Editing Cant (language)

{{Short description|Linguistic term for jargon of a group}}{{Other uses|Cant (disambiguation)}}

A '''cant''' is the [[jargon]] or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.<ref name="McArthur2">McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) [[Oxford University Press]] {{ISBN|0-19-214183-X}}</ref> It may also be called a '''cryptolect''', '''argot''', '''pseudo-language''', '''anti-language''' or '''secret language'''. Each term differs slightly in meaning; their uses are inconsistent.

==Etymology==
There are two main schools of thought on the origin of the word ''cant'':

* In [[linguistics]], the derivation is normally seen to be from the [[Irish language|Irish]] word {{Lang|ga|caint}} (older spelling {{Lang|ga|cainnt}}), "speech, talk",<ref name="Queen's2" /> or [[Scottish Gaelic]] {{Lang|gd|cainnt}}. It is seen to have derived amongst the [[Itinerant groups in Europe|itinerant]] groups of people in [[Ireland]] and [[Scotland]], who hailed from both Irish/Scottish Gaelic and English-speaking backgrounds, ultimately developing as various [[creole language]]s.<ref name="Queen's2" /> However, the various types of cant (Scottish/Irish) are mutually unintelligible. The Irish creole variant is termed "[[Shelta|the cant]]". Its speakers from the [[Irish Traveller]] community know it as ''Gammon'', while the linguistic community identifies it as ''shelta''.<ref name="Queen's2" />
* Outside Gaelic circles, the derivation is typically seen to be from [[Latin]] {{Lang|la|cantāre}}, 'to sing', via [[Norman French]] {{Lang|nrf-Latn|canter|size=100%|italic=yes}}.<ref name="McArthur2" /><ref name="Collins2">''Collins English Dictionary 21st Century Edition'' (2001) [[HarperCollins]] {{ISBN|0-00-472529-8}}</ref> Within this derivation, the history of the word is seen to have referred to the chanting of friars initially, used disparagingly some time between the 12th<ref name="Collins2" /> and 15th centuries.<ref name="McArthur2" /> Gradually, the term was applied to the singsong of beggars and eventually a criminal jargon.

==Argot==
An ''argot'' ({{IPAc-en|lang|pron|ˈ|ɑr|ɡ|oʊ}}; from [[French language|French]] ''argot'' {{IPA|fr|aʁɡo|}} '[[slang]]') is a language used by various groups to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term ''argot'' is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, occupation, or hobby, in which [[Word sense|sense]] it overlaps with ''[[jargon]]''.

In his 1862 novel ''[[Les Misérables]],'' [[Victor Hugo]] refers to that argot as both "the language of the dark" and "the language of misery".<ref>{{cite web|author=Schwartz, Robert M.|title=Interesting Facts about Convicts of France in the 19th Century|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/popcorn/convicts2.html|publisher=Mt. Holyoke University|access-date=2019-04-26|archive-date=2021-07-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210703205052/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hist255/popcorn/convicts2.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The earliest known record of the term ''argot'' in this context was in a 1628 document. The word was probably derived from the contemporary name {{Lang|fr|les argotiers}}, given to a group of thieves at that time.<ref>Guiraud, Pierre, ''L'Argot. Que sais-je?'', Paris: PUF, 1958, p. 700.</ref>

Under the strictest definition, an ''argot'' is a proper language with its own grammatical system.<ref>{{cite book|author=Carol De Dobay Rifelj|title=Word and Figure: The Language of Nineteenth-Century French Poetry|publisher=Ohio State University Press|year=1987|isbn=9780814204221|page=10}}</ref> Such complete secret languages are rare because the speakers usually have some public language in common, on which the argot is largely based. Such argots are [[Lexicon|lexically]] divergent [[Variety (linguistics)|forms]] of a particular language, with a part of its vocabulary replaced by words unknown to the larger public; ''argot'' used in this [[Word sense|sense]] is [[synonym]]ous with ''cant''. For example, ''argot'' in this sense is used for systems such as {{Lang|fr|[[verlan]]}} and {{Lang|fr|[[louchébem]]}}, which retain French syntax and apply transformations only to individual words (and often only to a certain subset of words, such as nouns, or semantic content words).<ref name="valdman2">{{cite journal|last=Valdman|first=Albert|date=May 2000|title=La Langue des faubourgs et des banlieues: de l'argot au français populaire|journal=The French Review|language=fr|publisher=American Association of Teachers of French|volume=73|issue=6|pages=1179–1192|jstor=399371}}</ref> Such systems are examples of ''argots'' {{Lang|fr|à clef}}, or "coded argots".<ref name="valdman2" />

