Conference thebay::joyoflex

    Re .0: It's not verlang (this word looks German to me...), but verlan.
    The word itself is an example in French. The principle of verlan is to
    speack backwards (well, sort of...) or, in French, "� l'envers", so
    verlan is supposed to be the verlan form of "l'envers", written
    phonetically as "verlan". I suppose that the English equivallent would
    be "wardsback". There are many different forms of that kind of slang in
    French, as well as many different forms of additive slangs (work by
    adding a syllable to every word or syllable) like "javanais",
    "loucherbem", etc...
    			Denis.

verlan - that's it

I found one example of French: femme -> meuf, which is slang for "the wife".
There must be others...

Incidentally Denis, what are "javanais" and "loucherbem" (sounds Scottish to
me!) derived from?

d:){=| Dave

	Here's some more verlan:

		Keuf -> Flic

		Laisse tomber (ie forget it) -> Laisse b�ton !
	
		M�tro ->  Trom�

		Pas de probl�me -> pas de blempro.

		
> Incidentally Denis, what are "javanais" and "loucherbem" (sounds Scottish to
> me!) derived from?

	"Javanais" is a form of slang that was used in the criminal 
	population (until around WWI, I think) . The idea was to insert 
	sounds like VA, BA, VI between syllables in each word you say.
	The result is a language that sounds exotic (like what they speak
	in the Java island) so that the spying cops won't understand anything.
	
	Je vais attaquer la banque -> Jeva vavais attabavaqua laba bavaqua.
	(or somesuch).

	Victor Hugo dedicated a whole chapter of a novel (wasn't "Les 
	Mis�rables" ?) to a description of Javanais; he says it was 
	very effective to fool the police.

	"Louchebem" is an early version of verlan. The word itself 
	is "le boucher" in reverse (kind of).

	roger

	ps Talking about slang, a movie presented this week in Cannes
	is titled "Boyz'n Hood". We were told this is new slang for 
	"Boys in the Neighborhood" ...

    Re .3: The principle of loucherbem is to replace the first consonnant
    of a word with L and then put this first consonnant at the end of the
    word followed by EM, hence "loucherbem" means "boucher" which is the
    French word for "butcher". The reason it was so named is that
    originally (in last century, maybe earlier) this variety of slang was
    in use among the butcher boys. Many of these slangs originated in the
    various professional corporations.
    			Denis.

    This is all very like what used to be known among English schoolboys
    as ackbe-angsle (backslang - so Denis wasn't far out). Like loucherbem,
    it involves transplanting the first consonant of each word to the end
    and following it with an unvarying sound: /e/, or /ej/ more like.
    The story was that conventional/mechanical argots like this (I've
    also heard of one very like Javanais, and one called something like
    sAYGack l'GAYbang [which mixed the idea of a repeated nonsense syllable
    with the idea of shuffling initial consonants]) were used among English 
    criminals too, but I know nothing of the history. No example springs to 
    mind of a common slang word with this sort of derivation, and I'm not
    sure how much (in the English version at least) this is a matter
    of a productive linguistic trait and how much it is just an
    intellectual game.
    
    b

>    in use among the butcher boys. Many of these slangs originated in the
>    various professional corporations.
>    			Denis
>
we could make up our own - DECslang!!, just put DEC in front of every DECobject
in the DECsentence...

 ...DECspicable!

    DECspeakable, you said?
    
    --bonnie

  _re_  <<< Note 884.5 by MARVIN::KNOWLES "Domimina nustio illumea" >>>
                            -< La perfide Albinoni >-
	This all reminds me of pig-latin and double-dutch:

	1. Is-thay entence-say is in ig-pay atin-lay.

	2. Tut-hub-i-sus  sus-e-nun-tut-e-nun-cuc-e  i-sus  i-nun 
	   dud-o-u-bub-lul-e   dud-u-tut-cuc-hub.

	Boy, _that_ takes me back!

	Dave

    Re .10: Shouldn't that be, "...is-hay in-hay ig-pay atin-lay"? Seems
    like the motto was, "All new words," or "why take ten seconds to say
    something when you can do it in twenty"... ;-)
    
    In re constructed (deconstructed?) slang: anybody else hear of this
    one? Insert a long "i" and a "b" after every consonant:
    "Th-ib-is s-ib-ent-ib-ence ib-is ib-in ib-Air F-ib-orce sl-ib-ang."
    My Dad called it "Air Force slang," but I don't know if it really was
    specific to the Air Force, or its real name was something too rude to
    tell the kids, or if Dad made it up and called it that for fun.
    
    -b

                       <<< Note 884.11 by EVETPU::RUST >>>

   < Re .10: Shouldn't that be, "...is-hay in-hay ig-pay atin-lay"? Seems
    <like the motto was, "All new words," or "why take ten seconds to say
    <something when you can do it in twenty"... ;-)
    
    You're right, of course.  Too many years since 5th grade...
	Dave

The Air Force slang sounds like the Ubby-Dubby Language used on the Public TV
children's show called Zoom (done by the Children's Television Workshop, the 
same folk that bring you Sesame Street).

"Hubb-i, Frubb-ends.  Tubb-odubb-ay, wubb-e ubb-are ..."

Wook

    I wonder how many variants of Egg Language (which, lets face it, was
    the original) there are?  Wook's Ubby-Dubby (Abu Dabi?) language is a
    close variant of Egg Language, where the word 'egg' is placed in front
    of every vowel.  Hence 'Heggelleggo Neggoteggers!'.  Interesting to
    speak, more interesting to listen to.
    
    
    Ian.

    Re: .-1
    
    >> 'Heggelleggo Neggoteggers!'
    
    Did somebody just make a racist remark about me?	:-)

    .15�    Did somebody just make a racist remark about me?	:-)
    
    Certainly not, Mr Ers.
    
    Ian.

    When I was a teenager, a group of us "spoke" a language we called
    "ibe".  Sounds similar to the Ubby Dubby language mentioned.  The
    scheme was to insert the syllable "ibe" into each syllable of a word,
    typically before the first vowel.  We *loved* it!  None of the grownups
    could understand a word we were saying.  And we used it so much that I
    can "speak" it as easily as normal English even today -- a lot of years
    later.
    
    -ellie

    As reported by my Mom (who is never wrong--just ask her!), in Seattle 
    in the early '30s it was Op (pronounced opp).  My name would therefore be
    
      Lopp-ez-lopp-E  Wopp-ool-nopp-er
    
    Respectfully submitted,
    Jopp-o-anne Dopp-unn's dopp-augh-topp-er

	Ithagand thithagen thithagere's thithagis.

	Don't know what that's called though.

	Di

    >Ithagand thithagen thithagere's thithagis.
    >Don't know what that's called though.
    Looks like that would be called thithagat.

  >>>  Looks like that would be called thithagat.


	Hithagar-dithagee-hithagar.

	8^)
	Di