Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1879-09-05
An Inverted Language.

! One of the peculiar types of humanity,
/ ays London correspondent of the st.
Louis Post, that are TO be met in this
metropolis is the "coster," or coster-
monger. At the present time the coster-
mongers number nearly fifty thousand
| in London. Their dress is peculiar,
generally tight, horsey-lOoking pants,
and shirt, tight-ftting jacket, with an
| indescribable skull cap as q capillary
covering from beneath which their
closely cropped hair peeps forth, having
all the appearance of the 'Jail crop" A
@coster" invariably smokes and drinks,
using for the former highly discolored,
short-very short-clay pipe, while his
bibulous appetite leads him to indulge
usually in deep draughts of porter, after
which he betakes himself to gin.
What is a costermonger2 Well,
costermonger may be defined as peri
patetic vendor of vegetables and fruits.
The Hcoster's" outfit consists usually of
donkey, or as they in their slang term
the animal, "mOke," and nondescript
kind of vehicle, half way between q
hand truck and spring wagon. Early
in the morning the "cOster' starts OF to
one of the vegetable and fruit markets
of the metropolis and displays his keen
ness in bargaining tor the various vege-
tables of the season which he can dis
pose of.
The "costers" are an exclusive set
Like other low tribes they boast of a Ian
guage or secret tongue in which they
hide their earnings, movements and
other private affairs. This coster speech
offers no new fact or approach to a fact
for the philologist. 1t is notyery remark
able for originality or construction,
neither is it spiced with low humor as
other slang; but the costermongers boast
that it is only known to themselves;
that it is far beyond the Irish, and puz-
zles the Jews.
The main principle of this language is
spelling the words backward, or rather
pronouncing them rudely backward.
Sometimes, for the sake of harmony, an
extra syllable is prefxed or annexed,
and occasionally the word is given quite
a different turn in rendering it backward
from what the uninitiated person would
have expected. One costermonger told
your correspondent that he often gave
the end of a word new turn, Just as if
he had chorused out with fol de rol.
Beside. the coster has his own idea of
the proper way of spelling words, and is
not to be convinced but by an over.
whelming show of learning, and fre
quently not then, for he's very head
strong fellow. By the time coster hal
spelled an ordinary word of two or three
syllables in the proper way, and theI
spelled it backward, it has become
tangled knot that no etymologist coulC
unravel. The word generalize, for in
stance, is considered to be shilling
spelled backward. Sometimes slang anc
cant words are introduced, and ever
these, when imagined to be tolerably
well known, are pronounced backward
Other words, such as gen, shilling, and
hatch, half-penny, hel p to confuse the
outsider. After time this back language
or back slang, as iti called by the coster-
mongers themselves, seems to be re-
garded by the rising generation Of street
sellers aS distinct language.
The women use it sparingly, but the
girls are generally well acquainted with
it. The addition of an IS" always forms
the plural, so that this is another source
of complication for instance, woman
in the back-slang is namow and namus,
but namoWs is women, not nemoW.
The cOSter, then, in undergoing the back |
slang and turning the word namus once
more into English, would have suman, a
novel and extraordinary rendering of
woman. Where a word is refractory in
to the back rendering, as in
the case of pound, letters are made to |
change position for the sake of harmony. |
Thus we have dunop, pound, instead |
Of dnuop, which nobody could pleasantly |
pronounce.
This singular back slang has been in
use nearly fifty years. 1t is soon acquired,
and is principally used by the coster-
for communicating the secrets |
Of their street tradings, the cost and |
profit of their goods and for keeping |
their natural enemies, the police, in the |
dark. "Cool the esclop" (look at the
police is often said among them when
one Of the constabulary makes his
appearance.