What Is Reversed-Word Slang? How Japanese Tougo Works, with Examples and How to Make Your Own

What is reversed-word slang (tougo)?

Rearranging the order of a word's sounds to make another way of saying it is called tougo in Japanese linguistics. It has a long history in Japan, used both as jargon among insiders and as a source of words that became standard. English has its own version in Victorian back slang, which gave us "yob" from "boy", and French has verlan, whose very name comes from "l'envers" ("the reverse").

• It serves as secret jargon to keep outsiders from understanding, for example when discussing prices or places in front of customers.
• Using the same words signals that you belong to the group.
• Changing the sounds makes a word lighter and more playful than the original.
• Once a word catches on, people forget it was reversed, and it's treated as an ordinary word.

A list of well-known reversed words

Some words, such as paisen (from senpai, a senior colleague) and channee (from neechan, a young woman), simply swap groups of sounds without fully reversing them. The term tougo covers these partial swaps as well.

How the words are built: four rules

Reversing a word sound by sound doesn't give real reversed slang. Flip Ginza one kana at a time (gi-n-za) and you get "zangi", but the form actually used is "zagin". In practice, these rules apply.

1. 1

   Divide into groups of sounds

   Ginza divides into two groups, gin and za. Swapping them gives za + gin, or zagin. A final n or a doubled consonant stays attached to the sound before it.

2. 2

   With three or more groups, move the last to the front

   Fully reversing ro-ppon-gi gives gi-ppon-ro, which is hard to say. What's actually used is giroppon, with only the final gi moved to the front. Ease of saying comes first.

3. 3

   Lengthen short words

   Reversing sushi gives shisu, but two short sounds don't feel settled as a word, so it stretches to shiisuu. Jazu to zuuja works the same way.

4. 4

   Don't move voicing mechanically; keep what's easy to say

   When a reversal is hard to pronounce, where the voiced sound falls can change. It's closer to the truth to think of this as whatever felt natural surviving rather than as a strict rule.

How to make and test your own

1. 1

   Enter the original word and reverse it

   Enter a word in the Reverse Text tool and the flipped result appears right away. Use this mechanical reversal as your starting point. Boy becomes yob, for example.

2. 2

   Read it aloud

   Read the reversed form as it is, and if it's hard to say, change where you divide it. If a consonant cluster lands awkwardly at the front, as in "knat" from "tank", regroup it or adjust the spelling.

3. 3

   Adjust the length

   If it comes out very short, add a long vowel. If it's long and awkward, try moving only the last syllable to the front.

4. 4

   Check whether the original can be guessed

   For secret jargon, it's better that it isn't too obvious. For fun, it's more enjoyable when people can work out the original. Decide which way to lean for your purpose.

• Places and shop names work well, but people's names can come across as rude, so it's safer to avoid them.
• Check that it doesn't clash with an existing word. Sometimes a reversal happens to be a word with another meaning.
• If you only want an interesting sound, you can use a different transformation rather than sticking to reversal.
• Having your word read aloud by text-to-speech can reveal pronunciation problems you wouldn't notice on the page.

Things to watch when using it

In Japan, reversed slang is strongly associated with TV and music industry jargon, so it needs the right setting. It spread as the way industry people talked in the 1980s, so using it a lot in everyday conversation today sounds dated.

• Don't use it in work conversations or documents. People who don't know it won't understand, and those who do will think you're being flippant.
• If you use it as a joke, keep to simple ones where the other person can guess the original.
• The original purpose of jargon, keeping others from understanding, now tends to leave a bad impression if they catch on.
• There are no such limits on handles or titles of works, where the rare sound is an advantage.

FAQ

What does "zagin de shiisuu" mean?

It means "sushi in Ginza". Zagin swaps the sound groups of Ginza, and shiisuu is sushi reversed and lengthened. It spread in the 1980s as a TV and music industry expression, and today it's used as a phrase that symbolizes that era.

How is reversed slang made?

Rather than reversing letters one by one, divide the word into groups of sounds and swap them. Swapping gin-za gives zagin. With three or more groups, a full reversal is hard to say, so forms like giroppon from Roppongi move the last sound to the front. Short two-sound words get long vowels added, as in shiisuu.

Are tougo and show-business slang the same thing?

No. Tougo refers to the mechanism itself, swapping the order of sounds to make a word, and it has a long history in Japanese. Show-business slang is one example of tougo being used as jargon. Words like neta (from tane) and dafu (from fuda) are tougo that became general usage with no sense of being industry terms.

Can a tool that only flips characters make reversed slang?

It works as a starting point, but the output won't be real reversed slang as it stands. The tool reverses character by character, so in Japanese kana, Ginza comes out as "zangi". Say the result aloud, reattach sounds like a final n or a doubled consonant to the sound before them, and add long vowels if it's too short. Those adjustments bring it closer to a natural form.