Nu-Shu

[A. Maberry]

I think you are absolutely correct. I've seen this a couple of times, but
the film clip and story are pretty old by now and Boontling may have died
out. The standard reference work on it is Charles C. Adams. Boontling : an
American lingo, with a dictionary of Boontling. Austin : U Texas, 1971
(reprinted 1990). The work grew out of Adams' 1967 Ph. D. dissertation
done here at University of Washington titled: Boontling, limited language
of Boonville, California and its environs.
According to Adams, "Boont" is either the town of Boonville, or as a verb,
to express anything in "Boontling" a resident of Boonville is a "Boonter".

allen
maberry at u.washington.edu

On Wed, 21 Feb 2001, David M. Robertson wrote:

> D. Ezra Johnson wrote:
>
> > This thread reminded me of something I saw on TV a long time ago, I have no
> > idea where. Some town in Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho (or thereabouts) where a
> > local slang or jargon was used for communication. I believe the program
> > interviewed people at a diner, but I'm not talking about your typical
> > short-order slang, this was something unusual.
> >
> > Anyone know what?
> >
>
> The scholars among us will probably be able to point to a number of instances of
> such things, but the one I remember having seen treated several times in the
> popular media is Boontling.
>
> Boontling was (probably still is) used by residents of Boonville in Northern
> California. The term for a resident of Boonville is "Boont," thus Boontling is
> short for Boont Lingo.
>
>   Snake
>