Specific words can go from argot into everyday speech or the other way. For example, modern French {{Lang|fr|loufoque}} 'crazy', 'goofy', now common usage, originated in the {{Lang|fr|louchébem}} transformation of Fr. {{Lang|fr|fou}} 'crazy'.

In the field of medicine, [[physician]]s have been said to have their own spoken argot, cant, or slang, which incorporates commonly understood abbreviations and acronyms, frequently used technical [[colloquialism]]s, and much everyday professional slang (that may or may not be institutionally or geographically localized).<ref name="Hukill-19612">{{Cite journal|last1=Hukill|first1=Peter B.|last2=H.|first2=A. L.|last3=Jackson|first3=James L.|date=1961|title=The Spoken Language of Medicine: Argot, Slang, Cant|journal=American Speech|volume=36|issue=2|pages=145–151|doi=10.2307/453853|jstor=453853}}</ref> While many of these colloquialisms may prove impenetrable to most lay people, few seem to be specifically designed to conceal meaning from patients (perhaps because standard medical terminology would usually suffice anyway).<ref name="Hukill-19612" />

==Anti-language==
The concept of the ''anti-language'' was first defined and studied by the linguist [[Michael Halliday]], who used the term to describe the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of an [[anti-society]].<ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Halliday|first=M. a. K.|date=1976-09-01|title=Anti-Languages|journal=American Anthropologist|language=en|volume=78|issue=3|pages=570–584|doi=10.1525/aa.1976.78.3.02a00050|issn=1548-1433|doi-access=}}</ref> An anti-society is a small, separate community intentionally created within a larger society as an alternative to or resistance of it.<ref name=":02" /> For example, [[Adam Podgórecki]] studied one anti-society composed of Polish prisoners; Bhaktiprasad Mallik of Sanskrit College studied another composed of criminals in Calcutta.<ref name=":02" />

These societies develop anti-languages as a means to prevent outsiders from understanding their communication and as a manner of establishing a subculture that meets the needs of their alternative social structure.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|last=Baker|first=Paul|title=Polari The Lost Language of Gay Men|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-0415261807|pages=13–14}}</ref> Anti-languages differ from [[slang]] and jargon in that they are used solely among ostracized social groups, including prisoners,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Zarzycki|first=Łukasz|title=Socio-lingual Phenomenon of the Anti-language of Polish and American Prison Inmates|url=http://repozytorium.uwb.edu.pl/jspui/bitstream/11320/4122/1/Zarzycki_Crossroads_8.pdf|journal=Crossroads}}</ref> criminals, homosexuals,<ref name=":12" /> and teenagers.<ref name="autogenerated12">{{Cite journal|last=Kohn|first=Liberty|title=Antilanguage and a Gentleman's Goloss: Style, Register, and Entitlement To Irony in A Clockwork Orange|url=http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_81291_en.pdf|journal=ESharp|pages=1–27}}</ref> Anti-languages use the same basic vocabulary and grammar as their native language in an unorthodox fashion. For example, anti-languages borrow words from other languages, create unconventional compounds, or utilize new suffixes for existing words. Anti-languages may also change words using [[Metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]], reversal of sounds or letters (e.g., apple to ''elppa''), or substituting their consonants.<ref name=":02" /> Therefore, anti-languages are distinct and unique and are not simply [[dialect]]s of existing languages.

