Louchébem
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Louchébem or loucherbem (French pronunciation: [luʃebɛm]) is Parisian and Lyonnaise butchers' (French boucher) slang, similar to Pig Latin and Verlan. It originated in the mid-19th century and was in common use until the 1950s.
Process
[edit]The louchébem word-creation process resembles that of largonji, verlan, and javanais, in that existing words are camouflaged according to a set of rules. Strictly speaking, louchébem is a more rigid variety of largonji in which the ending -èm is obligatory. Largonji substitutes ⟨l⟩ for the consonant or consonant cluster at the beginning of the word, or, if the word begins with an ⟨l⟩ or a vowel, the second syllable; the initial consonant is then reattached to the end of the word along with a suffix particular to the argot: -ji [ʒi], -oc [ɔk], -ic [ik], -uche [yʃ], -ès [ɛs], or in the case of louchébem, -em/ème [ɛm].
Note that louchébem is first and foremost an oral language, and spelling is usually phoneticized.
History
[edit]Despite the name, louchébem seems to have been created not by butchers, but by inmates at Brest Prison, with records dating back to 1821.[1]
Edmund Clerihew Bentley used the language as a plot point in his 1937 short story "The Old-Fashioned Apache".
During the Nazi occupation louchébem was used by Parisian members of the Resistance.
Even today, louchébem is still well-known and used among those working at point-of-sale in the meat retail industry. Some words have even leaked into common, everyday use by the masses; an example is the word loufoque, meaning "eccentric".
Examples
[edit]Here are a few example Louchébem words.
| English | French | Louchébem |
|---|---|---|
| slang | l'argot | largomuche |
| butcher | boucher | louchébem |
| customer | client | lienclès |
| coffeehouse | café | lafécaisse |
| (don't) understand | comprendre (pas) | lomprenquès (dans le lap) |
| woman (lady) | femme (dame) | lemmefé (lamdé) |
| blunder | gaffe | lafgué |
| boy/waiter | garçon | larçonguesse |
| Roma (ethnicity) | gitan | litjoc |
| leg (of mutton, etc.) | gigot | ligogem |
| insane | fou | louf; loufoque; louftingue |
| pork | porc | lorpic |
| mackerel | maquereau | lacromuche |
| Sir; Mister; gentleman | monsieur | lesieurmique |
| piece | morceau | lorsomique |
| overcoat | pardessus | lardeuss (lardeussupem) |
| excuse me?; sorry | pardon | lardonpem |
| to talk | parler | larlépem |
| manager | patron | latronpuche |
| tip | pourboire | lourboirpem |
| bag | sac | lacsé |
| expensive | cher | lerche; lerchem (often in the negative, as pas lerchem) |
| sneakily | en douce | en loucedé; en loucedoc |
| wallet | portefeuille | larfeuille; lortefeuillepem |
| thief, crook | filou | loufiah |
| knife | couteau | louteaucé |
There is another French argot called largonji, which differs from louchébem only in the suffix that is added (-i instead of -em); the term is derived from jargon.[2]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Françoise Robert L'argenton (1991). "Larlépem largomuche du louchébem. Parler l'argot du boucher". Langue Française. 90: 113–125. doi:10.3406/lfr.1991.6200. Retrieved 6 Jan 2016.
- ^ Valdman, Albert (May 2000). "La Langue des faubourgs et des banlieues: de l'argot au français populaire". The French Review. 73 (6). American Association of Teachers of French: 1179–1192. JSTOR 399371.
Bibliography
[edit]- Marcel Schwob, Étude sur l’argot français. Paris: Émile Bouillon, 1889.
External links
[edit]- "Le loucherbem" (in French). June 1997. Archived from the original on 2000-06-10.