Scottish Cant | |
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Scots-Romani | |
Native to | United Kingdom |
Region | Scotland |
Ethnicity | Scottish Romani and Traveller groups |
Native speakers | 460 in Scotland (2011)[1] |
Indo-European
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Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | trl |
Glottolog | trav1235 |
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]
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]
Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in Modern Scots as spoken by non-Travellers, such as mowdit "buried", mools "earth", both from muild(s), and gellie, from gailey (galley), "a bothy".[2]
Loans from Gaelic include words like:[2]
The percentage of Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the lexicon; some examples are:[2]
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]
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