State of Youth Slang In France

[Wilson Gray]

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Grant Barrett <gbarrett at WORLDNEWYORK.ORG>
>Subject:      State of Youth Slang In France
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>
>If you read French, this article in Le Monde is a fascinating look at
>current youth slang in France (though I suspect that, like such
>articles in American newspapers, it might need to be looked at with a
>lick-block of salt).
>
>http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3230,36-402088,0.html
>
>-- It is claimed the English word "bad" is used in the same slang sense
>it has had in the U.S. since at least 1984, where it equals "cool" or
>"good." Also, one of the kids (white) uses the English word "Black" as
>a term for black members of his cohort and, apparently, no matter the
>race, they call each other "nÈgro": do these show the influence hip-hop
>culture?

Does anyone remember the movie filmed in NYC,
"Kids," from ca. 1995? There is a scene in which
the protagonist says to his friend, "Nigger, what
you doin' lookin' at my mama tittie?" The people
who appear in this scene are all white.

-Wilson Gray

>
>-- It is claimed that "verlan" (slang-speak in which words are
>reversed) is now little-used, since it has become so well-known and
>adopted by the mainstream.
>
>-- A large part of the article concerns teaching young people to speak
>mainstream French rather than city slang, so that they can function
>outside of their neighborhood and peer groups. This parallels similar
>debates in the United States. In one part, the author quotes a person
>who says youngsters calling about internships open with statements like
>"Hello? It's about an internship" rather than starting with the formal
>or polite language still customary in business settings.
>
>-- The article claims some kids have an active vocabulary of 350 to 400
>words and that they lack the polite language necessary for engaging
>with strangers. It is described how they are basically unable to defend
>themselves against accusations of law-breaking, or even of being late,
>because of their impoverished vocabulary.
>
>Grant Barrett
>gbarrett at worldnewyork.org