In his essay "Anti-Language", Halliday synthesized the research of Thomas Harman, [[Adam Podgórecki]], and Bhaktiprasad Mallik to explore anti-languages and the connection between verbal communication and the maintenance of a social structure. For this reason, the study of anti-languages is both a study of [[sociology]] and linguistics. Halliday's findings can be compiled as a list of nine criteria that a language must meet to be considered an anti-language:

* An anti-society is a society set up within another society as a conscious alternative to it.
* Like the early records of the languages of exotic cultures, the information usually comes to us as word lists.
* The simplest form taken by an anti-language is that of new words from old: it is a language relexicalised.
* The principle is that of same grammar, different vocabulary.
* Effective communication depends on exchanging meanings that are inaccessible to the layperson.
* The anti-language is not just an optional extra; it is the fundamental element in the existence of the "second life" phenomenon.
* The most important vehicle of reality-maintenance is conversation. All who employ this same form of communication are reality-maintaining others.
* The anti-language is a vehicle of resocialisation.
* There is continuity between language and anti-language.

Examples of anti-languages include [[Cockney rhyming slang]], [[CB slang]], [[verlan]], the ''[[grypsera]]'' of Polish prisons, [[thieves' cant]],<ref>{{citation|author=Martin Montgomery|title=An introduction to language and society|date=January 1986|chapter=Language and subcultures: Anti-language|publisher=Methuen |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ju4NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA93|isbn=9780416346305}}</ref> [[Polari]],<ref>"[http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/paulb/polari/home.htm Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men]", [[Lancaster University]]. ''Department of Linguistics and English Language''.</ref> and [[Bangime]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bradley |first=Matthew T. |title=The secret ones |magazine=[[New Scientist]] |date=31 May 2014 |pages=42-45 |volume=222 |number=2971 |url=https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/33705647/new-scientist-31-may-2014bak |via=[[Yumpu]] |quote=... a language that hides as much as it communicates. How did this "anti-language" emerge? The slave trade may explain why the Bangande were determined to keep their own language. ...what British linguist [[Michael Halliday]] calls an anti-language.}}</ref>

===In popular culture===
Anti-languages are sometimes created by authors and used by characters in novels. These anti-languages do not have complete lexicons, cannot be observed in use for [[linguistic description]], and therefore cannot be studied in the same way a language spoken by an existing anti-society would. However, they are still used in the study of anti-languages. Roger Fowler's "Anti-Languages in Fiction" analyzes [[Anthony Burgess]]'s ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' and [[William S. Burroughs]]' ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' to redefine the nature of the anti-language and to describe its ideological purpose.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fowler|first=Roger|date=Summer 1979|title=Anti-Language in Fiction|journal=Style|volume=13|issue=3|pages=259–278|jstor=42945250}}</ref>

''A Clockwork Orange'' is a popular example of a novel where the main character is a teenage boy who speaks an anti-language called [[Nadsat]]. This language is often referred to as an argot, but it has been argued that it is an anti-language because of the social structure it maintains through the social class of the droogs.<ref name="autogenerated12" />

== Regional usage of term ==
In parts of [[Connacht]], in Ireland, ''cant'' mainly refers to an [[auction]], typically on [[Fair|fair day]] ("Cantmen and Cantwomen, some from as far away as Dublin, would converge on Mohill on a Fair Day, ... set up their stalls ... and immediately start auctioning off their merchandise") and secondly means talk ("very entertaining conversation was often described as 'great cant'" or "crosstalk").{{sfn|Dolan|2006|pp=43}}{{sfn|O'Crohan|1987}}

In Scotland, two unrelated creole languages are termed ''cant''. ''[[Scottish Cant]]'' (a mixed language, primarily [[Scots Language|Scots]] and [[Romani language|Romani]] with [[Scottish Gaelic]] influences) is spoken by lowland Roma groups. ''Highland Traveller's Cant'' (or ''[[Beurla Reagaird]]'') is a [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-based cant of the Indigenous Highland Traveller population.<ref name="Queen's2">Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002) [[Queen's University Belfast]] {{ISBN|0-85389-832-4}}</ref> The cants are mutually unintelligible.

