University of Virginia Library

LANGUAGE OF COSTERMONGERS.

The slang language of the costermongers is not
very remarkable for originality of construction;
it possesses no humour: but they boast that it
is known only to themselves; it is far beyond the
Irish, they say, and puzzles the Jews. The root
of the costermonger tongue, so to speak, is to give
the words spelt backward, or rather pronounced
rudely backward, — for in my present chapter the
language has, I believe, been reduced to ortho-
graphy for the first time. With this backward
pronunciation, which is very arbitrary, are mixed
words reducible to no rule and seldom referrable
to any origin, thus complicating the mystery
of this unwritten tongue; while any syllable is
added to a proper slang word, at the discretion
of the speaker.

Slang is acquired very rapidly, and some cos-
termongers will converse in it by the hour. The
women use it sparingly; the girls more than
the women; the men more than the ; and
the boys most of all. The most ignorant of all
these classes deal most in slang and boast of
their cleverness and proficiency in it. In their
conversations among themselves, the follow-
ing are invariably the terms used in money
matters. A rude back-spelling may generally
be traced:

                           

Flatch	Halfpenny.
Yenep	Penny.
Owt-yenep	Twopence.
Erth-yenep	Threepence.
Rouf-yenep	Fourpence.
Ewif-yenep	Fivepence.
Exis-yenep	Sixpence.
Neves-yenep	Sevenpence.
Teaich-yenep	Eightpence.
Enine-yenep	Ninepence.
Net-yenep	Tenpence.
Leven	Elevenpence.
Gen	Twelvepence.
Yenep-flatch	Three half-pence.

and so on through the penny-halfpennies.

It was explained to me by a costermonger,
who had introduced some new words into the
slang, that "leven" was allowed so closely to
resemble the proper word, because elevenpence
was almost an unknown sum to costermongers,
the transition — weights and measures notwith-
standing — being immediate from 10d. to 1s.

"Gen" is a shilling and the numismatic
sequence is pursued with the gens, as regards
shillings, as with the "yeneps" as regards
pence. The blending of the two is also accord-
ing to the same system as "Owt-gen, teaich-
yenep" two-and-eightpence. The exception to
the uniformity of the "gen" enumeration is
in the sum of 8s., which instead of "teaich-
gen" is "teaich-guy:" a deviation with ample
precedents in all civilised tongues.

As regards the larger coins the translation
into slang is not reducible into rule. The fol-
lowing are the costermonger coins of the higher
value:

       

Couter	Sovereign.
Half-Couter, or Net- gen	Half-sovereign.
Ewif-gen	Crown.
Flatch-ynork	Half-crown.

The costermongers still further complicate
their slang by a mode of multiplication. They
thus say, "Erth Ewif-gens" or 3 times 5s., which
means of course 15s.

Speaking of this language, a costermonger said
to me: "The Irish can't tumble to it anyhow;
the Jews can tumble better, but we're their masters. Some of the young salesmen at Bil-
lingsgate understand us, — but only at Billings-
gate; and they think they're uncommon clever,
but they're not quite up to the mark. The police
don't understand us at all. It would be a pity
if they did."

I give a few more phrases:

               

A doogheno or dab- heno?	It is a good or bad market?
A regular trosseno	A regular bad one.
On	No.
Say	Yes.
Tumble to your bar- rikin	Understand you.
Top o' reeb	Pot of beer.
Doing dab	Doing badly.
Cool him	Look at him.

The latter phrase is used when one coster-
monger warns another of the approach of a
policeman "who might order him to move on,
or be otherwise unpleasant." "Cool" (look)
is exclaimed, or "Cool him" (look at him).
One costermonger told me as a great joke that a
very stout policeman, who was then new to the
duty, was when in a violent state of perspiration,
much offended by a costermonger saying "Cool
him."

     

Cool the esclop	Look at the police.
Cool the namesclop	Look at the police- man.
Cool ta the dillo nemo	Look at the old woman;

said of any woman, young or old, who,
according to costermonger notions, is "giving
herself airs."

This language seems confined, in its general
use, to the immediate objects of the coster-
monger's care; but is, among the more acute
members of the fraternity, greatly extended,
and is capable of indefinite extension.

The costermongers oaths, I may conclude,
are all in the vernacular; nor are any of the
common salutes, such as "How d'you do?" or
"Good-night" known to their slang.

                         

Kennetseeno	Stinking;
(applied principally to the quality of fish.)
Flatch kanurd	Half-drunk.
Flash it	Show it;
(in cases of bargains offered.)
On doog	No good.
Cross chap	A thief.
Showfulls	Bad money;
(seldom in the hands of costermongers.)
I'm on to the deb	I'm going to bed.
Do the tightner	Go to dinner.
Nommus	Be off
Tol	Lot, Stock, or Share.

Many costermongers, "but principally — per-
haps entirely," — I was told, "those who had
not been regular born and bred to the trade, but
had taken to it when cracked up in their own,"
do not trouble themselves to acquire any know-
ledge of slang. It is not indispensable for the
carrying on of their business; the grand object,
however, seems to be, to shield their bargainings
at market, or their conversation among them-
selves touching their day's work and profits,
from the knowledge of any Irish or uninitiated
fellow-traders.

The simple principle of costermonger slang —
that of pronouncing backward, may cause its
acquirement to be regarded by the educated as a
matter of ease. But it is a curious fact that
lads who become costermongers' boys, without
previous association with the class, acquire a
very ready command of the language, and this
though they are not only unable to spell, but
don't "know a letter in a book." I saw one lad,
whose parents had, until five or six months back,
resided in the country. The lad himself was
fourteen; he told me he had not been "a cos-
termongering" more than three months, and
prided himself on his mastery over slang. To
test his ability, I asked him the coster's word
for "hippopotamus;" he answered, with tole-
rable readiness, "musatoppop." I then asked
him for the like rendering of "equestrian" (one
of Astley's bills having caught my eye). He
replied, but not quite so readily, "nirtseque."
The last test to which I subjected him was
"good-naturedly;" and though I induced him
to repeat the word twice, I could not, on any of
the three renderings, distinguish any precise
sound beyond an indistinct gabbling, concluded
emphatically with "doog:" — "good" being a
word with which all these traders are familiar.
It must be remembered, that the words I de-
manded were remote from the young coster-
monger's vocabulary, if not from his under-
standing.

Before I left this boy, he poured forth a
minute or more's gibberish, of which, from its
rapid utterance, I could distinguish nothing;
but I found from his after explanation, that it
was a request to me to make a further purchase
of his walnuts.

This slang is utterly devoid of any applica-
bility to humour. It gives no new fact, or
approach to a fact, for philologists. One supe-
rior genius among the costers, who has invented
words for them, told me that he had no system
for coining his term. He gave to the known
words some terminating syllable, or, as he called
it, "a new turn, just," to use his own words,
"as if he chorussed them, with a tol-de-rol."
The intelligence communicated in this slang is,
in a great measure, communicated, as in other
slang, as much by the inflection of the voice,
the emphasis, the tone, the look, the shrug, the
nod, the wink, as by the words spoken.