I know that Japanese allows this: there are words in reverse order where the placement of 2 kanji can be “flipped” within the same word while retaining a related definition, i.e. 栄光 (glory) & 光栄 (honor), more examples range from:
- 別離 (parting) & 離別 (separation)
- 関連 (connection) & 連関 (relation)
- 礼儀 (manners) & 儀礼 (ettiquette)
- 陸上 (landing) & 上陸 (ground)
- 発散 (emission) & 散発 (sporadic)
- 進行 (advance) & 行進 (parade)
- 議会 (assembly) & 会議 (meeting)
- 木材 (lumber) & 材木 (timber)
- 王国 (kingdom) & 国王 (monarch)
- 火花 (spark) & 花火 (fireworks)
- 明言 (statement) & 言明 (assertion)
- 論評 (criticism) & 評論 (critique)
You get the picture, but can you do the same thing with the English language for example? As well as other European languages in general?
French has verlan, a slang in which words are reversed in a similar way, so that we say them differently, but they mean the same thing. “louche” means “suspicious”, but is often said as “chelou”.
It’s not the same effect, but a similar structural pattern.
It’s not even always swapping syllables. Some people say “meuf” as slang for “femme”, even though the word has only one syllable.
I’m not a French speaker from birth, so I don’t know how common this slang is. I know we find it near Paris.
You can hear it in the TV series HPI, where the lead character uses it quite often and the show is set in Lille, which is about 200 km from Paris.