Contenu du sommaire : Les mots des jeunes. Observations et hypothèses, sous la direction de Henri Boyer

« New' French », « the language of the young », or « the language of urban developments » ? Comments on a linguistic object identified through the media. Based on a collection of epilinguistic productions, with/without metalinguistic pretentions — press articles, mediatized works, etc. — this article examines the inscription, under various names, of a current sociolinguistic fact in the minds of the French linguistic community. The integration by codification of a generational (and social) deviance relating to the use of the French language (since the beginning of the 1980's) — a deviance concentrated more and more in city outskirts — is a phenomenon which in fact belongs to a centuries-old obsession of glottopolitical regulation.

Verlan 2000. Based on the analysis of a corpus collected over a ten year period, this article presents a small number of rules which will account for coding in « verlan » of monosyllabic and polysyllabic words as well as two syllabe words. The analysis shows the evolution in the application of the rules which has resulted in the complexification of the encoding process, the existence of stylistic variants and an alteration of the phonological and morphological structure of the coded words. An evolution can also be noted on the level of the basic vocabulary which, by incorporating words of origins other than French, has made verlan a true reflection of the marginalized multiracial youth culture, a form of argot which can still function as a secret language.

The status of the -os suffix French. This article looks at the -os suffixation which has come into French via traditional slang with adjectives (« tranquillos » — cool, « nullos » — no good), but not only adjectives (« matos » — equipment). If word creation was very modest in the past, in the 1980's this instrument of lexical « recycling » was reactivated — perhaps because of its Hispanic origins and because influenced by current trends — before in its turn becoming a victim of a certain degree of erosion and considered old-fashioned by the young users of French.

The Lexis of the Very Young This study focuses on the answers given by children between the ages of 8 and 14 to a question in a big competition organized by the « Delegation Générale à la langue française » (the French Language Bureau) : « Name 5 words which you have invented and which are not in the dictionary. » This study has allowed us to pinpoint various types of neologisms : by derivation (« écriveur » for « stylo » (pen), « babaresque » for « très gros » (very big)), by juxtaposition (« choconade » = « chocolat » (chocolate) + « cassonade » (brown sugar), « patabelges » for « frites » (chips/fries)), using Greek roots (« tartophile » — pastry lover, « dodophile » — who loves sleeping), using « verlan » i.e. backs- lang involving the inverting of syllabes, (« çais-fran » for Frenchman, « choir- mou » for handkerchief, « ger-man » — to eat) by borrowing from English (cool), or from the regional lexis (guernette, meurotte, esquiche). This study focuses on the answers given by children between the ages of 8 and 14 to a question in a big competition organized by the « Delegation Générale à la langue française » (the French Language Bureau) : « Name 5 words which you have invented and which are not in the dictionary. » This study has allowed us to pinpoint various types of neologisms : by derivation (« écriveur » for « stylo » (pen), « babaresque » for « très gros » (very big)), by juxtaposition (« choconade » = « chocolat » (chocolate) + « cassonade » (brown sugar), « patabelges » for « frites » (chips/fries)), using Greek roots (« tartophile » — pastry lover, « dodophile » — who loves sleeping), using « verlan » i.e. backs- lang involving the inverting of syllabes, (« çais-fran » for Frenchman, « choir- mou » for handkerchief, « ger-man » — to eat) by borrowing from English (cool), or from the regional lexis (guernette, meurotte, esquiche).

Dynamics of French spoken by the young : a seven-year development as seen through two surveys (1987-1994) This article compares two surveys, the second carried out seven years after the first, among third-year linguistics students in Paris. The first survey, of 1987, collected about 1 ,300 words and revealed 73 neologisms. The second survey, of 1994, revealed 83 neologisms out of 1 ,600 items collected. The comparison of these two sets highlights the key changes that can be seen in student parlances during a seven-year period : student neologisms in 1987 tend to reflect what has been called « le français branché » (trendy French) whereas those of 1 994 seem more to be part of slang devices typical of the language used in the city outskirsts.

Neighbourhood slang : What is its place in pupils' language at Chambon-Feugerolles Junior High School ? In a Junior High School in the outskirts of St Etienne, teenagers use their neighbourhood vernacular with their peers. The majority of the teachers are unaware that this « slang parlance » is used. The lexis collected is mostly composed of a lexical base common to different « youth parlances » in France but also of their own relatively short-lived inventions. Moreover, one notes that words or expressions are borrowed and circulated in informal networks of urban developments and neighbourhoods. In their comments on their way of speaking and on the pleasure they have in playing with words, most of the speakers questioned seemed to show skills that their teachers often think they lack.

Aspects of the speech of young people in Algeria In today's multilingual and strife-torn Algeria, the young generation, who are the majority in numerical terms but are more and more on the fringes of socioeconomic and political life, arc creating their own areas of freedom and inventing their own personal linguistic codes. Unlike their elders, who are more than ever confronted with the « linguistic issue » and with « identity problems », they seem to be drawing without any hesitation elements from the languages at their disposal : dialectal Arabic and Berber in all their regional varieties, French and written Arabic. They use their words to express the dullness or the violence of their daily lives but also to express love, friendship, and their sense of values and sometimes, their hopes. They sprinkle their everyday conversation with this language and also their artistic and creative fields such as songwriting, theatre, cinema and even the written press. In today's multilingual and strife-torn Algeria, the young generation, who are the majority in numerical terms but are more and more on the fringes of socioeconomic and political life, arc creating their own areas of freedom and inventing their own personal linguistic codes. Unlike their elders, who are more than ever confronted with the « linguistic issue » and with « identity problems », they seem to be drawing without any hesitation elements from the languages at their disposal : dialectal Arabic and Berber in all their regional varieties, French and written Arabic. They use their words to express the dullness or the violence of their daily lives but also to express love, friendship, and their sense of values and sometimes, their hopes. They sprinkle their everyday conversation with this language and also their artistic and creative fields such as songwriting, theatre, cinema and even the written press.

The Language of Youth in Italy In Italy where the linguistic reality is an extremely varied one (situation of balanced bilinguialism) a distinctive linguistic phenomenon has developed : the Language of Youth. This language goes beyond the limits of the young people's world since the media, TV programmes, advertisements and the written press make numerous references to or are interested in it. It represents a language variety which is spoken to a greater or lesser extent by teenagers in peer group relationships. Its linguistic features combine a strong acceleration in linguistic dynamics, a ludic aspect, the use of old slang devices as well as the coexistence of elements from local parlance (exploitation of dialects) and international traits. Its main function lies in strenghening speaker indentity within the group. It is a language with strong regional characteristics. Finally, today it is one of the moving forces in the formation of the common language, spoken Italian.