Riocontra

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Riocontra is a style of Italian slang where syllables are inverted to form new words. It began in the 1970s in Lambrate, a neighborhood of Milan, and became famous thanks to Guido Nicheli and Diego Abatantuono in the 1983 film Il ras del quartiere. Some amateur performers on Portobello TV showed a variation that reversed individual sounds rather than syllables (for example, casa, meaning house, becoming asac).

How it works: the main feature is reversing syllables to create riocontra words, but there can also be changes to the last vowel, truncation, and dropping the final vowel. When a word is inverted, the final “r” can merge with the next word or be placed between syllables to make pronunciation smoother (an exception is merda, which can become damer or rdame). Sometimes there is slight repetition of sounds, and inversion often removes the plural form.

Riocontra spread across Italy with the rise of trap music and is similar to the French verlan. Other places developed their own versions, such as trancorio in Brescia.

Notable uses: Milanese rapper Nerone has a song almost entirely in Riocontra, La Miaccade Llade Scacru (La Accademia della Crusca), from 2017. Lazza also uses Riocontra in his work, including the Zzala project. Other pieces by Quentin40 and Puritano show the same jargon based on shortening and sound changes.