Expected to sing Edith Piaf at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, the singer Aya Nakamura, crowned best female artist of the year at the Flammes, the rap trophies, and at the Victoires de la Musique, was the subject of attacks carried by the extreme right. For her detractors, she would not sing in French. A look back at this controversy with Christine Pauleau, sociolinguist at Paris-Nanterre University.
“Aya Nakamura uses in her songs what I call a ‘neo-popular French’ which exists in the reality of practices, among people from certain social groups and which is one of the most evolved forms, the most recent to put it otherwise, from the French language“, explains Christine Pauleau, Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at Paris-Nanterre University.
For the specialist in Language Sciences, these detractors accuse her of not speaking French, because she mixes dialects, from foreign languages, with French, and that is what bothers them. “Aya Nakamura sings in French. Perhaps not that of her detractors, but she expresses herself with the new form of French which circulates in certain working-class neighborhoods. explains Christine Pauleau.
The artist, who learned French at school in Aulnay-sous-Bois in Seine-Saint-Denis, in the 3,000 district, dares to take liberties with the French language, and it is this audacity which he is accused of.
Aya Nakamura is immersed in a multilingual environment, coming from a socio-cultural group mixing diverse cultures, like all residents of working-class neighborhoods. His French is the French of all these neighborhoods.
Christine Pauleau, Doctor in Language Sciences and Lecturer at Paris-Nanterre University.
In its title “Djadja“, which has nearly a billion views on YouTube, French slang also mixes with other cultures. We find languages from Mali, Arabic words and even gypsy peoples.
A mixture that seems incomprehensible to some. A concern that Christine Pauleau refutes. For the researcher, the fact that Aya Nakamura uses a new register does not mean that other forms of French language do not exist or are threatened, including “the supported standardized form” of the language. “This latter form of French coexists with the neo-popular French of Aya and many others, and with all kinds of other forms as well. The effervescence of the various forms of a language is natural and healthy, it is a sign of the vitality of the language, only ancient languages, sometimes called “dead”, are no longer transformed.“, explains the specialist in language sciences.
Christine Pauleau, as part of her Master FLE (French as a Foreign Language) courses, regularly uses texts from various artists who use different forms of the French language. She thus relied on the texts of the artist Aya Nakamura to support the conclusions of her course devoted to these new forms of the French language. Indeed, the singer demonstrates lexical and semantic innovations.
Having become extremely popular, the artist is perpetually and enormously commented on for her enigmatic lyrics, of which here are some definitions.
“djadja“, this word actually comes from an interjection used in Mali, notably in Bambara which means “liar, cheat “. One says “djadja!“, with a certain intonation, when we realize someone’s bad intentions, and we realize that in reality, that person is lying or cheating.
“pookie”, which means denouncer, informant, traitor. (title of a song, 2017). Variant of poukav , coming from the word gypsy having the same meaning. Equivalent of “balance“.
“you have it“ : “you have rage” who comes from “seum” an Arabic word meaning venom.
“tip-pe“ : “little” (in slang).
“catchana“: sexual position, reference to the Kamasutra, doggy style in slang.
Semantic innovation designates a completely singular, unique meaning. This is why Aya Nakamura’s words are neo-popular, because she speaks with a new language where the origin of the word has a metaphorical use, believes Christine Pauleau.
“I am in behavior” equals “I show off” (Behavioralbum 2017), which means being comfortable in your own skin and taking complete responsibility for yourself, but also “play it a little“, in other words in slang, “I show off ; I’m showing off.”
“You dead that ” (Djadja): “Dead something“,” means “to do it too well”. If someone tells you, “you dead that“, “you will know that “you are managing too well”, “doing something crazy”.
It is all these creations, sometimes based on borrowings (with transformation of the borrowed word, which no longer has the same meaning as in the original language), which constitute notions of lexical and semantic innovations.
The analysis of some of these words tells the identity and social journey of the artist, but also the sociological history of certain neighborhoods, explains the sociolinguist.
