? (Vesre basically means revés i.e. inverse)

EDIT: Just looked it up on Wikipedia and it turns out this phenomenon happens in a number of languages: Riocontra in Italian (riocontra -> contrario), Podaná in Greek, Šatrovački in Serbia, Totoiana in Romanian.

WldFyre ,

Lol is that what happens when they have an official institute that dictates correct French? "Oh it's not slang, it's verlan!"

Bertuccio ,

Is that a pun on l'inverse?

lars ,

Joseph Justus Scaliger said something similar about Basque in the 17th century:

C’eſt un langage eſtrange que le Baſque… On dit, qu’ils s’entendent, je n’en crois rien

Basque is a strange language… It is said that they understand one another, but I don't believe any of it.

Noodle07 ,

Ah, and they're not the worst haha.

BaardFigur ,

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    magikmw ,

    Hah, I've seen it years ago. Classic.

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