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Tracing the origins of verlan in an early nineteenth century text?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2017

XAVIER BACH
XAVIER BACH*
Affiliation:
The Queen's College Oxford
*
Address for correspondence: e-mail: xavier.bach@ling-phil.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article examines early attestations of verlan and related backward slangs in French in the nineteenth century. Its main contribution is the edition and analysis of the only known text, a letter, written with features of verlan before the twentieth century. This largely predates other attested forms of verlan. The principles underlying this early form of verlan are shown to be different from contemporary verlan, as is much other early evidence, though all forms have the syllable as their basic unit. The letter is evidence that backward slangs can originate in the education system as much as in the underworld of thieves.

Keywords

verlanOccitanmetathesisslanghistorical linguistics

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Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 67 - 84
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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