Bargoens

Article summary

Bargoens ( ) is a Dutch minority language, a form of Dutch slang. More specifically, it is a cant language that arose in the 17th century, and was used by criminals, tramps and travelling salesmen as a secret code, like Spain's Germanía or French Argot. It originates from Rotwelsch and Yiddish. For example, the word bink, borrowed from Romani beng, drifted into "tough guy" from its meaning of the Devil. A false friend may be responsible for the rare meaning of "spouse". However, the word Bargoens usually refers to the thieves' cant spoken between 1850 and 1950. The actual slang varied greatly from place to place; often Bargoens denotes the variety from the Holland region in the Netherlands. While many words from Bargoens have faded into obscurity, others have become part of standard Dutch (but are more often used in the "Hollandic" than in other Dutch dialects). Hufter (jerk), gappen (to steal) and poen (money) are examples of words now common in Dutch. As is the case for most thieves' languages, many of the words from Bargoens are either insults or concern money, crime or sex. Bargoens has many Yiddish loanwords. Examples are sjacheren (to barter), mesjokke (crazy), ganneven (to steal), gabber (buddy, friend), grandig (great), hachelen (to eat). The name of this cant is close to baragouin, which means "jargon" in French.…

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