Teachers in France are imposing a ban on “teeth-sucking” – a gesture of drawing air through the teeth and into the mouth to produce a loud sucking sound, common in African and Afro-Caribbean culture – because they deem it offensive and disrespectful.
People also call teeth-sucking ‘stchoops’ in the Caribbean, ‘cipptu’ in Senegal, ‘suruntu’ in Mali, and ‘le tchip’ in France. It’s a global gesture found across the African diaspora and many consider it one of the various Africanisms remaining despite enslavement and colonization.
French speakers call “le tchip” a mark of annoyance, disapproval, or disdain made by sucking air through the teeth through pursed lips while moving the tongue.
Academics describe it as “velaric ingressive airstream involving closure at two points in the mouth.”
People often refer to it as “teeth-sucking” or “kissing the teeth” in English.
Connoisseurs say the practice follows strict cultural rules, making it acceptable to use with peers or subordinates but never towards an elder or employer.
However, many French pupils reportedly increasingly unleash “le tchip” in class and in response to teachers.
Now certain schools in France have decided to clamp down on the habit, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
“It’s extremely vulgar,” said Eric Bongo, deputy head teacher at the Charles Baudelaire high school in Evry, near Paris. “I grew up in Africa and when I was young it was forbidden to ‘suck-teeth’ at others.
“I explained this to my colleagues and now the school forbids it, just like any insult, because it is an insult.”
He said pupils were taken aback by the surprise ban, but that it was essential to help pupils “get rid of certain cultural codes that are inappropriate in the school and business world.”
According to reports in the French press, other cases have emerged of teachers throwing pupils out of classes for sucking-teeth.
“In history class, since the start of the year at least 10 teachers have thrown out people for making a ‘tchip’,” Alyssia, a pupil at a professional lycée in Saint-Ouen, north of Paris, told the paper.
The “tchip” hit the headlines in France in March, when Christiane Taubira, the justice minister, who was born in French Guyana, used it to hit back at a local far-Right Front National candidate who likened her to a monkey.
“There’s something that you do in Creole societies, in Guyana and elsewhere. It’s a very feminine language, and that’s what inspires me. It’s called a ‘tchip’ and I make it with pure disdain,” she told iTele, before making the noise.
In a bid to clarify the rules of the “le tchip”, Yaotcha d’Almeida, a Togolese-Guadeloupian journalist for Franco-German channel Arte explained in an animated film the rules of “tchip” engagement, saying that the ultimate put-down is a prolonged teeth-suck followed by a click of the tongue at the back of the throat, which means: “Don’t even bother saying another word.”
As long as the rules were respected, she predicted that soon “all of France will be ‘tchiping’.”
However, some critics drew attention to the ban. In Slate France, Emeline Amétis and Vincent Manilève said the ban “stigmatised” pupils from ethnic minorities as it was just one of “myriad ways” pupils express disapproval or insolence, including swear words like “putain”, raising an eyebrow or sighing.”
Content contributed by Henry Samuel, reported from Paris, France, sourced by telegraph.co.uk
