Advertisement
Help Keep Boards Alive. Support us by going ad free today. See here: https://subscriptions.boards.ie/.
If we do not hit our goal we will be forced to close the site.

Current status: https://keepboardsalive.com/

Annual subs are best for most impact. If you are still undecided on going Ad Free - you can also donate using the Paypal Donate option. All contribution helps. Thank you.
https://www.boards.ie/group/1878-subscribers-forum

Private Group for paid up members of Boards.ie. Join the club.

Newgate Cant

  • 20-05-2013 01:24PM
    #1
    theproud
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5 ✭


    I'm looking for information on the Newgate Cant spoken around Dublin in the 18th & 19th Centuries.

    I have only found a few poems of the period so far, but are there any books on the dialect? I know the Cant was not necessarily unique to Dublin but it's the Dublin variety I am looking to study.

    Thanks
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    owen78702
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12 ✭owen78702


    I don't know the answer to that.

    The song "The night before Larry was stretched" is written in newgate cant.


  • #3
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,105 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    owen78702 wrote: »
    I don't know the answer to that.

    The song "The night before Larry was stretched" is written in newgate cant.
    No it is not. It is written in English, with a few cant words included. It also would at this remove be difficult to isolate Dublin Newgate cant from everyday slang of the period. I would guess that it was not dissimilar to the London cant words of the same era, but with a few local Irish idioms - e.g. cóta bán - thrown in. Words such as ‘Jack Ketch’ and the ‘dismal ditty’ were commonly used in Ireland just as they were in London.


Advertisement