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The English adopt our “wesh”
Is a “pandemic” of “wesh” sweeping across London since a British rapper used it in one of his songs? Julien Barret, linguist and author of the Grand Livre des Punchlines, takes the opportunity to return to the origin of this interjection present in France since the 1990s
(FRANCEINFO/ THOMAS SELLIN)
A “pandemic” of “wesh” is gripping London since a British rapper used it in one of his songs. Linguist Julien Barret takes the opportunity to return to the origin of this interjection, which has been present in France since the 1990s.
The expression “wesh”, used in France since the 1990s, is starting to be used by young Londoners. A linguistic migration that we owe to Central Cee. At the end of August, the British rapper, widely followed across the Channel, actually used it in the song Racing car black of the Parisian JRK 19 on which he is a guest.
Nabeel, a Londoner present on TikTok, is the first to have testified to the extent of the phenomenon in his city: “London is experiencing a ‘WSH pandemic’. Everyone I know uses it. I think I even heard my cat say it the other day!”. With more than 600,000 views and 80,000 likes, the video quickly went viral.
The word “wesh” of course has its origins etymological in Arabic. Mainly used in Algeria, it is used in expressions “Wech rak?” which means “How are you ?” Or “Wesh kayn?” For “What is it?”. It can be compared to “What” in French, or “what” in English.
Julien Barret is a linguist and author of Great Book of Punchlines from Seneca to Nekfeu. For him, “wesh” obviously has its source in Algerian Arabic, but another avenue can also explain its use in France in the mid-1990s: “French rappers are bringing back the “wesh, wesh, yo” of American rap. In 1996, the group Lunatic released their now cult song, Crime pays on compilation Hostile. Booba begins the title with this famous “Wesh, wesh, yo” probably borrowed from “Yesh yesh yo” by American rappers Heltah Skeltah, members of Fab5, who used it in 1995 on their title Leflaur Leflah Eshkoshka“.
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Further proof for Julien Barret that “words travel and have no borders”. For him, rap artists are the first pioneers of the work of linguists and those who write dictionaries: “They are the ones who can pin down an expression that flies like a butterfly, fix it on a sound and written medium. Dictionaries, for their part, are a little late in fixing it.”
And to drive the point home: “Wesh is still not in the Petit Larousse. Which is still quite strange for a dictionary that claims to reflect usage and the spirit of the times.”