![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For a short period of time as a kid I had an interest in secret languages. I tried to construct my own alphabet on the playground in a spiral notebook with a friend. Nothing came of it, of course. I had similar experiences in middle school, when we would learn Pig Latin or the ASL alphabet to send "secret messages" to one another and say "Yahtzee" to warn friends who were fooling around when a teacher came in. I digress; over the past year I've been thinking about cants and secret code again. Here's two I find interesting:
Rotwelsch is a German-based cant influenced by Yiddish and Romani languages, used mainly in the south of Germany and Switzerland (though it also had a presence in Austria and Bohemia). I believe it was first named by Martin Luther, derived from the German words Rot (beggar) and welsch (incomprehensible), and was used by mainly criminals and vagrants.
The word "Bock" comes from Rotwelsch, and is now used as a colloquial way to say you're hungry or up for something. "Ich hab voll bock auf Schnitzel und ein Bier."
Polari on the other hand is English-based slang with a mainly Italian influence. I first heard of it from the Morrissey song "Piccadilly Palare" (so bona to vada your lovely eek and your lovely riah). This one was mainly used by entertainers, prostitutes, gay men and the British navy (is that where the gay marine thing comes from)? Like Rotwelsch, it's been integrated somewhat into the general vocabulary. People still say "naff" in Britain to mean something's lame.
Rotwelsch is a German-based cant influenced by Yiddish and Romani languages, used mainly in the south of Germany and Switzerland (though it also had a presence in Austria and Bohemia). I believe it was first named by Martin Luther, derived from the German words Rot (beggar) and welsch (incomprehensible), and was used by mainly criminals and vagrants.
The word "Bock" comes from Rotwelsch, and is now used as a colloquial way to say you're hungry or up for something. "Ich hab voll bock auf Schnitzel und ein Bier."
Polari on the other hand is English-based slang with a mainly Italian influence. I first heard of it from the Morrissey song "Piccadilly Palare" (so bona to vada your lovely eek and your lovely riah). This one was mainly used by entertainers, prostitutes, gay men and the British navy (is that where the gay marine thing comes from)? Like Rotwelsch, it's been integrated somewhat into the general vocabulary. People still say "naff" in Britain to mean something's lame.
