Language in Paris

Parisians would probably argue that they speak French with no accent as opposed, for example, to the strong southern accent of the Midi. Provincials, however, argue to the contrary. The Parisian bourgeois accent (affected) and vocabulary (pretentious) was successfully ridiculed by famed comedians Les Inconnus in the early nineties.

Their catch phrase, ‘ça va? tu vas bien?’ (pronounced with elongated vowels - çar var: tu var bi-ar?) has become part of the national folklore. British words, slotted into French sentences, are particularly prized among this set (’c'est top’), as are hyperbolic adjectives (’c'est absolument magnifique’).

At the other end of the social spectrum, the Parisian suburbs have given rise to the back-to-front (envers) coded language Verlan. While most French people are familiar with the basics - woman (femme) becomes meuf, bloke (mec) becomes cem, cops (flicks) turns into cuf - but as soon as whole phrases are turned back-to-front, only clan members stand a chance of comprehension. Those in doubt should attempt to decipher the original French version of Matthieu Kassowitz’s film La Haine, which depicts the socially excluded inhabitants of the Parisian suburbs.