Book wanted: _The Cant Languages of Europe_

Stephen Goranson goranson at DUKE.EDU
Fri Sep 17 16:50:00 UTC 2010


abebooks.com  lists something I don't find on worldcat:

9781156416877
Cant Languages: Polari, Argot, List of Chicano Caló Words and Expressions, Shelta, Caló, Caló, Lunfardo, Thieves' Cant, Satrovacki, Rotwelsch
ISBN 10: 1156416876 / 1-156-41687-6
ISBN 13: 9781156416877
Publisher: Books LLC
Publication Date: 2010-05-20


Stephen
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Robin Hamilton [robin.hamilton3 at VIRGINMEDIA.COM]
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 12:20 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] Book wanted:   _The Cant Languages of Europe_

Does anyone know if such a thing as the above book, or anything like it,
exists?

It would be similar to texts dealing with Pidgins and Creoles, and have an
introductory chapter on cant, possibly drawing on M.A.K.Halliday's 1976
article, "Anti-languages", followed by chapters on Rotwelsch, Germania,
Shelta, Peddler's French, etc., possibly with a separate section on the
various European non-inflectional varieties of Romani.

Failing that, is there a central web resource that draws these things
together?

It's possible to make a start piecing together links via Wikipedia, but that
work seems more than usually curate's eggish when it comes to this area.
(The article on [English] "Thieves' cant", for instance, is more than a
little off the wall, though whoever wrote it has at least come across the
Winchester Confessions of 1615-1616, which still isn't that generally
noticed.)

Robin

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