Re: Cants

On Tuesday, December 9, 2003, at 03:41  PM, Peter Bleackley wrote:
> Does anybody know anything about cants (ie deliberately obfuscated
> in-group
> dialects and languages). I'd particulary like to know about the
> processes
> involved in deriving them from "normal" languages. The one I'm most
> familiar with is Cockney rhyming slang, whose normal formation process
> was
> find a stock phrase that rhymes with the target word, and then drop the
> rhyming part. I've also heard of Polari, which I believe is generally
> along the lines of "How bona it is to gander your eek!"
> Pete
Since i don't speak it, and haven't had any experience with it for
about 5 years, i'm not sure, but NYC-Area Judeo-Syrian English
Slang/Youthdialect may be a cant.  'Syrian' is "essentially" Arabic
curses, bad Ebonics, and anglicized Hebrew religious terminology spoken
with a Brooklyn accent.  According to the testimony of a Syrian-speaker
i was friends with in college, Syrian changes very fast.  He went away
to college for a few months, and when he got home to Brooklyn for
winter break he couldn't understand what people were saying because the
words had changed.  For instance, in the two years between when i
graduated high school and my friend did, Syrian adopted the use of many
words in pig-latin form, replacing the word "G" (=girl) that i had
known with "E-Jay".

Sample Syrian words (may be out of date by now):

"shoof" = 'look at'
"[S@'b&t]" = 'sabbath' (compare with common Ashkenazic-based
Judeo-English ['Sab@s] and Israeli-based [Sa'bat])
"kish" = 'leave' (intransitive) or 'take away' (transitive)
"maynish" = 'attractive' (from an impolite Arabic word having something
to do with female reproductive organs)
"SY" = 'Syrian'
"(jay)dub" = 'Ashkenazic, non-Syrian"
"TO" (take over) = 'flirt with'


I actually borrowed the word "kish" into Rokbeigalmki to be the verb
|kihsht|, 'leave (a group)'.


-Stephen (Steg)
  "dos iz nit der šteg."