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Shelta

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Shelta
The Seldru, the Cant, Seiltis
De Gammon, Tarri
RegionIreland
EthnicityIrish Travellers
Native speakers
50,000 (2008)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3sth
Glottologshel1236
ELPShelta
Linguasphere50-ACA-a
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Shelta (/ˈʃɛltə/;[2] Irish: Seiltis)[3] is a language spoken by Irish Travellers (Mincéirí), particularly in Ireland and the United Kingdom.[4] It is widely known as the Cant, to its native speakers in Ireland as de Gammon or Tarri, and to the linguistic community as Shelta.[5] Other terms for it include the Seldru, and Shelta Thari, among others. The exact number of native speakers is hard to determine due to sociolinguistic issues[5] but Ethnologue puts the number of speakers at 30,000 in the UK, 6,000 in Ireland, and 50,000 in the US. The figure for at least the UK is dated to 1990. It is not clear if the other figures are from the same source.[6]

Linguistically Shelta is today seen as a mixed language that stems from a community of travelling people in Ireland that was originally predominantly Irish-speaking. The community later went through a period of widespread bilingualism that resulted in a language based heavily on Hiberno-English with heavy influences from Irish.[5] As different varieties of Shelta display different degrees of anglicisation, it is hard to determine the extent of the Irish substratum. The Oxford Companion to the English Language puts it at 2,000–3,000 words.[4]

Names and etymology

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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

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The word Shelta appeared in print for the first time in 1882, in the book The Gypsies by the "gypsiologist" Charles Leland, who claimed to have discovered it as the "fifth Celtic tongue". The word's etymology has long been a matter of debate. Modern Celticists believe that Irish siúl [ʃuːlʲ] "to walk" is at the root, either via a term such as siúltóir [ˈʃuːl̪ˠt̪ˠoːɾʲ] 'a walker' or a form of the verbal noun siúladh, cf. an lucht siúlta [ənˠ ˌl̪ˠʊxt̪ˠ ˈʃuːl̪ˠt̪ˠə], 'the walking people', lit. 'the people of walks',[9] the traditional Irish term for Travellers.[5]

The Dictionary of Hiberno-English cites it as possibly a corruption of the word Celt.[7] Since Shelta is a mixture of English and Irish grammar, the etymology is not straightforward. The language is made up mostly of Irish lexicon, being classified as a grammar-lexicon language with the grammar being English-based.[10]

Origins and history

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Linguists have been documenting Shelta since at least the 1870s. The first works were published in 1880 and 1882 by Charles Leland.[5] Celticist Kuno Meyer and Romani expert John Sampson both assert that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century.[11]

In the earliest but undocumented period, linguists surmise that the Traveller community was Irish-speaking until a period of widespread bilingualism in Irish and Hiberno-English, and Scots language in Scotland set in, leading to creolisation (possibly with a trilingual stage).[5] The resulting language is referred to as Old Shelta, and it is suspected that this stage of the language displayed distinctive features, such as non-English syntactic and morphological features, no longer found in Shelta.[5]

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

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Sociologist Sharon Gmelch describes the Irish Travellers' language as follows:[12]

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

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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

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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

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Shelta has 27 consonants and 6 phonemic 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]

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

The vowel system features phonemic lengthening for all vowels except for /ə/. Additionally, [ey, iy, ow, uw] can be realized as diphthongs in certain varieties of Shelta. [18]

Vowels[10]
Front Central Back
Close i u
Close-mid e ə ɔ
Open a

Loanwords

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Some Shelta words have been borrowed by mainstream English speakers, such as the word "bloke" meaning 'a man' in the mid-19th century.[19][full citation needed]

Orthography

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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

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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[20] 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

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References

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  1. ^ Shelta at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Bauer, Laurie (2007). The Linguistics Student's Handbook. Edinburgh University Press / Oxford University Press. doi:10.1017/S0332586509002078. ISBN 9780195332841. S2CID 143915949 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ^ "shelta". tearma.ie – Dictionary of Irish Terms – Foclóir Téarmaíochta. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m McArthur, T., ed. (1992). The Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-214183-X.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kirk, J.; Ó Baoill, D., eds. (2002). Travellers and Their Language. Queen's University Belfast. ISBN 0-85389-832-4.
  6. ^ "Shelta". Ethnologue. 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2010.
  7. ^ a b Dolan, Terence Patrick, ed. (2004). A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill & MacMillan. ISBN 0-7171-3535-7.
  8. ^ "Leland on the Gypsies". The Atlantic. September 1882. p. 417. Select "View This Story as a PDF" to bypass the partial pay-wall.
  9. ^ Collins Irish Dictionary. HarperCollins. 2006.
  10. ^ a b c d Velupillai (2015), p. 381
  11. ^ Meyer, Kuno (1909). "The secret languages of Ireland". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. New Series. 2: 241–246.
  12. ^ Gmelch, Sharon (1986). Nan: The Life of an Irish Travelling Woman. London: Souvenir Press. p. 234. ISBN 0-285-62785-6.
  13. ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
  14. ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
  15. ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 80
  16. ^ Harper, Jared; Hudson, Charles (1971). "Irish Traveler Cant". Journal of English Linguistics. 5: 80. doi:10.1177/007542427100500105. S2CID 144672161.
  17. ^ Velupillai (2015), p. 382
  18. ^ Aceto, Michael; Bakker, Peter; Mous, Maarten (December 1995). "Mixed Languages: 15 Case Studies in Language Intertwining". Language. 71 (4): 842. doi:10.2307/415772. JSTOR 415772.
  19. ^ Oxford Dictionary – etymology
  20. ^ Hancock, I. (1986). "The cryptolectal speech of the American roads: Traveller Cant and American Angloromani". American Speech. 61 (3). Duke University Press: 207–208. doi:10.2307/454664. JSTOR 454664.

Bibliography

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