The word has also been used as a [[suffix]] to coin names for modern-day jargons such as "medicant", a term used to refer to the type of language employed by members of the medical profession that is largely unintelligible to lay people.<ref name="McArthur2" />

==Examples==

* [[Adurgari]], from [[Afghanistan]]
* [[Agbirigba]], from [[Nigeria]]
* [[Äynu language|Äynu]], from [[China]]
* [[Back slang]], from [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
* [[Indonesian slang|Bahasa G]], from [[Indonesia]]<ref>{{cite web |title=bahasa gaul - KBBI VI Online |lang=id |website=[[Agency for Language Development and Cultivation]] |url=https://kbbi.kemdikbud.go.id/entri/bahasa%20gaul |access-date=16 August 2024 |quote=informal Indonesian dialect used by certain communities or in certain areas for socializing }}</ref>
* [[Banjački]], from [[Serbia]]
* [[Barallete]], from [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], [[Spain]]
* [[Bargoens]], from the [[Netherlands]]
* [[Bron (cant)|Bron]] from [[León, Spain|León]] and [[Asturias]], Spain
* [[Beurla Reagaird]], a Gaelic-based cant used by Highland Traveller community in [[Scotland]]
* [[Boontling]] from California
* [[Caló (Chicano)]], from the US/Mexican border
* [[Rhyming slang|Cockney Rhyming Slang]], from [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
* [[Engsh]], from [[Kenya]]
* [[Fala dos arxinas]], from Galicia, Spain
* [[Fenya]] from [[Russia]]
* [[Gacería]], from Spain
* [[Gayle language]], from South African gay culture
* [[Gender transposition]]
* [[Germanía]], from Spain
* [[Grypsera]], from [[Poland]]
* [[Gumuțeasca]], from [[Romania]]
* [[Gyaru-moji]], from [[Japan]]
* [[Hijra Farsi]], from South Asia, used by the ''[[Hijra (South Asia)|hijra]]'' and ''[[Kothi (gender)|kothi]]'' subcultures (traditional indigenous approximate analogues to LGBT subcultures)
* [[IsiNgqumo]], from [[South Africa]] and [[Zimbabwe]]
* [[Iyaric]], from [[Jamaica]], used by adherents of [[Rastafari]]
* [[Javanais]], from [[France]]
* [[Jejemon]], from the [[Philippines]]
* [[Joual]], from [[Quebec French]]
* [[Kaliarda]], from [[Greek language|Greek]], used by LGBT community.
* [[Klezmer-loshn]], from [[Eastern Europe]]
* [[Korean ginseng-harvesters' cant]], from [[Korea]]
* [[Leet]] (or ''1337 speak''), from internet culture
* [[Louchébem]], from France
* [[Lóxoro]], from Peru
* [[Lubunca]], from [[Turkey]], used by LGBT community.
* [[Lunfardo]], from [[Argentina]] and [[Uruguay]]
* [[Martian language]], to replace Chinese characters
* [[Meshterski]], from [[Bulgaria]]
* [[Miguxês]], from the [[emo]], [[Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster]] subcultures of young netizens in Brazil
* [[Minderico]], a [[sociolect]] or a secret language traditionally spoken by [[tailors]] and traders in [[Minde, Portugal|Minde]], [[Portugal]].
* [[Nadsat]], a fictional argot
* [[Nihali]], from [[India]]
* [[Nyōbō kotoba]], from [[Japan]]
* [[Padonkaffsky jargon]] (or Olbanian) from [[Runet]], Russia
* [[Pig Latin]]
* [[Pitkern language|Pitkernese]]
* [[Podaná]], from [[Greece]]
* [[Pajubá]], from [[Brazil]] a dialect of the gay subculture that uses African or African-sounding words as slang, heavily borrowed from the Afro-Brazilian religions
* [[Polari]], a general term for a diverse but unrelated group of dialects used by [[actors]], [[Funfair|circus and fairground showmen]], gay subculture, criminal underworld (criminals, prostitutes).<ref>Partridge, Eric (1937) ''Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English''</ref>
* [[Rotvælsk]], from [[Denmark]]
* [[Rotwelsch]], from [[Germany]]
* [[Šatrovački]], from the former [[Yugoslavia]]
* [[Scottish Cant]], a variant of [[Scots Language|Scots]] and [[Romani language|Romani]] used by the Lowland Romani people in [[Scotland]], United Kingdom
* [[Shelta]], from the [[Irish Traveller|Irish Travellers]] community in [[Ireland]]
* [[Sheng (linguistics)|Sheng]] from [[Kenya]]
* [[Spasell]], from Italy
* [[Swardspeak]] (or Bekimon, or Bekinese), from the Philippines
* [[Thieves' cant]] (or peddler's French, or St Giles' Greek), from the United Kingdom
*Tōgo, from Japan (a back slang)
* [[Totoiana]], from Romania
* [[Tsotsitaal]], from South Africa
* [[Tutnese]], from the United States
* [[Verlan]], from France
* [[Xíriga]], from Asturias, Spain{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}
* [[Zargari Romani|Zargari]], from Iran <ref>{{cite web |last1=Baghbidi |first1=Hassan Rezai |title=The Zargari Language: An Endangered European Romani in Iran |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361415781_The_Zargari_Language_An_Endangered_European_Romani_in_Iran |website=researchgate.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |first=Jadwiga |last=Pstrusińska |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/864565715 |title=Secret languages of Afghanistan and their speakers. |date=2013 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publ |isbn=978-1-4438-4970-8 |pages=34 |language=en |oclc=864565715}}</ref>

