Scottish Cant (often called Scots-Romani or Scotch-Romani) is a cant spoken in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

by Lowland Scottish Romani Travellers.Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002) Queen's University Belfast

Classification

It is uncertain whether Scottish Cant is the result of Scottish Lowland Romani Travellers transitioning from speaking Romani to speaking a mixed language (like what happened to Romanichal Travellers in England with Angloromani and Romanisæl Travellers in Sweden and Norway with

Scandoromani Scandoromani is a North Germanic based Para-Romani. It is spoken by the Scandinavian Romanisæl Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Norway (c. 100–150 elderly speakers), and formerly in Sweden. Subforms are referred to as: * Trave ...

), or whether it is the result of Romani in Lowland Scotland merging with an indigenous Lowland Traveller group. The large number of Scots derived words and archaic Scots words within Scottish Cant vocabulary suggests that merging with another group, although it could just be that Lowland Scottish Travellers are fully Romani in their roots and they just picked up these words, similar to how Angloromani has picked up words such as and which are derived from English. 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. This is because it is spoken by the Scottish Lowland Travellers/Gypsies, a traditionally itinerant group of Romani heritage. Lowland Scottish Travellers/Gypsies are not to be confused with indigenous Highland Travellers, who are an entirely indigenous group of travelling people. They have their own language, distinct From Scottish Cant. Scottish Cant is considered Para-Romani language, like Angloromani and Scandoromani for example. The

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well a ...

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

Use of archaic Scots

Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in Modern Scots 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 form of "ear") * "bad" (Gaelic "old")

Romani influences

The percentage of Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the lexicon; some examples are: * "man" (Romani "a non-Romani person") * "water" (Romani )

Recordings

Hamish Henderson and other folklorists recorded various conversations about the Scottish Cant language, with speakers including Lizzie Higgins and Jeannie Robertson. He also recorded Belle Stewart singing a version of " Dance to Your Daddy" in both Cant and

Scots Scots usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: * Scots language, a language of the West Germanic language family native to Scotland * Scots people, a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland * Scoti, a Latin na ...

References