Shelta
Shelta | |
---|---|
The Seldru, the Cant, Seiltis | |
De Gammon, Tarri | |
Region | Ireland |
Ethnicity | Irish Travellers |
Native speakers | 50,000 (2008)[1] |
Latin | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | sth |
Glottolog | shel1236 |
ELP | Shelta |
Linguasphere | 50-ACA-a |
Shelta (
Linguistically Shelta is today seen as a
Names and etymology
The language is known by various names. People outside the Irish Traveller community often refer to it as [the] Cant, the etymology of which is a matter of debate.[5] Speakers of the language refer to it as [the] Cant,[4] [de] Gammon[4][5] or Tarri.[4] Amongst linguists, the name Shelta is the most commonly used term.[5]
Variants of the above names and additional names include Bog Latin,[4] Gammon,[7] Sheldru,[4] Shelter,[4] Shelteroch,[4] the Ould Thing,[4] Tinker's Cant,[4] and Shelta Thari.[8]
Etymology
The word Shelta appeared in print for the first time in 1882, in the book The Gypsies by the "gypsiologist"
The Dictionary of Hiberno-English cites it as possibly a corruption of the word
Origins and history
In the earliest but undocumented period, linguists surmise that the Traveller community was
Within the diaspora, various sub-branches of Shelta exist. Shelta in England is increasingly undergoing anglicisation. American Irish-Traveller's Cant, originally synonymous with Shelta, has by now been almost fully anglicised.[4]
Linguistic features
Irish Travellers use a secret argot or cant known as Gammon. It is used primarily to conceal meaning from outsiders, especially during business transactions and in the presence of police. Most Gammon utterances are terse and spoken so quickly that a non-Traveler might conclude the words merely had been garbled. Most Gammon words were formed from Irish by applying four techniques: reversal, metathesis, affixing, and substitution. In the first, an Irish word is reversed to form a Gammon one – mac, or 'son', in Irish became kam in Gammon. In the second, consonants or consonant clusters were transposed. Thirdly, a sound or cluster of sounds were either prefixed or suffixed to an Irish word. Some of the more frequently prefixed sounds were s, gr, and g. For example, obair, 'work or job', became gruber in Gammon. Lastly, many Gammon words were formed by substituting an arbitrary consonant or consonant cluster in an Irish word. In recent years, modern slang and Romani (the language of the gypsies) words have been incorporated. The grammar and syntax are English. The first vocabulary collected from Irish Travellers was published in 1808, indicating that Gammon dates at least back to the 1700s. But many early Celtic scholars who studied it, including Kuno Meyer, concluded it was much older.
Thus, by design, it is not mutually intelligible with either English or Irish.
Shelta is a secret language.[13] Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named Buffers, or non-travellers.[14] When speaking Shelta in front of Buffers, Travellers will disguise the structure so as to make it seem like they aren't speaking Shelta at all.[15]
Lexicon
While Shelta is influenced by English grammar, it is a mixture of Irish words as well. The word order is altered, syllables are reversed, and many of the original words are Irish that have been altered or reversed. Many Shelta words have been disguised using techniques such as back slang, where sounds are transposed. For example, gop 'kiss' from Irish póg, or the addition of sounds, for example gather 'father' from Irish athair.[4] Other examples include lackín or lakeen 'girl' from Irish cailín, and the word rodas 'door' from Irish doras.[16]
Grammar
Shelta shares its main syntactic features with Hiberno-English and the majority of its morphological features such as -s plurals and past tense markers.[5] Compare:
Shelta | English |
---|---|
de gyuck, de gloꭕ; gloꭕi | 'the man'; 'men' |
de byor, de byohr, de beoir | 'the woman' |
lohsped, lósped | 'married' |
sooblik, sublick, subla, subleen | 'boy, lad' |
kam | 'son' |
lackin, lakeen | 'girl' |
máilles | 'hands' |
lúrógs | 'eyes' |
groog | 'hair' |
pí | 'mouth' |
gop | 'kiss' |
ríspa | 'trousers' |
guillimins | 'shoes' |
tugs | 'clothes' |
griffin | 'coat' |
lorch | 'car' |
lí | 'bed' |
nucel | 'candle' |
rodas | 'door' |
talósc | 'day' |
olomi | 'night' |
luscán | 'fish' |
solk, bug | 'take' |
bug | 'go'; 'give', 'get' |
krosh | 'go', 'come' |
gloke, gratch, oagle, dashe | 'look', 'see', 'watch' |
nook | 'head' |
innic | 'thing, gizmo'; can refer to just about anything |
shay joug | 'police' |
gruber | 'work', 'job' |
gayge | 'to be persistent about wanting something' |
carb | 'to hit something or someone' |
yonk | 'steal, rob' |
thary | 'talk, speak' |
wisht | 'shut up, stop talking' (see also Scots and dialectal English whisht) |
glon | 'money' |
hawking | 'looking for' |
tack | 'one's personal items' (usually) |
lush | 'eat', 'food' |
crudgy | 'to leave somewhere in a hurry' |
skraꭕo | 'tree, bush' |
There is not as much importance put on gender in Shelta as in Irish. Plurals are shown with the English suffix /-s/ or /-i/, such as gloꭕ for 'man' becomes gloꭕi for 'men'.[17]
Phonology
Shelta has 27 consonants and 10 vowels.
