Scottish Cant

This article is about the Romani-Scots based cant of Lowland Scotland’s Gypsy community. For the Gaelic-based cant, see Beurla Reagaird.
Scottish Cant
Scots-Romani
Native toUnited Kingdom
RegionScotland
EthnicityScottish Romani
Native speakers
460 in Scotland (2011)
Indo-European
  • mixed language
    • Scottish Cant
Language codes
ISO 639-3trl
Glottologtrav1235

Scottish Cant, Scots Romani, Scotch Romani or the Scottish Romani language is a cant and variety of the Romani language spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani, who primarily live in the Scottish Lowlands.

Classification

Up to 50% of Scottish Cant originates from Romani-derived lexicon.

The Scottish Gaelic element in the dialects of Scottish Cant is put anywhere between 0.8% and 20%.

Romani vocabulary

The percentage of traditional Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the lexicon; some examples are:

  • gadgie "man" (Romani gadžó "a non-Romani person")
  • pannie "water" (Romani paní)

Use of archaic Scots

Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in Modern Scots as spoken by non-Travellers, such as mowdit "buried", mools "earth", both from muild(s), and gellie, from gailey (galley), "a bothy".

Gaelic influences

Loans from Gaelic include words like:

  • cluishes "ears" (Gaelic cluasan or cluais, a dative form of cluas "ear")
  • shain "bad" (Gaelic sean "old")

Recordings

Hamish Henderson and other folklorists recorded various conversations about the Scottish Cant language, with speakers including Lizzie Higgins and Jeannie Robertson. He also recorded Belle Stewart singing a version of "Dance to Your Daddy" in both Cant and Scots.

See also

References

  1. ^ Scottish Cant at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
  2. ^ a b c d e Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. Travellers and their Language (2002) Queen's University Belfast ISBN 0-85389-832-4
  3. ^ Wilde 1889, cited in Not just lucky white heather and clothes pegs: putting European Gypsies and Traveller economic niches in context. In: Ethnicity and Economy:Race and class revisited. C. Clark (2002). Strathclyde University.
  4. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  5. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  6. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  7. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  8. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  9. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  10. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.
  11. ^ "Tobar an Dualchais". Tobar an Dualchais. Retrieved 2021-12-01.