The language of the Travellers in Ireland is in many respects shrouded in mystery, and its study filled with dilemmas and contradictions. It is a secret language, but quite a bit is available in print about it. Some speakers consider the mere existence of the language as secret, and they would deny having a language of their own. Whereas secret languages are mostly used to convey messages to other group members in the presence of outsiders, some of these Travellers would not use it in the presence of outsiders at all. Yet however secret it may be, or may have been, language researchers are welcomed today as the speakers see the use of the language declining. The present book is the result of cooperation between academics and Travellers. Six contributors are Travellers and eight chapters are written by academics, with no overlap.

Travellers are sometimes confused with Roma (Gypsies) because of presumed similarities in life style: traveling in caravans, trade, self-employment, and begging. There is, however, no historical or genetic connection between the Roma (who speak an Indic language) and the Irish Travellers, or between the Irish Travellers and European Travellers. Except for an occasional loanword, Romani and the language of the Irish Travellers are completely unrelated. The number of speakers of the language is unknown; estimates vary between 10,000 and 86,000 in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The age of the language and the genesis of the ethnic group that speaks it are both controversial. Some suggest a connection with the upheaval of the Irish countryside resulting from the potato famine in the 1800s, whereas others suggest that the population and their language go back to Pre-Celtic times and even to the Stone Age. A minor part of the lexicon shows clear connections with Gaelic, but most of the vocabulary cannot be related to any known living or extinct language of Europe. Even the name of the language is unusual: It is mostly known under the name “Shelta” in the academic literature, based on the first publications on the language in the late 1800s, when speakers called the language this. Current speakers, however, do not know this name; they call their language “Gammon” or “Cant.” The latter name is ambiguous, because there are several forms of Cant in Ireland and the United Kingdom, very different from one another, and only one of these is associated with Irish Travellers. This book deals with Travellers and their languages not only in Ireland, but also in Scotland and England.

The book under review is the result of presentations on a symposium on the language of the Travellers held in Belfast in 2002. It is the fruit of open collaboration between academic researchers (linguists, social scientists), language descriptivists, and nonacademic Travellers. Gammon words that have not appeared in print before have been removed from the printed version at the request of the Travellers. It can be seen as a sequel to McCann et al. 1994, whose focus is on both the language and the culture of Irish Travellers. The present volume contains revised versions of the academic papers and transcripts from the ensuing discussions, as well as tape recordings of spontaneous presentations by some of the Travellers at the symposium.

The documentation of Gammon goes back to the 1880s, when Charles Leland, a prolific writer on many subjects, reported his discovery of an undocumented language. Leland worked on many languages, including Amerindian languages and pidgins, and some of his work has been proven to be the product of his own fantasy, but this is apparently not in the case with Gammon. After publication, others soon presented documentation from the United States, Scotland, and England for what appeared to be the same unusual lexicon. The grammatical system, however, varied between that of Irish and Scottish Gaelic (in the British Isles and the United States), something unlike other languages (in Liverpool), and English (in most sources). Most of these sources were brought together by Macalister 1937, which is sometimes praised but usually severely criticized by many contributors.

Alice Binchy (pp. 11–16) is probably one of the best-informed outsiders with regard to Gammon. Her contribution describes the sociolinguistic context of the use of the language, for instance to exclude outsiders (Krawdji a minute theres a byohr krushing “wait a minute there's a woman coming”), including police and customers. When asked when the language is used, Travellers answer that it is used in the presence of outsiders, but many examples and Binchy's own experience show that often only Travellers are present. It is not the everyday language of Travellers, however. Early commentators called it a slang or jargon, but for the Travellers it is a real language.

Sinéad ní Shuinéar (20–41), an anthropologist working with Travellers, gives an overview of some early researchers on the language, especially the early period after its discovery, and the publication of Macalister. She points out a range of errors and shortcomings in their data, leaving not much leeway for their theories of origin either. She continues her historical overview with more recent studies from the 1980s, when only a few scholars did sensible research on the language. She pleads for informed research for both reconstruction and a realistic view of contemporary Gammon, in order to correct the mistakes that have been accepted as truth.

