Pertinent story! Local argots define people in periods and places as surely as if they had a bar-code stamped on their foreheads. Before homogenization (pasteurization?) by the Internet, local slang remained exactly that: local. Only the increased diffusion by the medias made possible the spread of languages like the Verlan where the order of the syllables in the words are inversed. (Verlan = l’envers) You think todays’ young talk funny?

What you haven’t touched on is the massive increase in the frequency of swear-words in “common” language, street talk, television and movies dialog.

There is a real danger of the swearing itself becoming the main dish, so to speak, not just the seasoning. I have verified this in my native country, Spain, where some remarkable individuals can have a semblant of a conversation using only swearwords without a single meaningful word in sight!

That is why few people in Spain believe I am Spanish, simply because I don’t swear. Never learnt to. Never learnt any Spanish slang either, and that I miss.

Before I forget, Verlan was created in France. Cefran, I suppose.