Shelta language
From Free net encyclopedia
Shelta (also known as Gammen, Sheldru, Pavee, or simply the Cant) is a language spoken by parts of the Irish Traveller people.
Shelta's vocabulary is based largely on Irish, with many words inverted in a style not unlike French verlan slang; for example, the word for 'girl' is lakeen, from the Irish cailín, and the word rodas, meaning door, has its roots in the Irish doras. The language's structure also contains many grammatical similarities with English. It also contains elements of Romany languages, though the Travellers are not actual Roma. Although heavily influenced by non-Celtic languages, Shelta is sometimes mistakenly classified as part of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic language family; it is, in fact, a cant based on Irish and English, with a primarily English-based syntax.
Cant is the form diffused around Ireland; Gammen or Gammon is concentrated in the south-east region. Shelta is the term still preferred by some today, often outside the Travellers themselves from academia. The word Shelta first appeared in 1882 in the book 'The Gypsies' by 'gypsiologist' Charles Leland, who claimed to have discovered it as the 'fifth Celtic tongue.'
There are approximately 86,000 worldwide speakers of Shelta, with anywhere from 6,000-25,000 in Ireland itself according to various sources. The language is spoken almost exclusively by Travellers, though linguists have documented Shelta since at least the 1870s. Both Celtic expert Kuno Meyer and Romany expert John Sampson assert that Shelta existed as far back as the 13th century.
It has been suggested that the word "Shelta" itself derives from the Irish word "siúlta", meaning "of walking". This refers to the nomadic lifestyle of the Travellers, as well as the fact that they were commonly referred to for a time as "the Walking People" by English speakers in Ireland. In Irish, Travellers are called an Lucht siúil "the walking people" (literally "the people of walking"). The form an Lucht siúlta (with the same meaning), although not usual, is not beyond the bounds of possibility.