Examples of cant words.
Unknown Person
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1955.70.B10
Original Tape ID
Summary
Examples of cant words.
Hamish Henderson uses the word 'barra' [good] in praise of the previous song, provoking laughter and exclamations. He asks about a song, 'I'll ging nae mair a-chorin (stealing)'. Hamish mentions that he learned it from a manishee [woman] when she was feeding her jougals [dogs].
A fellow from New Deer confounded the German censors in a POW camp by writing home to his mother in cant. For instance, he described the food as shan haben (bad food). Germany was feet (finished). Other examples of cant words:
policemen: feegies, murskeries. Hamish adds 'hornies'
shan gadgie: bad man
nick: jail
a counsel or lawyer: mun or barra coull
gry: horse
No word is elicited for a minister or a cat. A sample sentence is given, which includes the word vardeen (wagon).
Item Notes
Several of the words are of Romany origin, including 'manishee', 'jougal', 'gadgie' [literally a non-gypsy] and 'gry'. With 'vardeen', cf. Romany 'vardo, vardy'. 'Hornie' is cant for a constable, possibly from the Scots sense of 'devil'. 'Mun' is slang for 'mouth'.
The song Hamish Henderson refers to is 'Big Jimmy Drummond'.
See:
'The Scottish National Dictionary', available online [[www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/]] (accessed 3 June 2008)
'Romano Lavo-Lil' (George Borrow, 1874), available at Project Gutenberg [[www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/rmlav10h.html]] (accessed 3 June 2008)
'A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English' (Eric Partridge, 8th ed rev. Paul Beale, 1984)
Language
Scots, Traveller Cant (Scots/Romani)
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Fair