Many words are complex by incorporating numerous consonants within, as in the word skraꭕo for 'tree, bush' with the consonant /ꭕ/ being a hissing sound that is held in the back of the throat, and is held longer than other consonants.[10]
Labial | Coronal | Palatal | Dorsal | Uvular | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
broad | slender | broad | slender | broad | slender | ||||
Nasal
|
m | mʲ | n |
nʲ | |||||
Stop
|
voiceless | p | pʲ | t |
tʲ | k | kʲ | ||
voiced | b | bʲ | d |
dʲ | ɡ | ɡʲ | |||
Fricative
|
voiceless | θ | ʃ | ||||||
voiced | ð | χ | |||||||
Affricate | tʃ | ||||||||
Rhotic | r |
rʲ | |||||||
Lateral | l |
ʎ | |||||||
Approximant | (w) | j | w |
Front | Central | Back | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | ||
ɪ | ||||
Close-mid | e | ə | o | |
Open-Mid | ɛ | ɔ | ||
Open | æ | ɑ | ɒ |
Loanwords
Some Shelta words have been borrowed by mainstream English speakers, such as the word "bloke" meaning 'a man' in the mid-19th century.[18][full citation needed]
Orthography
There is no standard orthography. Broadly speaking, Shelta can either be written following an Irish-type orthography or an English-type orthography. For example, the word for 'married' can either be spelled lósped or lohsped; the word for 'woman' can either be spelled beoir or byohr.[5]
Comparison texts
Below are reproductions of the Lord's Prayer in Shelta as it occurred a century ago[when?], current Shelta Cant, and modern English and Irish versions for comparison. The 19th-century Shelta version shows a high Shelta lexical content while the later Cant version shows a much lower Shelta lexical content. Both versions are adapted from Hancock[19] who notes that the Cant reproduction is not exactly representative of actual speech in normal situations.
Shelta (old) | Shelta (current) | English | Irish |
---|---|---|---|
Mwilsha's gater, swart a manyath, | Our gathra, who cradgies in the manyak-norch, | Our Father, who art in heaven, | Ár n-Athair atá ar neamh, |
Manyi graw a kradji dilsha's manik. | We turry kerrath about your moniker. | Hallowed be thy name. | Go naofar d'ainm, |
Graw bi greydid, sheydi laadu | Let's turry to the norch where your jeel cradgies, | Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, | Go dtaga do ríocht, Go ndéantar do thoil |
Az aswart in manyath. | And let your jeel shans get greydied nosher same as it is where you cradgie. | On earth as it is in heaven. | ar an talamh, mar a dhéantar ar neamh. |
Bag mwilsha talosk minyart goshta dura. | Bug us eynik to lush this thullis, | Give us today our daily bread. | Ár n-arán laethúil tabhair dúinn inniú, |
Geychel aur shaaku areyk mwilsha | And turri us you're nijesh sharrig for the eyniks we greydied | And forgive us our trespasses, | Agus maith dúinn ár bhfiacha |
Geychas needjas greydi gyamyath mwilsha. | Just like we ain't sharrig at the needies that greydi the same to us. | As we forgive those who trespass against us. | Mar a mhaithimid ár bhfiachóirí féin |
Nijesh solk mwil start gyamyath, | Nijesh let us soonie eyniks that'll make us greydi gammy eyniks, | And lead us not into temptation, | Is ná lig sinn i gcathú |
Bat bog mwilsha ahim gyamyath. | But solk us away from the taddy. | but deliver us from evil. | ach saor sinn ó olc. |
Diyil the sridag, taajirath an manyath | Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory | Óir is leatsa an Ríocht agus an chumhacht agus an Ghlóir, | |
Gradum a gradum. | For ever and ever | Tré shaol na saol | |
Naemia. | Amen. | Áiméan. |
See also
References
- ^ Shelta at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- S2CID 143915949– via Internet Archive.
- ^ "shelta". tearma.ie – Dictionary of Irish Terms – Foclóir Téarmaíochta. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-214183-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-85389-832-4.
- ^ "Shelta". Ethnologue. 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2010.
- ^ ISBN 0-7171-3535-7.
- ^ "Leland on the Gypsies". The Atlantic. September 1882. p. 417. Select "View This Story as a PDF" to bypass the partial pay-wall.
- ^ Collins Irish Dictionary. HarperCollins. 2006.
- ^ a b c Velupillai (2015), p. 381
- Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. New Series. 2: 241–246.
- ISBN 0-285-62785-6.
- ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
- ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
- ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
- S2CID 144672161.
- ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 382
- ^ Oxford Dictionary – etymology
- JSTOR 454664.
Bibliography
- Macalister, R. A. Stewart (1937). The Secret Languages of Ireland: with special reference to the origin and nature of the Shelta language. Cambridge University Press – via Internet Archive. Also reissued by Armagh: Craobh Rua Books (1997).
- Velupillai, Viveka (2015). Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages: An Introduction. Amsterdam: ISBN 978-90-272-5271-5.