Contents

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:07 - Marseille is famous for...
• 5:30 - Tarpin
• 6:53 - Spoiled
• 7:05 - Degrun
• 7:56 - A colleague
• 4:26 PM - "A little girl or a little boy": a little girl or a little boy
• 9:44 - Getting into trouble
• 10:37 - A cagole
• 12:07 - One or the other crazy person
• 12:53 - Maronner
• 1:59 PM - The dungeon

Transcript of the video

Hello everyone, hope you're well.

I'm back today with a new video. Today, we're going to talk about Marseille.

Marseille is a city in the South of France, but we're going to talk more specifically about the language of Marseille, vocabulary words that are specific to the city of Marseille and its region.

This video may be of interest to you if you plan to go on vacation to Marseille or if you want to live in Marseille.

Of course, in Marseille, you can talk just like anywhere else in France. Of course, we'll understand you. The idea is to look at a few specific features, a few special words that are only used there.

Before we start, let's talk a little about the city of Marseille. Marseille is a city with lots of sunshine. It's a city with a port. It's located on the Mediterranean and is famous the world over for its Marseille soap.

It's also famous for its soccer club, l'OM, l'Olympique de Marseille. The people of Marseille are very proud of their city and very proud of their soccer club. Marseille is also known for its culinary specialties, notably bouillabaisse, a fish soup, and panisses. This is chickpea flour. We make a pastry with it and fry it. Marseille is also famous for pastis, which is a... which is an anise-based alcohol.

Marseille is also known the world over for its calanques. These are magnificent places where, in fact, you have to take a short hike and you arrive on small beaches, small coves and it's really magnificent.

Marseilles is also known in France for its famous rappers, such as the group IAM or the rappers Soprano and Jul. Perhaps you're familiar with some of these rappers. Marseille is also known for its beautiful architecture. There's the MuCEM, an art museum.

There's the old port, where it's very pleasant to stroll, the narrow streets, but also the Good Mother. A church on top of a hill with a statue of the Virgin Mary.

There's also a series that's shot in Marseille, which you might be familiar with. It's called Plus belle la vie. It started almost 20 years ago and it's quite interesting, especially if you're looking for series to watch in French.

Because it's a short 20-minute format, and it's on every day. So it's, it's happening in real time. If it's Christmas Day, it's going to be Christmas Day in the series. It's an interesting way to learn vocabulary related to current events. The series is inspired by a neighborhood in Marseille called Le Panier. It's a very pleasant area to walk around. You can buy Marseille soap, and there are little alleys with plants.

It's very, very pleasant to walk around there. Now to the language part.

Marseille is also famous for its Marseille accent. In France, of course, there are many different accents, but we often speak of the Marseilles accent, which is very lilting.

There are specificities to this accent. I'll show you an excerpt where you can hear people from Marseilles talking.

Oh no, no, ma'am, I'm not into that. You know, I'll tell you in two words, I'll vote for anybody, just make sure they're clean.

Olala, that's like bouillabaisse without fish. No, you need an accent, and you need a Marseillais in Marseilles.

If you go to Marseille, you may find it difficult to understand certain words because of this accent. For example, Marseillais will add a "g" to words ending in "hein".

They'll accentuate a little. For example, instead of saying bread and "paing".

I don't do accents very well, but I think you get the idea that it's a bit different. They'll also accentuate the Rs very strongly.

They're going to do them in a slightly more prolonged way. As I said, the rhythm of the phrases is also different, it's a little bit more singing.

Let's move on to vocabulary specifically used in Marseille. There are many words that are used in Marseille. We will look at 10 of them together.

To help you understand these words. As usual, I'm going to give you some context, but here, in this video, I've done it a little differently.

I went looking on Twitter for tweets that use these words. That way, you'll see real Marseillais using these words in sentences. The first word that's used all the time in Marseille is "tarpin".

Tarpin simply means "very" or "a lot", depending on the phrase. For example, I might say: "There are a lot of people at the Velodrome". The Vélodrome is Marseille's soccer stadium. As I was saying, the people of Marseille are very proud of their soccer team.

And the Velodrome is the stadium. If I say there are lots of people at the Velodrome, it means there are lots of people at the stadium.

Let's move on to the tweets with contextualizations by Marseillais themselves.

Zara's green jogging suit, it's tarpin ugly. That means it's very ugly. It's tarpin ugly, it's very ugly, very ugly.

This week went by so fast. That means the week went by very fast. We quickly got to the weekend.

A date at the skating rink is tarpin stylish. "Date" is the French word for a romantic rendezvous. This person thinks that having a date at the ice rink, where there's ice, where you have ice skates, is tarpin stylé, it's very chic, it's very stylish.

Now for the second word. It's un gâté, a spoiled brat. It's synonymous with câlin in Marseilles.

If I say give your grandma a treat, that means give her a hug.

Bum. Dégun simply means nobody. There's a fungus here. It means there's nobody. Again, it's a word that's used constantly by the Marseillais. Let's move on to the tweets with some context.

Since I've been redoing my room, I've become a handyman. I need some help, I'm doing pretty good.

That means I don't need anyone to do any DIY. Is it just me, or is dégun in a good mood today?

