Some remarks on a linguistic predator: Foreign influences upon prison slang

Anna Ciechanowska

doi:10.15584/sar.2016.13.2

Authors

Anna Ciechanowska Bronisław Markiewicz State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jarosław

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15584/sar.2016.13.2

Keywords:

prison slang, Yiddish, Hispanics, Italian, Cockney Rhyming slang, borrowings

Abstract

Prison slang may be considered to be a language variety with great creativity, which is manifested in its inherent tendency to draw on and borrow from other languages and language varieties. As a result, in the linguistic repertoire used by inmates in British and American prisons we observe a strong tendency to apply vocabulary items which derive from many different linguistic backgrounds, such as, among others, Yiddish, Spanish, Italian and Cockney Rhyming slang. Unfortunately, this aspect of prison slang seems to be sadly neglected, if not altogether ignored. This paper provides an analysis of the subject of borrowings in the linguistic repertoire used by Englishspeaking inmates.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Cavaioli, F.J. 2008. “Patterns of Italian immigration to the United States”, [in:] The Catholic Social Science Review 13, pp. 213-229.

González, F.R. 2000. “Spanish contribution to American English word stock: An overview” [in:] American Speech, Vol. 75/3, pp. 292-295.

Halpern, O. 2007. “Yiddish, a story of transformation”, [in:] Studies in American Jewish Literature, Vol. 26. The USA: Purdue University Press, pp. 123-129.

Hyamson, A.M. 1908. A History of the Jews in England. London: Hatto and Vindus.

Nash, J.R. 1992. Dictionary of Crime: Criminal Justice, Criminology, and Law Enforcement. The USA: The Rowman and Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

Ozick, C. 1988. “A critic at large”, [in:] New Yorker, 28 March, pp. 99-108.

Partridge, E. [1933]1979. Slang Today and Yesterday. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Partridge, E. 1949. A Dictionary of the Underworld. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd.

Sapir, E. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Schulte, M. 2010. “The language of the underworld and its sociolinguistic significance”, [in:] Contributions to the Study of Language, Literature and Culture. Arbeitsblätter des Anglistischen Seminars Heidelberg. Hedelberg, Vol. 2010:1, pp. 45-60.

Siegel, D. and H. Nelen. (eds.) 2008. Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies. New York: Springer.

Wolfram, W., P. Carter and B. Moriello. 2004. “Emerging Hispanic English: New dialect formation in the American South”, [in:] Journal of Sociolinguistics 8/3, pp. 339-358.

Green, J. 2002. Rhyming Slang. available at http://jonathongreen.co.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2010/09/7_RhymingSlang.pdf

Inmate Ethnicity; Available at: https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_ ethnicity.jsp.

Hispanic Prisoners in the United States; Available at:http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_hispanicprisoners.pdf.

Italian Organised Crime Threat Assessment; Available at: https://www.europol.europa.eu/.../italian_organised_crime.