It is an understatement to say that the companions of La Coquille were not really good students and even less at the top of the class. And yet, today they figure prominently in books devoted to the history of the French language. The legacy to posterity of this band of medieval thugs, tried and executed between 1455 and 1458 for various misdeeds? An encrypted idiom of which one of theirs, called “Dimanche le Loup”, gave a colorful testimony during his trial. It constitutes the first written trace of what will later be called “slang”.
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In total, some 70 terms have been transmitted to us. With these people, sir, we didn’t talk, we “jaspinated”; we didn’t drink, we “picolait”; we shook not hands, but the “ladle”; we walked not on his legs, but on his “skittles”, and so on. The poet François Villon, who frequented some of them, drew on this lexicon to write some of his ballads.
Slang has a very precise function since it is used to communicate without being understood from the outside. Is that why he has always exerted a sort of fascination? As proof: an entire dictionary was dedicated to him as early as 1628, i.e.… a good half-century before the publication of the first work centered on the French language itself! “Thune” for “alms”, “face” for “head”, “unleash the heavy without turning” to “open the door without a key” are some of the 226 entries that a Touraine wool merchant devotes to him that year. , Olivier Chereau.
Meeting with success, the book was republished and soon inspired writers like Molière, Sorel or Scarron, who had fun using “low” words to spice up their works. Conversely, the approach is considered an offense by the purists of the Academy – Vaugelas in the lead – who refuse to include them in their dictionary in the name of “good use”. Wasted effort. Balzac, Sue, Zola, Céline, Brassens and others will be happy to use green language in their works, whose “power of expression” Hugo himself will praise.
“Stun”, “fool”, “sneer” have changed status
However, should it be called a “language”? The specialists debate it insofar as the slang, if it modifies the lexicon, respects the syntax as the conjugation. What is certain is that its use in literature – and the media – will have contributed to expanding the number of its speakers. While it was once the prerogative of the rabble, “the nobility under Louis XV used it to distinguish themselves from the bourgeoisie”, underlines the linguist Gilles Siouffi. The habit continued. Even today, almost all of us without thinking about it use “scam”, “spoof”, “burglar”, “junk”, “blackmail”, “swipe”, “cop”, “scoundrel”, “snitch”, ” stash”, “beat”, “trick”… (Non-exhaustive list.)
Even more astonishing: certain terms derived from slang are today classified in the sustained register, as Alphonse Boudard remarked in the spirited preface he had written for the aptly named Slang dictionary (Larousse). “To stun”, “coax”, “dupe”, “saucy” or “sneer” belong to this category.
Let’s summarize. If certain terms of this singular lexicon have disappeared, if others continue to be considered trivial, some have somehow become gentrified.
If they found out, the companions of the Coquille would probably pull a funny face…
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In honor of “lesser spoken languages”
These are texts written in Basque, Breton, Catalan, langue d’oc or Guyanese Creole. They were published between the 14th and 21st centuries. Their common point? All are hidden in the collective memory whereas they “belong to the European history of the printed book”, as underlined by Hervé Le Bihan and Aurelia Arcocha, who coordinated this erudite ode to cultural diversity.
Territories, languages, literatures & culture: confrontations, readings, translations, under the direction of Hervé Le Bihan and Aurelia Arcocha (ed. TIR).
A call for bilingualism in Alsace
Many signatories, from civil society or political life, have just launched an appeal to the rector of Alsace to ask him to support the teaching of Alsatian much more strongly. They demand in particular “the opening of public schools to immersive education in the regional language in kindergarten”.
A young Czech at the bedside of a very old variety of Norman
Sarcquiais is a variety of Norman used on the island of Sark. It only has a few speakers left, but a young Czech linguist, Martin Neudörfl, has undertaken to document it, teach it and may be able to save it.
On May 28, take part in the World Languages Forum, in Toulouse
An original initiative launched by Claude Sicre, the World Languages Forum aims to present, on an equal footing, as many languages as possible by mixing, at Place du Capitole, in Toulouse, popular events and high-level debates accessible to all.
Etymological dictionary of Gascon Occitan
What are the links of contemporary Gascon terms with Latin? Gallic ? The Frankish? Basque ? These are the questions answered by this dictionary in two volumes compiled by Patric Guilhemjoan. A book written in classical spelling.
Diccionari etimologic of Occitan (Gascon), by Patric Guilhemjoan (Per noste).
A brief history of Breton identity
Why is Breton identity so powerful? How does it manage to resist the pressure of a particularly centralizing state? It is by delving into past centuries that historian Joël Cornette, a specialist in the Ancien Régime and Brittany, answers these questions.
A brief history of Breton identity. From Himilcon to the present day, by Joel Cornette (Tallandier).
Is the quality of expression in the National Assembly impoverished?
Yes, answers this article from Figaro, according to which the level of language within the Palais-Bourbon had never been so poor. In any case, nothing to do with the period of the IIIᵉ and the IVᵉ Republic, when many deputies, often lawyers or academics, mastered the art of public speaking wonderfully. A deterioration which, according to some, contributes to fueling the current climate of anti-parliamentarianism.
Chronicles of language in the Francophonie
They live in Provence, Paris, Belgium, Switzerland or Canada and regularly publish “chronicles of language” on the French language, that is to say “sets of speeches on the language, more particularly on the good and bad uses of the language”. This book brings together testimonies from various chroniclers (including that of yours truly) and scientific analyzes devoted to various national traditions of the Francophonie.
International notebooks of sociolinguistics. Language chronicles in the Francophonie, under the direction of Dorothée Aquino-Weber and Sara Cotelli Kureth (L’Harmattan).
TO WATCH
Spring for the Alsatian regional language
They are storytellers, business leaders, elected officials, simple fellows: all are fighting for the Alsatian language and have been rewarded for their actions, as this report from France 3 shows.