Scottish Cant (often called Scots-Romani or Scotch-Romani) is a cant spoken by Scottish Travellers and Scottish Lowland Roma, primarily in the Scottish Lowlands.

Classification

Up to 50% of Scottish Cant originates from Romani-derived lexicon. The Scottish Gaelic element in the dialects of Scottish Cant is put anywhere between 0.8% and 20%.

Use of archaic Scots

Scottish Cant uses numerous terms derived from Scots which are no longer current in Modern Scots as spoken by non-Travellers, such as mowdit "buried", mools "earth", both from muild(s), and gellie, from gailey (galley), "a bothy".

Gaelic influences

Loans from Gaelic include words like:

Romani influences

The percentage of Romani lexical vocabulary is said to be up to 50% of the lexicon; some examples are:

Recordings

Hamish Henderson and other folklorists recorded various conversations about the Scottish Cant language, with speakers including Lizzie Higgins and Jeannie Robertson. He also recorded Belle Stewart singing a version of "Dance to Your Daddy" in both Cant and Scots.