La variation graphique dans les dictionnaires d’argot

French slang dictionaries are ideal vantage points to observe the richness of language variation. Slang is first and foremost spoken language and uses lexical units of often obscure derivation and in perpetual motion. Since slang is refractory to all attempts at standardisation, it requires the lexicographer’s constant attention. A corpus made up in the large part of five dictionaries of French slang, published between 1965 (at which time the number of slang dictionaries published increased dramatically) and 2000, yields a total of 760 forms for around 330 words, thus providing an observatory for spelling variants and the ways to classify them.