this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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xkcd

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xkcd #2942: Fluid Speech

https://xkcd.com/2942

explainxkcd.com for #2942

Alt text:

Thank you to linguist Gretchen McCulloch for teaching me about phonetic assimilation, and for teaching me that if you stand around in public reading texts from a linguist and murmuring example phrases to yourself, people will eventually ask if you're okay.

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[–] magikmw@lemm.ee 76 points 1 month ago (10 children)

My wife being bemused I don't understand french in Paris after learning french for 3 years. Dude, they speak such sloppy french I'm impressed they understand each other.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (5 children)

Agreed...I was especially impressed after I learned about their Verlan. As far as I can tell it's basically pig Latin that they take seriously and use regularly as slang? As a quick example, the word Verlan is Verlan for l'envers. They can keep their secrets I guess haha.

[–] gentooer@programming.dev 17 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I think Verlan is pretty neat. We had a full lesson on it in middle school because of one of our country's most popular musicians, Stromae, which is Verlan for Maestro.

[–] Glitterbomb@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

Fantastic! Stromae is actually the reason I learned verlan existed! I got to see him live in the US, and it was one of the coolest live shows I've ever seen. The majority of the video for quand c'est is an actual part of the live show, and I wasn't expecting it at all

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