Shelta in San Francisco

March 31, 2008 7:06 AM

I am moving to San Francisco in a little over a month and have been wanting to learn shelta (pavee/Irish Travellers language), but with the low number of speakers finding a tutor or even set of tapes/online audio files/book on how to write/read it so that I can learn the language has been almost impossible.

I am more than willing to pay a tutor, and hopefully will have a friend who will study it with me so that we can practice together. But this will be my first secondary language acquisition and I would like to make sure I go about it right by having some sort of teacher. Non formal groups or get together focused on learning the language and culture are also quite welcome.

posted by elationfoundation to writing & language (4 comments total)

I am sorry I can't shed much light on this, but have you thought of contacting a university language or folkways department? You might find more in academia on this than out here in the "real world."

I have a feeling you will find this very difficult, since I would imagine Travellers more than other minority language groups would not want their language to be accessible to the outside world.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:39 AM on March 31, 2008

Have you seen Travellers' Rest? From the site's FAQ:

5. I see your site has a lexicon, a codex of sorts, but you have made allusions to not revealing the Cant as currently spoken in the U.S.A. Surely there must be some resource for “lapsed” Travellers or half-Travellers or newly married-in Travellers whereby they may opt “in” on the life. Can you direct me to those resources?

-- A "halfway trailer" for linguistically and culturally challenged would-be Travellers? An intriguing notion but no such facility or even social mechanism exists, to the best of my knowledge. I envy you your evident faculty for languages but still feel less than compelled to teach Cant to hobbyists, no matter how well intentioned and how well spoken they are.

[Then] what were you taught about not teaching others Cant?

-- What was I taught?
I was taught that the highest praise among Travellers (for Travellers and Country People alike) is "He (or she) tends to his (or her) own affairs." ITs feel that our language and our culture are private; the rest seem to put up with my (word play alert) "extrusions" because I'm honest, discreet, useful, don't put on airs and just as protective as they of the true sancti sanctorum.

This seems to reinforce what fiercecupcake has said.
posted by candyland at 9:59 AM on March 31, 2008

Good luck. I only know of one "outsider" who's ever been able to learn it to a meaningful level, and that was after decades of (very positive) interaction with some speakers. Even then, he's been stonewalled to a great extent.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 11:24 AM on March 31, 2008

Yeah, the whole thing with the Irish Travellers is that they want to be left alone. Usually because they are engaging in semi-criminal behavior, but also because they are just a private people. Good luck, but I don't think it will work.
posted by gjc at 7:27 PM on March 31, 2008