That old flash lingo. Thieves' Cant revisited.

Villon’s Straight Tip To All Cross Coves

Suppose you screeve, or go cheap-jack?
Or fake the broads? or fig a nag?
Or thimble-rig? or knap a yack?
Or pitch a snide? or smash a rag?
Suppose you duff? or nose and lag?
Or get the straight, and land your pot?
How do you melt the multy swag?
Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

II

Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack;
Or moskeneer, or flash the drag;
Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack;
Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag;
Bonnet, or tout, or mump and gag;
Rattle the tats, or mark the spot
You cannot bank a single stag:
Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

III

Suppose you try a different tack,
And on the square you flash your flag?
At penny-a-lining make your whack,
Or with the mummers mug and gag?
For nix, for nix the dibbs you bag
At any graft, no matter what!
Your merry goblins soon stravag:
Booze and the blowens cop the lor.

The Moral.

It’s up-the-spout and Charley-Wag
With wipes and tickers and what not!
Until the squeezer nips your scrag,
Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
 

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DreadArchon said:
Let's take a conversation between thieves in a bar as an example.
What people hear:
Thief 1: "Ugh, long cat is looooong."
Thief 2: "So long is long cat."
Thief 1: "Hey guys, am I doing it right?"
Thief 3: "I see what you did there..."
Thief 2: "Do not want."
Thief 1: "O RLY?"
Thieves 2 & 3: "YA RLY!"
Thief 1: "Sage?"
Click to expand...

Wow, I can't believe there's another "frequenter of /b/"* on the board.

God, now I wan't to make a sorcerer who knows Thieve's cant. "IMMA CHARGIN MY LAZER!"

*Not sure if the "official" term would pass muster on this board...
 



Delta said:
Have you seen the Thieves' Cant dictionary in the old issue of Dragon? Perhaps that's along the lines of what you're looking for.
Click to expand...

Dragon 66 if you have the CD Archives.

Gygax's Canting Crew from Troll Lord Games provides a lot of thiefly inspiration, including a cant glossary, too. I haven't done an A/B comparison to Dragon 66 to see how much overlap, if any, exists between the two sources.

Michael Crichton's The Great Train Robbery is also worth checking out, since it demonstrates how TC is employed in conversation among the thiefly lower classes of Dickensian London. However, it won't move you very away from that Cockney accent....
 

Wickiy - really, 'cant' is just jargon.
Since you use it as code to pass linguistics cues in the open, the code can be longstanding or updated on a regular basis (yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily). ALSO, a perticular job, might use a particular cant in order to keep things on the sly even amongst those in the know.

As a former cryptologist, we termed this as rotating the key - (keeping your key codes moving). Though linguistically it isn't used as often (though the different examples herein are all great and good for a launch point in a bunch of different settings.) The key isn't the speech, but the security. For example, I create a code and state that every other word is the phrase word and the preceeding word is just filler - "I want you to steal the diamond" is kind of hard to fit into a sentence without someone else figuring out that you want the person to steal the diamond. (try it and end up with something that doesn't sound like a gibberish sentence)
Likewise, if my code states that everytime I say blue then I mean theft and green means murder but only on alternate Wendsdays inside of months that don't end in Z but only when the..... Well you get the drift. It becomes overly complicated and you risk message degradation.
The rules for a good code:
Simplicity - It should be simple to learn
Elegance - Elegant in it usage
Obfuscation - Completely impossible to decipher without inside knowledge or a lot of research by someone trained to do just that.

"Me and Jimmy were outback of the lou' when Bob dropped a penny in the well. I thought we were dripped but good, but a candyman came down the lane and next thing you know Ol Jed's a Millionarie. Luckily Betty was there with the thimble to pass out the kisses and cuddles."

And don't bother trying to dechipher it, it's gibberish; but if you can imagine a conversation like this meaning something, then cant isn't that far from your grasp.
 

Thunderfoot said:
"Me and Jimmy were outback of the lou' when Bob dropped a penny in the well. I thought we were dripped but good, but a candyman came down the lane and next thing you know Ol Jed's a Millionarie. Luckily Betty was there with the thimble to pass out the kisses and cuddles."
Click to expand...

"Myself and the fighter were stealing some coin-purses in the local tavern, during which time the local constabulary caught us. I figured we were to be apprehended, but the wizard showed up and caused enough of a distraction to allow us escape. Thankfully, the cleric was there to heal up the fireball wounds caused by the wizard's distraction."

I see you speak the same 'cant as I, Thunderfoot. Good show; or should I say "Just a sheppherd's away from tulips and marshmallows"?

-TRRW
 

theredrobedwizard said:
"Myself and the fighter were stealing some coin-purses in the local tavern, during which time the local constabulary caught us. I figured we were to be apprehended, but the wizard showed up and caused enough of a distraction to allow us escape. Thankfully, the cleric was there to heal up the fireball wounds caused by the wizard's distraction."

I see you speak the same 'cant as I, Thunderfoot. Good show; or should I say "Just a sheppherd's away from tulips and marshmallows"?

-TRRW
Click to expand...
Bitter roots...bitter roots. ;)
 


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