Editing Shelta (section)

{{short description|Language spoken by Irish Travellers}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Shelta
| altname          = The Seldru, the Cant, {{lang|ga|Seiltis}}
| nativename       = {{lang|sth|De Gammon}}, {{lang|sth|Tarri}}
| region           = [[Ireland]]
| ethnicity        = [[Irish Travellers]]
| speakers         = {{sigfig|50,700|1}}
| date             = 2008
| ref              = e25
| script           = [[Latin script|Latin]]
| familycolor      = mixed
| family           = {{Hlist|[[Mixed language|Mixed]]|[[Indo-European]], as mixed [[Irish language|Irish]] and [[English language|English]]}}
| iso3             = sth
| glotto           = shel1236
| glottorefname    = Shelta <!--Middle English-->
| lingua           = 50-ACA-a
| notice           = IPA
| fam1             = 
| fam2             = 
}}
'''Shelta''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ʃ|ɛ|l|t|ə}};<ref>{{cite book |first=Laurie |last=Bauer |date=2007 |title=The Linguistics Student's Handbook |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] / [[Oxford University Press]] |url= https://archive.org/details/linguisticsstude0000baue |via=Internet Archive |url-access=registration |isbn=9780195332841 |doi=10.1017/S0332586509002078|s2cid=143915949 }}</ref> [[Gaeilge|Irish]]: {{lang|ga|Seiltis}})<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tearma.ie/Search.aspx?term=shelta |title=shelta |work=tearma.ie – Dictionary of Irish Terms – Foclóir Téarmaíochta |access-date=5 May 2018}}</ref> is a [[language]] spoken by [[Irish Travellers]] ({{lang|ga|Mincéirí}}), particularly in [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] and the [[United Kingdom]].<ref name="McArthur">{{cite book |editor-last=McArthur |editor-first=T. |title=The Oxford Companion to the English Language |date=1992 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=0-19-214183-X}}</ref> It is widely known as the [[Cant (language)|Cant]], to its native speakers in Ireland as '''{{lang|sth|de Gammon}}''' or '''{{lang|sth|Tarri}}''', and to the linguistic community as Shelta.<ref name="Queen's">{{cite book |editor1-last=Kirk |editor1-first=J. |editor2-last=Ó Baoill |editor2-first=D. |title=Travellers and Their Language |date=2002 |publisher=[[Queen's University Belfast]] |isbn=0-85389-832-4}}</ref> Other terms for it include the '''Seldru''', and '''Shelta Thari''', among others. The exact number of native speakers is hard to determine due to sociolinguistic issues<ref name="Queen's" /> but ''[[Ethnologue]]'' puts the number of speakers at 30,000 in the UK, 6,000 in Ireland, and 50,000 in the US. The figure for at least the UK is dated to 1990. It is not clear if the other figures are from the same source.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sth |title=Shelta |work=[[Ethnologue]] |date=2009 |access-date=9 March 2010}}</ref>

Linguistically Shelta is today seen as a [[mixed language]] that stems from a community of travelling people in Ireland that was originally predominantly [[Irish language|Irish]]-speaking. The community later went through a period of widespread bilingualism that resulted in a language based heavily on [[Hiberno-English]] with heavy influences from Irish.<ref name="Queen's" /> As different varieties of Shelta display different degrees of anglicisation, it is hard to determine the extent of the Irish [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]]. The ''Oxford Companion to the English Language'' puts it at 2,000–3,000 words.<ref name="McArthur" />