In the era of the web, the popular culture of France, its expressions and its particularities easily cross borders. To the point where a few francisms slip into the local language. Second text of our series “French under influence”.
“Du coup”, “pinard”, “canner”: these terms from French slang sometimes come out of the mouth of Mackenzie Phillips, even if she has no family in France and she lives in… Gatineau. As for many other young people in Quebec, French culture was able to seduce her very early on, to the point where a few francisms sometimes slip into her sentences.
French YouTubers quickly established themselves as creators of choice for Mackenzie — from her early teens, in fact. But it doesn’t stop there: the 16-year-old consumes a bit of everything, from French rap to streamersfrom filmmakers on the web to French meme pages, and even media outlets and newscasts from there.
“In French content, there are a lot of memes that become expressions,” she explains straight away. She thinks in particular of finite », which she uses at times. The term, which means the end of something or someone’s career, was notably used by Emmanuel Macron during the debate between the two rounds of the presidential election. “The European market is finite “, he had declared, to the great amusement of Internet users.
“Sometimes I slip a few ‘suds’ into my sentences,” Mackenzie says. The young Gatineau girl does not use it constantly, however: “I’m not going to use only French expressions overnight. […] It’s more in my circle of friends, when it fits well, ”she says.
French popular culture “crosses cultural and political borders very easily”, explains by email to the To have to Adéla Šebková, doctoral student in sociolinguistics. Especially in the context of accessibility to communication technologies, social networks or music platforms. “The contact of languages or varieties of languages does not only take place ‘face-to-face'”, she notes.
“We can say that by dint of being regularly exposed to a certain linguistic content, we are more tempted to integrate it into our repertoire. And cultural products have a lot to do with it,” says Ms.me Šebkova.
The legacy of French rap
For Mackenzie Phillips, the particular attraction for French content on the Internet is mainly due to the subjects covered there. When she started browsing YouTube in the early 2010s, it was the “researched” aspect of videos from the French sphere that caught her attention. In particular, she was able to find her account there thanks to French channels covering questions of general culture, history or indulging in film criticism – something which was much less widespread in Quebec, she notes.
Several other forms of popular culture “also exercise a certain influence on the linguistic use of Montrealers,” recalls Ms.me Šebkova. Music, for example. “We can evoke French rap or hip-hop, with its influence on the way young people speak, including on the formation of their identity,” she writes.
For Salim Samaali, a Montrealer of Tunisian origin, it is mainly French rap that has influenced his way of speaking. The 24-year-old rapper, also known by the stage name Jeune Rebeu, started listening to French artists like Booba, Médine and La Fouine in his early teens. For him, the influence of these musical discoveries on his way of expressing himself is “indisputable”.
“When I talk to my friends, there is a mixture of slang French, with words like “wow” Where “girl”, terms that come from French urban areas. I must have been talking like this for 10 years, ”he says. Note that the term ” wesh comes from North African Arabic, but is an integral part of French slang.
Salim Samaali does not hesitate either to transpose these French expressions into his art. In her songs, for example, you can hear passages like this: “It’s not that I only think of her when I’m hanging out in the tieks” — the word ” ties » coming from a contraction of the word « district » in Verlan.
“My first texts were very French, even though I didn’t live there. Since I consumed a lot of French music, I reproduced what I listened to”, he summarizes.
It was also a question of the search for identity, he says. “Around the years 2010-2011, I was still looking for myself. I was maybe 12-13, and that’s the age you’re looking for. I wanted to find myself in the French-speaking hip-hop and rap culture, and since it was not developed enough in Montreal, I turned more towards France. »
Breaking out of conventional norms
Younes Boukala, councilor in the borough of Lachine, observes the same thing. From an early age, he turned to French artists and bands like IAM, Fonky Family and Scred Connexion.
“I felt very challenged by their words. It helped me in everything that is part of the quest for identity and the way in which one situates oneself as a young person from immigrant backgrounds, ”he says.
North African references in French rap, for example, knew how to touch him. “It made more sense for me to listen to rappers from Marseille who mingled with North Africans who understand social issues and who refer to them,” he adds.
The young 27-year-old politician is also surprised to use terms and expressions straight out of the musical pieces he listens to. “Sometimes I say words [de l’argot français] and I see that my colleagues watching me [ne comprennent pas] “, he says.
Younes Boukala often uses the expression “it’s dry”, to describe an “undesirable” situation, for example. He frequently has fun using the verlan while discussing with his friends: “We’re going to say ‘we’re doing that in scred” rather than “we do it discreetly”. »
Doctoral student in sociolinguistics Adéla Šebková is not surprised by the favorable reception of rap. “The extremely varied language practices of rappers are highly appreciated by adolescents, as they often deviate from conventional norms. Young people feel comfortable with this type of language, which we often hear in the streets of Montreal,” she says.
According to Salim Samaali, alias Jeune Rebeu, the use of French slang is not about to slow down, especially in the context of access to overseas cultural content. “There has been such a big boom in French-speaking music in recent years that we can no longer ignore. There are more and more people who talk like that, especially with social networks. It is something that affects everyone. »