“Aya Nakamura is bathed in A multilingual background, from a socio-cultural group, mixing diverse cultures, like all residents of working-class neighborhoods. His French is the French of all these neighborhoods. But that doesn’t mean that no one speaks “good French” in the working-class neighborhoods.are“, shade Christine Pauleau.
“The artist mixes different registers and different languages. The analysis of some of these words tells the identity and social journey of the artist, but also the sociological history of certain neighborhoods“, explains the sociolinguist, who recalls that it was in the 1960s, under the leadership of William Labov, that research was carried out on this type of question. “Aya Nakamura, uses a form of French language which corresponds to that of young people from the Parisian suburbs (young people from Montreuil or 93 in particular)”, describes the Language Sciences teacher.
To take up Pierre Bourdieu, linguistic capital is a component of cultural capital, that is to say a whole set of social acquisitions such as diplomas, cultural codes, ways of speaking, accents, etc.
Christine Pauleau, Doctor in Language Sciences and Lecturer at Paris-Nanterre University.
“It is one of the practices of language, which we, as scientists, are careful not to judge, because it is not what is interesting from our point of view, what interests us is to describe all these ways of speaking the same language, and of also accurately describing the ideologies associated with it as what we call the sacralization of the norm, the fact of not tolerating that this norm be touched and that its status as a model is implicated“, continues the teacher.
According to her, you must be able to understand all the registers, but also have a register and knowledge of the standard. “Singing Aya Nakamura does not prevent you from mastering the French language. Aya Nakamura highlights her linguistic capital to also tell her story“, explains Christine Pauleau. “To take up Pierre Bourdieu, linguistic capital is a component of cultural capital, that is to say a whole set of social acquisitions such as diplomas, cultural codes, ways of speaking, accents…” For Pierre Bourdieu, the author of The distinction, Having a diverse linguistic background is very valuable for success in life.
In other words, you can listen to Aya Nakamura and master the academic French language, while making it evolve. A successful bet with the bold cover of the Belgian singer, Jonathan Krego of the song “Djadja” in a sustained register.
“The use of this other French language for some, that is to say for those who do not speak it, corresponds to contemporary urban French.“, explains Christine Pauleau, a “linguistic laboratory“, “that of the suburbs, (…) places of a very rich linguistic mix, due in particular to the dynamic of decolonization, because the immigrants from the suburbs of today are the colonized of yesterday“, explains the sociolinguist.
It is about making language an emblem of identity, a counter-norm which demonstrates opposition to the “sacralized” collective norm.
Christine Pauleau, Doctor in Language Sciences and Lecturer at Paris-Nanterre University.
“This encryption of the French language is instinctive”, specifies the teacher. “It is about making the language an emblem of identity, a counter-norm which demonstrates opposition to the collective norm ‘sacred’ by the French-speaking community. As this norm is experienced as insecure, it is therefore rejected. All this is not necessarily aware, but these oppositions can create serious conflicts, like this violence against this artist“, analyzes Christine Pauleau.
“Obviously for the extremes, Aya Nakamura can only be disturbing since the way to reach the far-right electorate is to flatter the fantasy of a return to a France of yesteryear. In which, let us note, the forms of French language were also multiple, but influenced rather by Occitan, Picardy, Alsatian, and not by the languages of the ex-colonized“, recalls the teacher-researcher at the CNRS.
“This singer, much criticized, apparently suffers from “class contempt”, and defends herself by affirming that certain rappers have a worse French than hers, but that we never talk to them about it“, specifies Christine Pauleau.
“Indeed, the singer of 93, because that is how she is shown, with global success, is the very illustration of the sociological problem of intersectionality. A situation of individuals who experience sexism, racism and class contempt. Personally, I would find it rather nice if Aya sang Piaf, this transgenerational and transcultural rapprochement would be moving…“, concludes the teacher-researcher.
L’Express magazine floated the idea a few weeks ago that she could sing at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games on July 26. A hypothesis that neither the artist nor Emmanuel Macron, who would have discussed with her the possibility of a cover of a song by Edith Piaf for the occasion, have confirmed, but which is causing a lot of controversy. ink.
