Verlan:A form of French Slang

Miss. L .Johnson

What is Verlan?

Verlan is a form of French slang that consists of playing around with syllables.

To "verlan" a word, simply separate it into syllables, reverse them, and put the word back together. Sometimes letters are dropped or added to make pronunciation logical.

Not every word can or should be verlaned; verlan is used essentially to emphasize or hide the meaning of the main word(s) in a sentence.

Based on ‘About:French.com’

How do you form verlan?

start with the word l'envers, which means the reverse. Separate l'envers into its two syllables l'en and vers. Invert them, put them together into a single word, and then adjust the spelling:

l'envers... l'en vers... vers l'en... versl'en... verslen... verlen... verlan

Thus, you can see that verlan is l'envers pronounced à l'envers (reverse pronounced in reverse).

Some Examples of verlan

Most single-syllable words are just pronounced backwards.

Fou (crazy)... ouf Cool (from English)... looc

Comment dit-on en français/verlan?

1.     céfran 2.     chébran 3.     une cinepi 4.     une deban 5.     un skeud 6.     une gnolba 7.     un keum 8.     looc  9.     une meuf 10. le pera 

11. les rempa  12. un reuf  13. une reum  14. un reup  15. une reus

16.            bonjour 17.            un bus 18.            fou 19.            la musique  

http://archserve.id.ucsb.edu/French4/LGV/Menu1/langue4verlan.html