Observations sur l’usage linguistique des poilus pendant la Grande Guerre et sa mise en scène rétrospective dans les bandes dessinées

In this contribution, we analyse the artistic linguistic expression in three selected comic strips on the First World War that were published about 100 years after the end of the war. Therefore, we compare the aestheticized language with the authentic linguistic usage of ordinary people in their private correspondence and in war diaries written between 1914 and 1918. From a lexical point of view, both authentic and artistic texts are marked by an affinity with popular and colloquial French and, to a lesser extent, with trench slang (argot des tranchées). Orality portrayed in comics and identified as simulated orality is characterized by a more playful use of language and a higher number of vulgarisms compared to the authentic documents. In addition, the fictional and stylized character of the comics contributes to a more pronounced variation of slang, popular and familiar lexemes, especially in the designation of the German enemy, which we do not find in the texts of contemporary soldiers.