Scottish Cant, Scots Romani, Scotch Romani or the Scottish Romani language is a cant and variety of the

Romani language Romani ( ; also Romanes , Romany, Roma; ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani people. The largest of these are Vlax Romani language, Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Roma ...

spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani, who primarily live in the

Scottish Lowlands The Lowlands ( or , ; , ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland. The region is characterised by its relatively flat or gently rolling terrain as opposed to the mountainous landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. This area includes ci ...

.Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002)

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

Classification

Up to 50% of Scottish Cant originates from Romani-derived lexicon.Wilde 1889, cited in Not just lucky white heather and clothes pegs: putting European Gypsies and Traveller economic niches in context. In: Ethnicity and Economy:Race and class revisited. C. Clark (2002). Strathclyde University. The

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

element in the dialects of Scottish Cant is put anywhere between 0.8% and 20%.

Romani vocabulary

The percentage of traditional Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

; some examples are: * "man" (Romani "a non-Romani person") * "water" (Romani )

Use of archaic Scots

Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in

Modern Scots Modern Scots comprises the varieties of Scots traditionally spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster, from 1700. Throughout its history, Modern Scots has been undergoing a process of language attrition, whereby successive generations ...

as spoken by non-Travellers, such as "buried", "earth", both from , and , from (galley), "a bothy".

Gaelic influences

Loans from Gaelic include words like: * "ears" (Gaelic or , a

dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a drink". In this exampl ...

form of "ear") * "bad" (Gaelic "old") *

Recordings

Hamish Henderson (James) Hamish Scott Henderson (11 November 1919 – 9 March 2002) was a Scotland, Scottish poet, songwriter, communist, intellectual and soldier. Henderson was a catalyst for the folk revival in Scotland. He was also an accomplished folk s ...

and other folklorists recorded various conversations about the Scottish Cant language, with speakers including Lizzie Higgins and

Jeannie Robertson Regina Christina Robertson (21 October 1908 – 13 March 1975) was a Scottish folk singer. She is known for her version of the traditional song " I'm a Man You Don't Meet Every Day", otherwise known as "Jock Stewart", which was covered by ...

. He also recorded

Belle Stewart Belle Stewart, born Isobella McGregor, (18 July 1906 – 4 September 1997) was a Scottish Traveller traditional singer. Her biography, ''Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart'', was written by her daughter, Sheila Stewart, and publ ...

singing a version of " Dance to Your Daddy" in both Cant and Scots.

References