Language: The Sharpest Blade

Caillera, or French slang, was a language created by the youth of France’s minority (mainly North African Arabs). It was meant to unify and create a sense of belonging amongst the mostly poor and often politically underrepresented minority of France's ghettos. They, in feeling rejected by France and its culture, have rejected French culture through language, the strongest aspect that unifies any culture.

Caillera is impenetrable to most French speakers as it is a mix of "...old argot and Arabic, black American, African, Creole and Romany"; it would require French speakers to remove themselves from their comfort zone and learn in the least, Arabic. Many words are insulting to the white, French majority; however much of the language is basically the pronunciation reversal. For instance (this is an example in English), to say the word "banana", one would say "anaba".

France has been trying to suppress the growth of French slang, enforced by L'Academie Francaise, a body that defines Standard French. Not that this matters, as 10 banlieue (project) youths, have decided to take Caillera to the next level.

The Lexik, is a guide to Caillera, that these youths have written. French from all backgrounds and ages are using this to expand their street smarts--not including purists who are appalled, perhaps due to the fact that much of the language insults them. Perhaps the purists need to educate themselves a little more though because much of Caillera uses obsolete French, much of which isn't used in modern French. So in fact, Caillera would be the more pure form of French, would it not?

This is the most efficient form of peaceful protest that I have known in my lifetime--language as a political weapon. And yes, this a language; it crossed the line from slang to language when it became communicative tool amongst a relating culture. I would also have to argue that, especially now that Caillera has an official dictionary/guide, it is official.

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