Mícheál Ó hAodha looks at Gammon from the perspective of Irish Gaelic (47–63). Some early scholars claimed great antiquity for the language because the identified Irish elements in Gammon seemed quite archaic. He focuses on words of Irish etymology in Gammon, and the “methods of disguise” used to make the words unrecognizable (e.g., addition of sr- or gr- to Irish words: Ir. oinniún > Sh. grithíun ‘onion’; reversal of phonemes: Ir. cailín > Sh. laicín ‘girl’; and metathesis: Ir. coinneal > Sh. niukal ‘candle’).

Marian Browne (65–78) compares present-day Gammon syntactic structures with those of Hiberno-English. Some of structures had been attributed to Gammon, or its reconstruction, such as the existence of verb-final construction (as in have you the feen's grade nyocked?, the title of a 1974 literacy booklet). Browne first discusses some salient features of Irish English, then shows that Gammon, in an English-based framework, displays virtually all the structural features of Irish English, to the extent that they “share an identical syntactic structure.” She speculates that there used to be a different structure in the past, as reflected in John Sampson's early recordings in Liverpool.

Mary Burke (79–100) provides an overview of mentions of the language in early historical literature, as well as in fiction written by Travellers and non-Traveller authors, discussing their sources and credentials. For linguists, the most interesting aspect may be the integration of Gammon words in the slang of a town in Galway, which has been used in drama and music.

Mícheál Ó hAodha (101–112) discusses the activities of members of the Gypsy Lore Society in the early 1900s, in particular Scott MacFie. These people had an interest in the Gypsies and Travellers because of their supposedly exotic culture but did not advocate their rights. They documented many aspects of the languages and cultures, and not all current Romany activists are happy with the results. There is not much linguistic information in this article.

Ricca Edmondson and Niall Ó Murchadha describe their fieldwork on the Gammon vocabulary in Ireland, Scotland, England and the United States, adding another contradiction. Where others stress the secrecy of the language, these authors relate how well the fieldworker Ó Murchadha was received by many groups of Travellers everywhere, who were also happy to share their language – even though he was an outsider and regularly located Travellers via local social workers or police officers, who sometimes brought him to the communities. Some data on the language are given, in Irish and phonetic transcriptions, but the focus is on the method and the sociolinguistic situation.

Sheila Douglas discusses Travellers'Cant in Scotland (125–31), especially the few hundred words used by one family, providing the ethnocultural background of the speakers. Scottish Cant is clearly quite different from Shelta/Gammon. John M. Kirk and Gavin Falconer provide an etymological appendix (132–37). Just a handful of the more than 100 words are given a Romani etymology, but I counted some 25 clearly Romani words not recognized as such. Most other words are given Scots, English, Gaelic, and Gammon etymologies. Douglas also (139–49) describes her work on Scottish Traveller music and narration, embedded in the context of her “Traveller friends,” but without new information on the language.

Part 2 of the book contains three Travellers' responses to the talks they attended, and three written contributions by Travellers from Ireland, Scotland, and England, on the basis of the talks and the (transcribed) discussions after the talks, providing a variety of perspectives. One of the talks has the Gammon words in it removed, even though some other talks contain such words. These talks provide interesting perspectives on the sometimes difficult life of Travellers and the stereotypes they confront. They also discuss language use and attitudes: Some insist that the language has very little in common with Gaelic, and some also give their (positive and negative) views on academic work on their language.

This book is a welcome addition to the scarce and often biased literature on Gammon and other languages of the Travellers. Its main virtue lies in the range of sociolinguistic perspectives on the language, and there are also some important additions to the documentation and description. It still remains an enigma where the language came from, and from the different accounts it does not become clear how, where, and when the language is used today. If this is the “state-of-the-art in Irish Traveller language … studies,” much more research needs to be done. Both Travellers and students of the language lament the decline in use and the subsequent loss of features. It is to be hoped that this book will contribute to more interest in and study of this highly interesting language.