=== Thieves' cant ===
The [[thieves' cant]] was a feature of popular pamphlets and plays, particularly between 1590 and 1615, but continued to feature in literature through the 18th century. There are questions about how genuinely the literature reflected [[vernacular]] use in the criminal underworld. A thief in 1839 claimed that the cant he had seen in print was nothing like the cant then used by "gypsies, thieves, and beggars." He also said that each of these used distinct vocabularies, which overlapped, the gypsies having a cant word for everything, and the beggars using a lower style than the thieves.<ref>Ribton-Turner, C. J. 1887 Vagrants and Vagrancy and Beggars and Begging, London, 1887, p.245, quoting an examination taken at [[Salford, Greater Manchester|Salford]] Gaol</ref>

==See also==

* [[Code word (figure of speech)]]
* [[Code talker]]
* [[Costermonger]]
* [[Doublespeak]]
* [[Gibberish (language game)]]
* [[Jargon]]
* [[Lazăr Șăineanu]], a Romanian who studied such languages
* [[Microculture]]
* [[Obfuscation]]
* [[Patois]]
* [[Rhyming slang]]
* [[Shibboleth]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
===Secondary sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|first=Tomás|last=O'Crohan|title=Island Cross-Talk: Pages from a Diary|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1987|isbn=0192122525|edition=translated from Irish by Tim Enright}} 
*{{cite book|last=Dolan|first=Terence Patrick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RN0p1uienWMC&pg=PA43|title=A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English|publisher=Terence Patrick Dolan|year=2006|isbn=0717140393|edition=revised}}

==Further reading==
*Halliday, M. A. K. (1976) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/674418 "Anti-Languages"]. ''American Anthropologist'' 78 (3) pp.&nbsp;570–584
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|cant|argot|cryptolect}}

*{{Commons category-inline|Cant languages}}

{{Authority control}}
{{Countries and languages lists}}
{{Language phonologies}}
{{Philosophy of language}}

[[Category:Cant languages| ]]
[[Category:Language varieties and styles]]
[[Category:Linguistics terminology]]
[[Category:Shibboleths]]
[[Category:Slang]]