The development and future of the French language.
Francais familiar is very rich in synonyms for everyday situations and concepts.
As we move away from formal French, we find more ways of saying something.
Words can take a long time to form or happen overnight, and in just the same unpredictable way, they can go out of fashion.
Studies have shown that the number of words used is actually very small. It is only when wandering into abstract, specific or technical contexts that a wider range of vocabulary is required.
Language evolves and develops new words for one of two reason:
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Technical innovation produces a new term
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Expressive needs of language users in their daily conversations
Neologism = new word.
Neologisms that are technical are concerted, systematised and channelled, whereas fashionable expressions are born in a spontaneous, individualistic and disordered way and spread is governed by whims of fashion or needs of the moment.
New words are created in accordance with certain established principles:
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Suffixation
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Abbreviation
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Repetition
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Inversion
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Anglicisms
Suffixation – inside this lies resuffixation where the standard word ending is replaced by a non standard word ending. E.g. Cinoche instead of cinema, instead of governement they would say governoche. There is also gratuitous suffixation which is the addition of an extra ending where none exists in standard. For example, instead of cher they say cherot and instead of chic they would say chicos.
Abbreviation – apocope is a common example of abbreviation – aka right hand syllabic deletion. In simplest of terms, for example, le professeur becomes le prof. Many forms end in a non-etymological fashion, so an o is added for ease of pronunciation, eg. Aperitif becomes aper which becomes apero. In English we can use o, but also ies, such as commies or lefties.
Repetition –
Syllabic – identical repetition of syllable, with euphemistic or hypocoristic function, such as calling someone coco for communiste, nunu for nudiste. It’s very childish, and by making the word sound funny you’re masking the nastier meaning.
Whole word repetition – repeating the word with intensive function, reinforcing its meaning. eg. Mignon-mignon. Etre boulot-boulot for hard working. Particularly with exclamations and oaths, such zut zut zut, merde merde, putain de putain (Quebec influence)
Non-identical – euphemistic or hypocoristic such as be-bete meaning silly-billy, or gueguerre for guerre. It has the same intentions as syllabic, but uses a different method.
Inversion -
Verlan – ’nuff said.
Largonji and loucherbem – displace the initial consonant of a standard word, substitute for an L and then add a suffix. Eg. Jargon → argonj → largonji. Boucher → loucherb → loucherbem. Sac → lacse. Damme → lammede. Deux → leude. Cher → lerche. Pisser → lissepem. Putain → lutainpem.
Derives from the butchers slang of La Villette. Largonji appears to be unproductive and limited to a small number of working class Parisians.
Anglicisms – le chewing-gum, le babysitter, le weekend.
Hybrids – part english, part french. Top-niveau, opera-rock, top modele, block systeme, credit revolving.
Pseudo-anglicisms –
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created inside French, taking bits of English, mashing them together, and although the component parts are from English words they don’t really represent English. E.g. un crossman (cross country runner), une tenniswoman.
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Discrepancies in French and English usage, such as a pullover → le pull.
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Break with convention in that many Anglicisms take on different meanings in French. E.g. palace means 5 star hotel in French. Le building is a high rise block. Un jogging is a tracksuit.
You can then apply any of the other styles to Anglicisms eg abbreviation, verlan etc. E.g domb – useless, lousy = verlan (dombi < bidon) + apocope. Eg. Linguebur – office = resuffixation (burlingue < bureau) + verlan. E.g. blackos – black person = anglicism + gratuitous suffixation.
