UNDERWORLD JARGON

Radio Record, 21 August 1936, Page 16

UNDERWORLD JARGON

| cere meee serene | Le NDERWORLD jargon from_ the United ‘States of America is a mixture of slang, cant and argot used without any conscious adherence to grammatical rules, and ‘is primarily a language of expedience characterised by. terseness of phrase and . simplicity of description. Such extremes of language as were disapproved of by Keith Gunn in the signed article in the "Radio Record" two weeks agvu are dramatically illustrated in the examples given below. Major contributors to the underworld vocabulary are the tramp, the gunman, the hoodlum and the _ bootlegger, although circus troupers, loggers, cattlemen and railroad workers have supplied useful words. "A conscious spirit of defiance toward existing standards of propriety and a desire to secure a sense of intimacy or secrecy in communication’ characterise the cant of the underworld. The following paragraph may closely approach that goal: Oo, The place is bugged so Micky and Deeno case the ins while Jerry gandevs. The skipper’s greased so the play is safe. The saps trip qa bug ‘and the dinger blows so Jerry mopes-no heat for him! The cops tried to swamp them and they’re fogged on the breeze. It was curtains for Deeno. Micky pulled through and drew a 1 to 20 rap. Literallv translated, this means: The place is equipped with a burglar alarm, so Micky and Deeno-study a method of entrance while Jerry remains on the look-out. The district police officer has been bribed, and the accomplishment of their task should not involve danger, The two clumsily set off an alarm, and when the bell rings Jerry leaves; no trouble with: the police for him. The police tried to surround and arrest Micky and Deeno,.and shot: them’ when they tried to escape. Deeno was killed, but Micky recovered and was convicted, with an indeterminate sentence of from one to twenty years in‘prison. In such an example the language. is relatively casual and intelligible. In. the heat of action, words replace sen‘tences and signals are curt and concise. A description of a stick-up or hold-up as related by a gunman is less easy to understand. "H’ist and glom -rank and lam; half a C.", tells the complete story. He says: "I held him up and robbed him-I was discovered and had to run, but I got fifty dollars." _ The jargon of the gambling" concession alone is a _ colourful and. unintelligible phenomenon, So a lugger comes. up with a mark flashing a br. I’m grinding and stir ring the spindle and I screw the sticks, When this sap wins a sawbuck it stalls the push and the suckers cover the plush. The gaff’s on and the wheel’s strong, and when the score is about a doublesaw on this mark-he begins to squawk. T office a look-out to cool him off, but he’s advertising right in front of the joint,’ and a fuzz blows in. He eyes the. layout and listens the grouch. I pass :some grease to a stick, and he steers them off and squares the beef, © wets Translated, this merely describes a common situation in. which’ some sucker gets taken for twenty dollars, See what you can make of the translation of that! ,