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Setting the Scene: The History of a Community and a Language

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Irish Traveller Language

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities ((PSMLC))

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Abstract

This chapter presents the Irish Traveller community and their linguistic repertoire as the focus of the book and points out the objectives of the study. The chapter starts by providing a brief summary of recent political developments around the community’s ethnic recognition and situates them in a wider context of nomadic groups. After discussing what is known about their origin and history as well as making some observations on their contemporary situation, the chapter engages in a discussion of various theories on the origin and history of Cant as well as the structure, use, and linguistic definition of modern Cant, again locating it in broader discussions that have been had about similar languages. The debate on linguists’ theories will lead to the presentation of the special angle this book takes towards language and culture by making use of ethnographic conversation analysis of folk-linguistic materials.

This chapter is derived in part from an article published in Language Awareness, published online 5 February 2018, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09658416.2018.1431242.

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    Maria Rieder

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Rieder, M. (2018). Setting the Scene: The History of a Community and a Language. In: Irish Traveller Language. Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76714-7_1

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