Re: Cant (was: Question about Romlangs/CeltiConlangs)

Eamon Graham scripsit:

> Incidentally, did "the Cant" come from Latin directly or via Irish
> caint (which MacBain derives from Latin through Old Irish canim and
> relates to Welsh cana and Breton kana)?
Well, it's an ordinary English noun, after all, and the specifically
Irish use is just a specialization of that.  Probably the noun "cant"
is from the verb "cant", which is < Norman Fr. and originally meant
(in English) to talk in the characteristic singsong whine of street beggars.
Its application to jargon was a natural shift.

--
John Cowan                              jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://www.reutershealth.com            http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Humpty Dump Dublin squeaks through his norse
                Humpty Dump Dublin hath a horrible vorse
But for all his kinks English / And his irismanx brogues
                Humpty Dump Dublin's grandada of all rogues.
                        --Cousin James