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Shelta (/ˈʃɛltə/;[2] Irish: Seiltis)[3] is a language spoken by Rilantu Mincéirí (Irish Travellers), particularly in Ireland and the United Kingdom.[4] It is widely known as the Cant, to its native speakers in Ireland as De Gammon, and to the linguistic community as Shelta.[5] It was often used as a cryptolect to exclude outsiders from comprehending conversations between Travellers,[4] although this aspect is frequently overemphasised.[5] 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.[1][6]

Shelta
The Seldru
De Gammon
Native to	Ireland, by Irish Travellers, also spoken by Irish Traveller diaspora
Region	Spoken by Irish Travellers
Native speakers	(90,000 cited 1992)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Celtic, Germanic (mixed language) Shelta
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sth
Glottolog	shel1236
ELP	Shelta
Linguasphere	50-ACA-a
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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

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] 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] and Tinker's Cant.[4]

Etymology

The word Shelta appears 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"),[8] 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.[9]

Origins and history

Linguists have been documenting Shelta since at least the 1870s. The first works were published in 1880 and 1882 by Charles Leland.[5] Celtic language expert Kuno Meyer and Romani expert John Sampson both assert that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century.[10]

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 (or Scots 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. English Shelta is increasingly undergoing anglicisation, while American Irish-Traveller's Cant, originally also synonymous with Shelta, has by now been almost fully anglicised.[4]

Linguistic features

Sociologist Sharon Gmelch describes the Irish Travellers' language as follows:[11]

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 Romanian (the language of the Romanian people) 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. Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named “Buffers”, or non-travellers. 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.[12]

Lexicon

While Shelta is influenced by English grammar, it is also a mixture of Gaelic and Irish words as well. The word order itself 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 lackin or lakeen "girl" from Irish cailín, and the word rodas "door" from Irish doras. The word for “son” is changed from the Gaelic mac to the Shelta kam.[13]

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	The man
De Byor	The woman
Sooblik (Also spelled as: Subla, subleen, sublick)	Boy, Lad
Lackin	Girl
Máilles	Hands
Pí	Mouth
Lúrógs	Eyes
Groog	Hair
Ríspa	Trousers
Guillimins	Shoes
Tugs	Clothes
Griffin	Coat
Lorch	Car
Lí	Bed
Nucel	Candle
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	Innic can mean just about anything. Used similar as 'thing' or 'gizmo'
Shay joug	Police
Gayge	To be persistent about wanting something
carb	To hit something or someone
yonk	Steal/Rob
thary	Talk or speak
Wisht	Shut up/Stop talking
Glon	Money
Hawking	Looking for
Tack	Usually ones possessive items
Lush	Eat/food
Crudgy	To leave somewhere in a hurry

There is not as much importance put on gender in Shelta. Plurals are shown with the English suffix /–s/ or /-i/, such as gloχ for “man” becomes gloχi for “men”.[14]

Phonology

Shelta has 27 consonants and 10 vowels.

Many words are complex by incorporating numerous consonants within, as in the word skraχo for “tree, bush’ with the consonant /χ/ being a hissing sound that is held in the back of the throat, and is held longer than other consonants.[9]

Consonants[9]

		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	gʲ
Fricative	voiceless			θ	ʃ
	voiced			ð					χ
Affricate					tʃ
Rhotic				r	rʲ
Lateral				l		ʎ
Approximant		(w)				j	w

Vowels^{[citation needed]}

	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.[15]

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, a "woman" can either be spelled byohr or beoir.[5]

Comparison texts

Below are reproductions of the Lord's Prayer in Shelta as it occurred a century ago, current Shelta, and modern English and Irish versions for comparison. The 19th century Shelta version shows a high Shelta lexical content while the Cant version shows a much lower Shelta lexical content. Both versions are adapted from Hancock[16] 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
Gradum a gradum.		For ever and ever
Naemia.		Amen.	Áiméan.

.

See also

• Irish Travellers
• Beurla Reagaird
• Bungi Creole
• Polari

References

Bibliography

• R. A. Stewart Macalister (1937) The Secret Languages of Ireland: with special reference to the origin and nature of the Shelta language, partly based upon collections and manuscripts of the late John Sampson. Cambridge University Press (reissued by Craobh Rua Books, Armagh, 1997)

External links

• Shelta lexicon and pronunciation guide

На других языках

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[de] Shelta

Shelta (auch als Gammen, Sheldru oder Cant bezeichnet) ist eine Mischsprache, die Elemente irisch-gälischen und englischen Ursprungs sowie Merkmale weiterer indogermanischer Sprachen aufweist. Die Bezeichnung geht wahrscheinlich auf das irische siúlta, das „auf Wanderschaft“ bedeutet, zurück. Dies bezieht sich auf den nomadischen Lebensstil ihrer Sprecher: Shelta wird von der (ursprünglich) nicht oder nur teilweise sesshaften Bevölkerung der britischen Inseln, den häufig so genannten Tinkers (Pavee, Travellers) gesprochen.

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- [en] Shelta

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[es] Shelta

El shelta es el idioma tradicional de los "nómadas irlandeses". Lo hablan unas 85.000 personas en Irlanda, Reino Unido y Estados Unidos, de las que entre 6.000 y 25.000 viven en Irlanda.

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[fr] Shelta

Le shelta (en anglais : /ˈʃɛl.tə/ ; en irlandais : Seiltis) est la langue des Travellers irlandais. Son origine n'est pas bien connue, bien qu'une partie de son lexique soit empruntée au gaélique irlandais et une autre à l'anglais. Il est parlé surtout en Irlande, mais aussi au Royaume-Uni et aux États-Unis (surtout à New York). Bien qu'on exagère l'importance de ce fait[1], on l'utilisait souvent en tant que langue secrète (cryptolecte) pour que les étrangers ne comprennent pas les conversations des Travellers[2].

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[it] Lingua shelta

Lo Shelta /ˈʃɛltə/ è la lingua parlata dalla popolazione pavee, in particolar modo da quella stanziata in Irlanda e nel Regno Unito.[2] Chiamato De Gammon dalla sua comunità di locutori,[3] esso viene spesso usato come criptolinguaggio dai pavee per non farsi comprendere dagli ascoltatori esterni.[2] Il numero esatto dei madrelingua al giorno d'oggi è difficile da determinare, l'ultima ricerca in merito venne eseguita nel 1992 da Ethnologue e indicava il numero dei parlanti in 30.000 nel Regno Unito, 6.000 in Irlanda e 50.000 negli Stati Uniti.[3][1]

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[ru] Шелта

Шелта, Shelta (экзоним), самоназвание Gammon, или the Cant, язык этнической кочевнической группы, известной как ирландские путешественники.

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