That means it's me or no one's in a good mood today, everyone's in a bad mood. I just want to sleep for a week without waking up.

So all I want to do is sleep for a week without anyone waking me up. A colleague, a colleague anywhere in France, it's very simple. It's someone you work with.

A work colleague. In the South of France and in Marseille, a colleague means someone you work with. But it's also used to refer to a friend. I went to watch soccer with my colleagues.

It means you've gone to watch a soccer match with your friends. You'll be able to tell from the context whether they're friends or colleagues.

Un minot. In Marseille, a minot is simply a child.

If I'm talking about a kitty, I'm talking about a child. If I'm talking about my kitty, I'm talking about my child. Here, you see, in this tweet, we see a child drawing on a sofa, on a couch.

And the person puts... Imagine, you come home from work - work is work - and you see this, what do you do? And that's when the person replies, "I'm abandoning him by the side of the road, my kid, so I'm abandoning him by the side of the highway.

And here, you see, a father is playing ping-pong with his son and he's writing mini ping-pong with the kiddo while he waits for the match, so he must be waiting for a match on TV. Certainly ping-pong. In the meantime, he says he's playing ping-pong with his son, with the kid.

And the last tweet, a kid disappeared in Marseille. So, once again, it's a child who's gone missing, which is a slightly less cheerful example.

S'emboucaner. To argue means to quarrel with someone. To get into an argument with someone.

Je m'emboucane avec toi. You can also say emboucaner someone, it means you're looking for trouble, you're looking for problems with someone, you're trying to create a conflict.

I'm going to freak out. I'm pissed off. My neighbors getting into a fight at 8 a.m. on a Sunday drives me crazy. Here, he says that his neighbors argue at 8 o'clock on a Sunday morning. Here we see an example in pictures.

It's a tik tok when you're in the car with your buddy's parents and they get stuck.

We see a dog who's a bit embarrassed. So when you're in a car and your friend's parents are arguing, you're a little embarrassed. So they get into a fight.

A cagole. When we say that a girl is a cagole, we mean that she's a bit... a bit vulgar. So, for example, she'll wear a lot of make-up, she'll have very long, colorful nails, or she'll wear very short skirts.

She's a girl we find a little... a little vulgar. I'll show you some examples with pictures. So here, you see, there's a young girl with very long nails who writes "votre cagole pref".

Pref means favorite. So it's self-mockery. She makes fun of herself a little. She says "ah look, I've done nails like a hag".

Here we see a pair of leopard print shoes. And the girl, again, says I've sorted and found my favorite shoes. Yes, I'm wearing them, so she's really putting them on.

Yes, I like them. And yes, I'm a big girl.

Once again, she laughs a little at herself, saying Ah yes, these shoes are a bit pansy, but I like them.

Recently, fashion brand Balenciaga launched a collection of handbags it called Cagole, certainly in reference to this Marseilles word.

The next word is fada. If I say you're completely mad, it simply means you're completely insane.

So you're not right in the head. In Marseille, we say fada.

Let's move on to examples found on Twitter.

I'm watching channel 24, it's a TV channel. The guy, so the man, is too brain-dead, he wants to disguise himself as a crocodile to approach one. The crocodile, you see, is a very dangerous animal, and so she says he's crazy because to approach the crocodile, he wants to dress up as a crocodile too.

Second example is a bit like the one I was giving you. Do you want to drive me crazy today? Do you want to drive me crazy today?

Let's move on to the penultimate word, "maronner".

If I say I'm mumbling, it means I'm grumbling, I'm sulking, I'm a bit like that. I'm not happy.

Something's been bothering me, that I'm marooning, I often moan, it's a bit for nothing.

My sister is in Zanzibar, I'm having a blast.

It's in young people's language, serious, it means a lot, but it's used by young people all over France.

So, my sister is in Zanzibar, I'm grumbling. That means I'm a little jealous, I grumble, I sulk.

The people behind the wheel, they make me lose my mind. Afterwards, I'm here, I'm marooned all alone in my car.

This sentence is a bit complex because it's very, very colloquial, with a lot of little expressions that have been added. But if you get the gist, it's when people don't drive well.

So, this young lady is in her car. She's grumbling about it, so she's grumbling in her car, she's tired of people driving badly.

And now to the last word, which is the dungeon.

When we talk about the dagnard, we're talking about a place in full sun. If I say I'm in the doldrums, it means there's a lot of sun on me and I'm at risk of sunburn.

You could say don't go into the heat, come into the shade. In other words, where you're protected from the sun.

Let's take a look at two tweets to put the word kettle in context.

Hiking in the heat is unpleasant, even dangerous. If you leave earlier, you'll reach the summit when it's sunny, and you'll be in your car before the heat hits.

So you see, this person is saying that it's not a good idea to go hiking when the sun's at its strongest, so when you're in the middle of the doldrums, there's no shade.

And finally, we see someone here who's put a hat on her dog. So she's putting on, I swear, my poppy darling, that's probably the dog's name, poppy, that you've got a hat on your head. And in this hot weather, it's safer to wear it.

What she's trying to say is that, in view of the sun, which is very strong, it's safer for your dog to go out with a hat on his head.

If you know of any others, don't hesitate to comment.

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