Travellers' Rest

For some time I have been dissatisfied with an old version of The Lord's Prayer, purported to be of traditional Shelta origin, that is to be found on the Internet and in books. I will only say that it appears to me to have been cobbled up from the English words (Protestant form) awkwardly, bit by bit. So the first practical purpose that the Shelta lexicon has been turned to on these pages is the re-publication of The Lord's Prayer and the Hail Mary for those who might appreciate it.

I cannot claim to have reproduced exactly the prayers that were offered up by our ancestors. For one thing, I believe that there would have been a slightly different version in each extended family. And the Shelta has been maximized and the Cant contribution to these prayers minimized where possible, hopefully without resorting to convoluted phrases and stilted construction.

The translation is still partly a transliteration; meaning that it's not an entirely spontaneous generation of concepts in Shelta, nor a word-for-word substitution, but rather a phrase-by-phrase translation of the Roman-Catholic English version. An expression like "fruit of thy womb," for example, has been recast away from the English verbiage into the Shelta words for "infant of thy pregnancy," in closer keeping with the idea being expressed.

Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Gaater a goikhil, swurth asturth Nyedas a Daalyon, swudal Duilsha's Linska, Duilsha's Sreedug toari, Duilsha's Lag graydied, shedi Ladu arark asturth Nyedas a Daalyon. Goathi mweelshas talosk minyurth goshta dura a getcha mweelshas' shakos arark mweels getcha shakors ar mo-djeels, a lag mweelsha needjaish sheert grup a-gamee-ath, a medjri awasth a gamee-okh. Staish.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Graaltcha Mary, tawn a noos, Swuda's gyay duilsha; buriest's thoo a byoors a thoam buriest's duilsha's goikhera a-ridyu, Jesus. Mary raaks shako, Nadjram a Daalyon, sthafar mweelshas shakors minyurth a toork a mweelshas' tharsps. Staish.

The new lexicon of Shelta may now be accessed by anyone through a link on the Travellers/Shelta page. It has been shorn of any of the Irish Traveller Cant words that I know are still in use today, in order to honor the wishes of most of the clan as I understand them. Personally I wish it were otherwise. The only people we're keeping the Cant a secret from are our children's children. It is being lost one word at a time, about eight words a year on the average by my reckoning.

The remainder (along with the omitted Cant words) is the language that my grandmother, Rose Burke McDonald, spoke with her sisters when they didn't want their kids and grandchildren to understand what they were saying. It is the Travellers' language that my great-grand-uncle Owen McDonald spoke for the record around 1878 and some of its words may be over fifteen hundred years old.

The lexicon is my belated gift to them and also to this generation of Irish Travellers, to do with as they wish. It can easily be downloaded from the Net with most home computers. Any Irish Travellers who wish may print out the list and fill in the blanks where the Cant words should go. This Shelta compilation is not copyrighted by me in any way.

We are now in the beginning of the Age of Information. Of course, to be reading this, you already know that and participate to a degree. Soon, however, there will be even less economic privacy; so much so that the Travellers' traditional "cash and carry" lifestyle and what's left of our equally traditional anonymity will pass away quickly. On the other hand, it will soon be possible for the kids to be educated, or educate themselves, for all Travellers to earn a living of their choosing, for families to stay in continuous touch with each other, AND STILL REMAIN TRAVELLERS ON THE ROAD. So, as the Boy Scout I must seem to appear, I say: "Be Prepared."

I don't think that kind of freedom, such as will develop in the next several decades, was ever possible before for nomads like the Travellers. There is considerable physical freedom in the traditional lifestyle, of course, but also an overwhelming economic and cultural isolation. When that isolation ends, as I believe it soon will, the Cant will be needed even more than before to be a unifying factor for our extended family.

Truthfully, though, that Cant has been dying for the last hundred years. But so were Gaelic and Hebrew and perhaps Quebecois as everyday languages. They are all alive and vital now, however, thanks to those societies who wanted to remain one people sufficiently to make a significant effort. Tell me that Jewish people have a lot more education on average; okay. Tell me that Irish people speaking Gaelic are not a tiny minority spread out over a huge nation; okay. But don't tell me that they need it more than we do or that they're basically brighter people: I won't believe that; I know better than to believe that.

There are none planned after the posting of the lexicon, at least not on this or the Travellers pages.

To those descendants of Travellers who have e-mailed me, looking to establish some connection with family roots: I wish that I could have been less discouraging without being completely unrealistic.

To scholars, writers and students who were looking for specimens to study, my equally realistic discouragement was always accompanied by a certain wonderment that you could deem it so important to take something from these people without any consideration that you have nothing of value in their eyes to offer in return.

To those Travellers and country people who have been supportive: I thank you sincerely. But the time has come for me to move on to other things. Travellers, of all people, will understand that. (:>D)

Travellers' Rest will be maintained as is for at least the remainder of 1999, come what may.

p.s. (3/14/99) I was somewhat remiss in not identifying the above expression as Shelta. I don't believe any Irish Cant speaking Traveller would find it intelligible and the Travellers in Ireland, who speak Gammon, might only recognize the first two words. It simply did not occur to me that many Cant or Gammon speakers who were reading this page, without having followed the development of its Shelta lexicon for the last six months, might easily confuse it with the Cant.