(no subject)

[gothwalk]

Quick links here to something that came up in a conversation at work - the language of the Irish Travellers, variously called the Cant, the Gammon, Shelta, or Pavee. This was spoken to some degree in my hometown of Bunclody, too, as evidenced by the second link below.

Shelta
Sally Connors speaks the Gammon

Comments

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

My grand da spoke Shelta when under the influence. From what I understand, it is the 2nd most common language in Arkansas (a southern US state),even though by now it is much mixed with English.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

That's bizarre. :)

It's pretty mixed with English in Bunclody, too - we never knew how to form full sentences, most of us, so we just mixed in bits and pieces and words. Munya. Deist. Byore. Fien. Rulya.

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

From what I understand many of the travellers who emigrated to the US ended up living together in Arkansas, a rather remote area (esp at the time). I am not sure if it is still true, but at one point they are said to have had their own school system,parishes etc.

[bheansidhe.livejournal.com]

Really! I've never heard that (which is not to say it isn't true). There's a Shelta Cave in Arkansas, and Shelta is an old-fashioned woman's name there.

Here's notes on how English is pronounced in Arkansas.

I grew up in Louisiana, which is the state immediately below Arkansas (between Arkansas and the Gulf of Mexico). In Louisiana, of course, the main secondary language is Cajun French. It's incomprehensible to modern French people, as it's based on an 18th century form of the language mixed with local Indian, Spanish, and African words, and it grew in linguistic isolation for 300 years. MOst Cajuns didn't speak any English at all until the 1940s. Today there's a big Francophone revival and they're trying to save the language from dying out, much like Gaelic and Welsh.

[bardiphouka.livejournal.com]

Apparently(doing a bit of digging) it was generally in the Ft Smith area and has disappeared to a large part, leaving mostly a tonne of people named Riley and O'Riley in the area.
'

[wyvernfriend.livejournal.com]

Also occasionally known as Shegam - spoken occasionally in Tuam, Co. Galway one of the Saw Doctors albums has some stuff in Shegam on it. Shegam has some Irish influences.