Scottish Cant (often called Scots-Romani or Scotch-Romani) is a cant spoken by Scottish Travellers and Scottish Lowland Roma, primarily in the Scottish Lowlands.[2]

Scottish Cant
Scots-Romani
Native toUnited Kingdom
RegionScotland
EthnicityScottish Romani and Traveller groups
Native speakers
460 in Scotland (2011)[1]
Indo-European
  • mixed language
    • Scottish Cant
Language codes
ISO 639-3trl
Glottologtrav1235

Classification

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Up to 50% of Scottish Cant originates from Romani-derived lexicon.[3]

The Scottish Gaelic element in the dialects of Scottish Cant is put anywhere between 0.8% and 20%.[2]

Use of archaic Scots

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Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in Modern Scots as spoken by non-Travellers, such as mowdit "buried", mools "earth", both from muild(s), and gellie, from gailey (galley), "a bothy".[2]

Gaelic influences

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Loans from Gaelic include words like:[2]

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

Romani influences

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The percentage of Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the lexicon; some examples are:[2]

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

Recordings

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Hamish Henderson and other folklorists recorded various conversations about the Scottish Cant language, with speakers including Lizzie Higgins and Jeannie Robertson.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] He also recorded Belle Stewart singing a version of "Dance to Your Daddy" in both Cant and Scots.[11]

See also

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References

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  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.