Back slang
Back slang is an English coded language in which the written word is spoken phonemically backward. It is thought to have originated in Victorian England, being used mainly by market sellers, such as butchers and greengrocers, to have private conversations behind their customers' backs and pass off lower quality goods to less observant customers.
Some back slang has entered standard English. For example, the term 'yob' was originally back slang for 'boy'.
The appellation back slang is specific to the English language. Other languages, however, have similar coded forms, such as the French language verlan, in which it is syllables, rather than the entire word, that are reversed. The Swedish language has a similar phenomenon: the word fika (Swedish for 'to have a coffee break'), for example, is derived from a reversal of the syllables in "kaffi" (older Swedish for 'coffee'). Lunfardo, a Spanish argot spoken in Argentina, occurs words spoken in vesre (from revés, literally "backwards").
In some regions, the term back slang is used more generally for other codings such as the inclusion of extra syllables in the middle of words, such as heagy peagy and is the main part of the plot in the episode of the BBC Radio 4 comedy series After Henry (Series 3: Lines of Communication) occasionally repeated on BBC Radio 7.
Back slang has been reported to have been adopted for the sake of privacy on foreign tennis courts by the young English players Laura Robson and Heather Watson.
Prison
Back slang is also said to be used in prisons by Prisoners/inmates to make it harder for Corrections officers/prison wardens to listen into prisoners' conversations and find out what they were talking about. This use of back slang was highlighted in the 9th of June 2010 episode of Crimewatch Roadshow.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Cant (language) ]
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