Jean-Pierre Goudaillier

2022.07.01.
Jean-Pierre Goudaillier

Revue d’Études Françaises
No 25 (2021)
p.9-18
DOI : 10.37587/ref.2021.1.01

Utilisation du verlan dans la chanson française des trois dernières décennies du XXe siècle

Jean-Pierre Goudaillier

Until the 1960s verlan existed in French as a linguistic code and a mechanism of word transformation, but it concerned only a few lexical items. It started to become more widespread at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, especially in the colloquial suburban variety called français contemporain des cités (FCC). The lyrics of French popular music are a good example of the development of verlan reaching its peak at the end of the 1990s as rap/hip hop productions got more and more important. The analysis of lyrics of singers such as Jacques Dutronc and Renaud and some more or less famous rappers and rap groups shows the importance of the phenomenon in French popular music during the last three decades of the 20th century. It allows us to confirm that forms belonging to ‘classical verlan’ and ‘néo-verlan’ are used simultaneously. 

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Jean-Pierre Goudaillier : Utilisation du verlan dans la chanson française des trois dernières décennies du XXe siècle