Convicts Use Shakespearean Dialect to Smuggle 'Cawbe', Fool 'Shades'
source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191475/Convicts-use-ye-olde-slang-fool-guards.html
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- burukku16
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Inmates at Buckley Hall Prison in Rochdale have been using Elizabethan dialect to help them smuggle drugs and other contraband into prisons.
Staff at the prison noticed that the same phrases were being used in monitored phone calls and letters between inmates and loved ones.
The dialect, thought to originate from medieval gipsies, was used by all manner of villains in Shakespeare's England, becoming known as thieves' cant or rogues' cant. But it was thought to have become obsolete until its unexpected revival, believed to have been led by criminal members of the travelling community.
The Ministry of Justice is so worried about the use of the code that it has issued a security alert to governors at jails in England and Wales.
Examples of the new thieves' cant include 'chat' or 'onick' meaning heroin; 'cawbe', meaning crack cocaine; and 'inick', for phone or mobile phone SIM card.
Inmates also use normal English in code - 'Bring the children' means to bring drugs, while the phrase 'Lots of hair on the children' means 'bring lots of drugs'.
An insider at the 381-prisoner, category C establishment revealed: 'This is the most ingenious use of a secret code we have ever come across. Elizabethan cant was only used by a tiny number of people and it is quite amazing that is has been resurrected in order to buy drugs. Some inmates will try anything to get contraband into jail.'
Staff at the prison noticed that the same phrases were being used in monitored phone calls and letters between inmates and loved ones.
The dialect, thought to originate from medieval gipsies, was used by all manner of villains in Shakespeare's England, becoming known as thieves' cant or rogues' cant. But it was thought to have become obsolete until its unexpected revival, believed to have been led by criminal members of the travelling community.
The Ministry of Justice is so worried about the use of the code that it has issued a security alert to governors at jails in England and Wales.
Examples of the new thieves' cant include 'chat' or 'onick' meaning heroin; 'cawbe', meaning crack cocaine; and 'inick', for phone or mobile phone SIM card.
Inmates also use normal English in code - 'Bring the children' means to bring drugs, while the phrase 'Lots of hair on the children' means 'bring lots of drugs'.
An insider at the 381-prisoner, category C establishment revealed: 'This is the most ingenious use of a secret code we have ever come across. Elizabethan cant was only used by a tiny number of people and it is quite amazing that is has been resurrected in order to buy drugs. Some inmates will try anything to get contraband into jail.'
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burukku16
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Heroin, oh heroin! Wherefore art thou, heroin?
- 2 years ago
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burukku16
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DarkVeneficusss
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Is this a syringe which i see before me?...
- 2 years ago
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DarkVeneficusss
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FreshPlastic
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To E or not to E, that is the question.
- 2 years ago
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FreshPlastic
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catchiecoo
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Thou art clever. The drugs work quick!
- 2 years ago
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catchiecoo
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AnnieMole
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Amazing - I wonder if the prison had noticed an increase in people wanting to sign up to English literature? I'm assuming the guards also have to learn it now so they can understand what's going on.
- 2 years ago
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AnnieMole
