| Backslang
- A secret language |
|
Were you
one of the thousands of Merseysiders who spoke "blackslang"?
Were
you able to talk to your friends in school, or out playing in the
streets, in your own private dialect?
There
were several versions of this unique form of communication, which
some believe came from the Romany culture. For instance, "window"
might become "indoway"; "dinner" = "innerday".
It's
a dying art form, but there are still local men and women who can
"talk the lingo" .- listen to Alice from Croxteth, and
Alan from Little Sutton, as they demonstrate their backward linguistic
skills.
| Memories
of Backslang... |
I
was brought up around the Crown Street/Paddington area in the
late 50's and early 60's and lots of land spoke backsland as
demonstrated by Freddie Connor. We moved to Childwall and I
went to Gateacre Comprehensive and found that many other people
from the south of the city spoke it. There was a variation of
the H A G example which Freddie used. This was to put H A B
in front of the vowel sounds instead of H A G. After moving
to Runcorn, I worked on nights at the sorting office and myself
and a lad who had moved to Speke used to have the Runcornians
baffled by holding conversations in backslang. It's very easy
to pick up. I was once told by a policeman who worked in Liverpool,
but came from Glasgow that he arrested a young man for shouting
at him in backslang because he assumed he had been swearing
at him. He probably was!
Ronnie Williams |
|
|
|
|
|
