Why secret languages are more than just slang for criminals and social outcasts
In short: Secret languages, or cants, are specialized communication systems designed to exclude outsiders. While often associated with criminal underworlds, they function as essential tools for building alternative social realities. From the coded argots of historical thieves to the modern digital dialects of internet culture, these languages maintain subcultural identity through linguistic resistance.
The term cant is linguistically ambiguous, with two primary origin theories. One traces it to the Irish or Scottish Gaelic word cainnt, meaning speech, linked to itinerant groups. Another suggests a derivation from the Latin cantāre, referring to the chanting of friars before evolving into a term for the jargon of beggars and criminals. Today, it is often used interchangeably with argot, a secret language used to prevent outsiders from understanding conversations, or as a specialized professional vocabulary.
Linguist Michael Halliday formalized the study of these systems through the concept of the anti-language. He argued that an anti-society—a community intentionally created as an alternative to the mainstream—requires its own language to survive. This is not merely an optional layer of slang; it is the fundamental vehicle for maintaining a 'second life'. By using the same grammar as the dominant society but relexicalizing the vocabulary, these groups create a barrier that effectively excludes the layperson.
These systems are remarkably diverse, ranging from the historical thieves' cant to modern examples like verlan, Polari, and even internet-based 'leet' speak. In literature, authors like Anthony Burgess have utilized fictional anti-languages, such as Nadsat in A Clockwork Orange, to explore how language shapes social structure. Whether used by prisoners, teenagers, or marginalized communities, these languages serve as a mechanism for resocialization, allowing members to affirm their shared reality while keeping their internal world inaccessible to those outside the fold.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Cant
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