A Dictionary of Police and Underworld Language by Jean-Paul Brunet (review)

Shorter Book Reviews 493 Jean-Paul Brunet, A Dictionary of Police and Underworld Language. Paris: La Maison du Dictionnaire, 1990. lx:i+ 906 pp. Illus. At $129, this book is probably out of reach for both convicts and mystery fans, who would, of all prospective audiences, probably be able to make most use of it. According to the Foreword, Brunet has aimed it at linguists, translators of works in criminology, crime fiction and films, the police and francophone or anglophone audiences who want to read or watch thrillers in the other language. But its potential audience should be broader than that. It is not onlyinformative and utilitarian but also entertaining. Though it will doubtless find a place, which it deserves, in the reference section of university libraries in French- and English-speaking countries, to be consulted by scholars who find themselves stumped by underworld terms that they happen on in their reading, it is unlikely to be seen as a tool for vocabulary enrichment, which is in a way a pity, in view of the scope and density of the terminology provided. Academics' discussions do not, as a rule, employ the sort of colorful and various descriptions of crimes, sex acts, deviants, sexually-transmitted diseases, drugs, etc., that this book--quite justifiably, since these are the things that tend to take over prisoners' thoughts and conversations--catalogues and translates. The dictionary is intelligently and conveniently arranged, divided first of all into language of the police force and language of the underworld, and then meticulously subdivided according to subject matter, with, for example, several types of vehicles, clothing and weapons under police "equipment and materials." The entries are all English-French; there is also a French-English edition. There are 4000 entries in the police section and 6000 in the underworld section; nine appendices, each bilingual; a selective yet comprehensive bibliography; and an index that runs to nearly 200 pages and makes it possible to work from French to English as well as English to French. The bilingual illustrations include policy badges, currency, maps of correctional facilities in Canada and France, and police organizational charts. A minor quibble: the dictionary is limited, quite sensibly,to North American English and French (but not Quebec) French. The English title on the cover is somewhat misleading, and though the French title page is more accurate (americain-fram;ais, fran<;;ais-americain), it does not indicate that Quebec French is not included. Brunet wisely omits distinctions among popular, vulgar and obscene usage and simply indicates slang with an asterisk. A sheltered native English 494 Shorter Book Reviews speaker's passive vocabulary can be enlivened by such asterisked terms as "playingbedroom baseball" or "pillowpolo," "havingone's ashes hauled," or "sinking the soldier" (457-466). Refinements could include "lipstickon the dipstick"or "goingdown to the Y for a box lunch". For scholarlypurposes or simply as a matter of interest, these can be translated; this last term, for example, becomes ''prendre son cafe aux deux colonnes," illustrating the French flair for romance and poetry in contrast to the earthiness and directness of English (471,473). This dictionary also tells us that the French for "Cupid'sitch," a slang term for a sexually-transmitted disease is, "coup de pied de Venus," suggesting, perhaps, a difference of opinion as to which gender is responsible for such miseries (477). The translation suggests that feminism has made few inroads in the lower levels of French society. (It is also interesting to note under this heading that there seems as yet to be no slang term for AIDS, and that the term "the French disease" seems not to be used in the underworld.) One would hope to find in such an ambitious reference work clues as to etymologyor derivation, but readers are left to their own deviceson this one. Questions as to how a term gained currency in either language and what the connections are between the English and French slang versions are perhaps not addressed because the answers would be, at this stage, guesses rather than facts, since much of the terminology comes from spoken rather than written language. Neither are there comments that compare the versions in the two languages, perhaps because the clarity and simplicity of the Englishterms stand out beside the ornateness of the French. Interestingly, the French in this dictionary does not uphold its general reputation for fullness and nuance in comparison with English. "Lookunder French in an English dictionary and you get French kissing, knickers and letters," a writer stated last summer in The Independent on Sunday. "Look at any French dictionary under Anglais, and you get words describing embroidery, custard and an assortment of cold meats. I think that saysit all." Well, not quite. Under terminology denoting male homosexuals, there are English terms for nine varieties of "queen," six of them translated simply as "reine" (484). Racial discrimination, too, seems more colorful in English: fourteen different terms, including "taco bender" translate simply as "Me.xicain" (279). This unusual dictionary should be of interest not only to translators and lawenforcement personnel but also to the casual reader, who is probably unaware of the tremendous expansion of both languages that has taken place in the underworld, and who may not acknowledge the relevance of this expansion to our own middle-class world. Some of the terms listed are in Shorter Book Reviews 495 general use or at least are generally understood; some will doubtless be imported as the natural consequence of traffic between the two worlds. For if language is not static, neither is citizenship in either prison or the middle class. Judith Knelman Graduate Schoolof Journalism University ofWestern Ontario ...