Shelta - WikiHQ

Shelta (; Irish: ) is a language spoken by Irish Travellers (), particularly in Ireland and the United Kingdom. It is also widely known as the Cant, known to its native speakers in Ireland as or , and known to the academic or professional linguistic community as Shelta. Other terms for it include the Seldru, and Shelta Thari, among others (see below).

The exact number of native speakers is hard to determine due to sociolinguistic issues

Linguistically, Shelta is today seen as a mixed language that stems from a community of travelling people in Ireland that was originally predominantly Irish-speaking. The community later went through a period of widespread bilingualism that resulted in a language based heavily on Hiberno-English with significant influences from Irish. Sheldru,

Etymology

The word Shelta appeared in print for the first time in 1882, in the book The Gypsies by the "gypsiologist" Charles Leland, who claimed to have discovered it as the "fifth Celtic tongue". The word's etymology has long been a matter of debate. Modern Celticists believe that Irish "to walk" is at the root, either via a term such as 'a walker' or a form of the verbal noun ; thus, , 'the walking people', lit. 'the people of walks', is the traditional Irish term for Travellers.

Origins and history

Linguists have been documenting Shelta since at least the 1870s. The first works were published in 1880 and 1882 by Charles Leland.

In the earliest but undocumented period, linguists surmise that the Traveller community was Irish-speaking until a period of widespread bilingualism in Irish and Hiberno-English, and Scots language in Scotland set in, leading to creolisation (possibly with a trilingual stage).

Thus, by design, it is not mutually intelligible with either English or Irish.

Shelta is a secret language. Travellers do not like to share the language with outsiders, named , or non-travellers. When speaking Shelta in front of Buffers, Travellers will disguise the structure so as to make it seem like they aren't speaking Shelta at all.

Lexicon

While Shelta is influenced by English grammar, it is a mixture of Irish words as well. The word order is altered, syllables are reversed, and many of the original words are Irish that have been altered or reversed. Many Shelta words have been disguised using techniques such as back slang, where sounds are transposed. For example, 'kiss' from Irish , or the addition of sounds, for example 'father' from Irish .

Grammar

Shelta shares its main syntactic features with Hiberno-English and the majority of its morphological features such as -s plurals and past tense markers.

Phonology

Shelta has 27 consonants and 6 phonemic vowels.

Many words are complex by incorporating numerous consonants within, as in the word for 'tree, bush' with the consonant being a hissing sound that is held in the back of the throat, and is held longer than other consonants.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|+ Vowels

Orthography

There is no standard orthography. Broadly speaking, Shelta can either be written following an Irish-type orthography or an English-type orthography. For example, the word for 'married' can either be spelled or ; the word for 'woman' can either be spelled or . who notes that the Cant reproduction is not exactly representative of actual speech in normal situations.

{| class="wikitable"

!Shelta (old)

!Shelta (current)

!English

!Irish

|Our Father, who art in heaven,

|Hallowed be thy name.

|Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,

|On earth as it is in heaven.

|Give us today our daily bread.

|And forgive us our trespasses,

|As we forgive those who trespass against us.

|And lead us not into temptation,

|but deliver us from evil.

|Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory

|For ever and ever

|Amen.

References

Bibliography

Also reissued by Armagh: Craobh Rua Books (1997).

External links

Shelta lexicon and pronunciation guide