Bargoens is a form of Dutch slang. More specifically, it is a cant language that arose in the 17th century, and was used by criminals, tramps and travelling salesmen as a secret code, like Spanish's Germanía or French's Argot. Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speakers dialect or language. ... Cant is an example of a cryptolect, a characteristic or secret language used only by members of a group, often used to conceal the meaning from those outside the group. ... Germanía or jerigonza is the term used in Spanish to refer to the argot used by criminals or in jails. ... Argot is primarily slang used by various groups, including but not limited to thieves and other criminals, to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. ...

However, the word "Bargoens" usually refers to the thieves' cant spoken in the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The actual slang varied a lot from place to place; often "Bargoens" denotes the variety from the Holland region in the Netherlands, especially Amsterdam. While many words from Bargoens have faded into obscurity, others have become part of standard Dutch (but are more often used in the Amsterdam dialect than in other Dutch dialects). Examples of words from Bargoens now common in Dutch: hufter (bastard), gappen (to steal) and poen (money). As is the case for most thieves' languages, many of the words from Bargoens are either insults or concern money, crime or sex. Holland is a region in the central-western part of the Netherlands. ... Amsterdam Location Flag Country Netherlands Province North Holland Population 741,329 (1 August 2006) Demonym Amsterdammer Coordinates Website www. ...

Due to the large number of Jews that were travelling salesmen, and because of their position as relative outcasts, Bargoens has many Yiddish loanwords. Examples are sjacheren (to barter), mesjogge (crazy) or jatten (hands, to steal). Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

Baragouin means "jargon" in French.

External links

• Bargoens - Dutch dictionary