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by jackjeff
2326 days ago
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I think "Verlan" is kind of old fashioned. It was a lot cooler when the boomers were young IMHO. Some Verlan words are still in common use in the "banlieues" (i.e. rough neighborhoods), like saying "muff" instead of "femme", "tromé" instead of "métro", "chelou" instead of "louche", etc... But there are many other slang words in use. A lot of borrowings from English ("cash") or Arabic ("flouz" meaning "money") are used too. It's probably hard for an English speaking tourist to hang out in these areas. But if you want to get a "feel" for it, I would recommend watch "Spiral" which are some stereotypical "banlieues" scenes. But I suppose it's better than nothing... or going to the "four" to buy drugs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_(TV_series) |
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Flouze isn't a recent borrowing. It came when Algeria was still French, probably through the Army. Like toubib, caoua, chouïa etc. It's not immigrant-specific.
There are new borrowings from Arabic, and they're usually very noticeable and have strong social implications. Similar to the Spanish used by Latino-Americans in everyday English.