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| A '''cant''' (or '''cryptolect''') is the [[jargon]] or [[argot]] of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead [[Lion|lions]] [[Cracking|outside of]] the [[Ciphertext|car]]<ref name=McArthur>McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) [[Oxford University Press]] ISBN 0-19-214183-X</ref>
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| ==Etymology==
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| There are two main schools of thought on the origin of the word ''cant''.
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| ===Derivation in Celtic linguistics===
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| In [[Goidelic languages|Celtic]] linguistics, the derivation is normally seen to be from the [[Scottish Gaelic]] ''cainnt'' or [[Irish language|Irish]] word ''caint'' (older spelling ''cainnt'') "speech, talk".<ref name = Queen's>Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002) [[Queen's University Belfast]] ISBN 0-85389-832-4</ref> In this sense it is seen to have derived amongst the [[Itinerant groups in Europe|itinerant]] groups of people in [[Scotland]] and [[Ireland]], hailing from both Irish/Scottish Gaelic and English-speaking backgrounds, ultimately developing as various [[creole language]]s.<ref name = Queen's/> However, the various types of cant (Scottish/Irish) are mutually unintelligible to each other.
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| The Irish creol variant is simply termed "[[Shelta|the Cant]]." Its speakers from the [[Irish Traveller]] community know it as ''Gammon,'' and the linguistic community identifies it as ''Shelta''.<ref name = Queen's/>
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| In Scotland there are two unrelated creol languages termed as "cant". [[Scottish Cant]] (a variant of [[Scots Language|Scots]], [[Romani language|Romani]] and Scottish Gaelic influences) is spoken by Lowland Gypsy groups. ''Highland Traveller's Cant'' (or ''[[Beurla Reagaird]]'') is a [[Scottish Gaelic|Gaelic]]-based cant of the Indigenous Highland Traveller population.<ref name = Queen's/> Both cants are mutually unintelligible with each other.
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| ===Derivation outside Celtic linguistics===
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| Outside Goidelic circles, the derivation is normally seen to be from [[Latin]] ''cantāre'' "to sing" via [[Norman French]] ''canter''.<ref name=McArthur/><ref name=Collins>''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 originally have referred to the chanting of friars, used in a disparaging way some time between the 12th<ref name=Collins/> and 15th centuries.<ref name=McArthur/> Gradually the term was applied to the singsong of beggars and eventually a criminal jargon.
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| ==Usage==
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| 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>
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| In June 2009 it was reported that inmates in one English prison were using "Elizabethan cant" as a means of communication that guards would not understand, although the words used are not part of the canon of recognised cant.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191475/Convicts-use-ye-olde-slang-fool-guards.html|title=Convicts use ye olde Elizabethan slang to smuggle drugs past guards into prison|work=[[Daily Mail]]|date=2009-06-08|accessdate=2009-06-25}}</ref>
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| 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 [[Layperson|lay people]].<ref name=McArthur/>
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| ==Examples==
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| * [[Adurgari]], from [[Afghanistan]]
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| * [[Agbirigba]], from Nigeria
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| * [[Banjački]], from [[Serbia]]
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| * [[Barallete]], from [[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]], [[Spain]]
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| * [[Bargoens]], from the [[Netherlands]]
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| * [[Bron (language)|Bron]] from [[León, Spain|León]] and [[Asturias]], Spain
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| * [[Beurla Reagaird]], a Gaelic-based cant used by Highland Traveller community in [[Scotland]]
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| * [[Rhyming Slang|Cockney Rhyming Slang]], from [[England]]
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| * [[Fala dos arxinas]], from Galicia, Spain
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| * [[Fenya]] from [[Russia]]
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| * [[Gacería]], from Spain
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| * [[Germanía]], from Spain
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| * [[Grypsera]], from [[Poland]]
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| * [[Gyaru-moji]], from [[Japan]]
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| * [[Hijra Farsi]], from South Asia, used by the ''[[Hijra (South Asia)|hijra]]'' and ''[[Kothi (gender)|kothi]]'' subcultures (traditional indigenous approximate analogues to LGBT subcultures)
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| * [[Klezmer-loshn]], from [[Eastern Europe]]
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| * [[Lunfardo]], from [[Argentina]] and [[Uruguay]]
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| * [[Javanais]], from [[France]]
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| * [[Jejemon]] from the [[Philippines]]
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| * [[Louchébem]], from France
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| * [[Miguxês]], from the [[emo]], [[Hipster (contemporary subculture)|hipster]] subcultures of young netizen Brazilians
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| * [[Meshterski]], from [[Bulgaria]]
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| * [[Padonkaffsky jargon]] from [[Runet]]
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| * [[Pajubá]], in the [[travesti]] subculture in [[Brazil]], later expanded to [[LGBT people in Brazil|LGBT]] in general
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| * [[Polari]], a general term for a diverse but unrelated groups 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> The Polari would be unintelligible to the wider community including groups who speak other Polari cants, to prevent the outsider from understanding the users' conversations.
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| * [[Rotvælsk]], from [[Denmark]]
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| * [[Rotwelsch]], from [[Germany]]
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| * [[Šatrovački]], from the former [[Yugoslavia]]
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| * [[Scottish Cant]] a variant of [[Scots Language|Scots]] and [[Romani language|Romani]] used by the Lowland Gypsies in [[Scotland]]
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| * [[Shelta]], from the [[Irish traveller]] community in [[Ireland]]
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| * [[Sheng (linguistics)|Sheng]] from [[Kenya]]
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| * [[Thieves' cant]], from Britain
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| * [[Verlan]], from France
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| * [[Xíriga]], from Asturias, Spain
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| ==See also==
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| * [[Argot]]
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| * [[Code talker]]
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| * [[Jargon]]
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| * [[Patois]]
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| * [[Slang]]
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| **[[Rhyming slang]]
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| * [[Vernacular]]
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| ==References==
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| {{Reflist}}
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| {{Authority control}}
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| [[Category:Language varieties and styles]]
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| [[Category:Cant languages| ]]
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| [[Category:Slang]]
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| [[Category:Shibboleths]] | |
