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Newgate Cant

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  • 20-05-2013 1:24pm
    #1
    theproud
    Registered Users 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:


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    #2
    owen78702
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭owen78702


    I don't know the answer to that.

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


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    #3
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭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.


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