Bargoens


Bargoens is a Dutch minority language, 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 Spain's Germanía or French Argot. It originates from Rotwelsch and Yiddish. It also has the Romanes word bink, not meaning devil but spouse.
However, the word Bargoens usually refers to the thieves' cant spoken between 1850 and 1950. The actual slang varied greatly from place to place; often Bargoens denotes the variety from the Holland region in the Netherlands. While many words from Bargoens have faded into obscurity, others have become part of standard Dutch. Hufter, gappen and poen are examples of words now common in Dutch. As is the case for most thieves' languages, many of the words from Bargoens are either insults or concern money, crime or sex.
Bargoens has many Yiddish loanwords. Examples are sjacheren, mesjokke, ganneven, gabber, grandig, hachelen.
The name of this cant is close to baragouin, which means "jargon" in French. It is supposed to have been derived either from the Breton words bara+gwin or from Bourgondisch.
Many Woonwagenbewoners used to speak this language as well.

Examples

Also the nicknames of former Dutch guilder coins and banknotes were Bargoens:
spiecent
hondje, beisjedubbeltje, 10 cent coin
heitjecent coin (Netherlands)|Twenty-five cent coin]
piek, pegelguilder
knaakrijksdaalder
joetten guilders
geeltjetwenty five guilders
meierhundred guilders
rugthousand guilders