Humpish

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Humpisch or Bargunsch , the secret language of the Tödden , also called Tüötten or Tiötten, was used in the 17th / 18th centuries. Century as seasonally wandering merchants and peddlers from Westphalia and neighboring regions moved to the Netherlands (coll. Holland) and then to the rest of Northern Europe, from England to Riga . In particular, they sold linen there that had been made in rural / domestic factories during the previous winter, and later also metal goods.

The dead were a more or less self-contained society; they used their own language, which is supposedly only known and used by their male members, the bargunsch or humpish . Westphalian Tödden came mainly from the municipalities of Hopsten , Mettingen , Recke , Ibbenbüren and Rheine , but also from neighboring areas such as Schapen , Beesten , Freren , Messingen and Thuine and from southern Westphalia, especially from Winterberg . The Humpisch or Bargunsch spoken by them at the time has only survived in fragments.

In 1866 Heinrich Stüve in Lübeck had compiled a list of words in the Tödden language. Friedrich Kluge published this list in 1901 together with his own material that he had collected in 1900 on a trip to Mettingen from families who had been involved in the death trade. Louis Stüve and Hubert Rickelmann added a few words to the list that they had found themselves. Only 270 words are known. The language must have been spoken in connection with the Münsterland Platt.

Origin of the deadly language

Since there are no written records in the deadly language, there is no possibility for research into this language to assume the linguistic context of a text. Only isolated words are still available for analysis. Its use as a secret language makes analysis even more difficult due to the tendency towards deliberate falsification. Some words that have been preserved can be explained from the Westphalian Platt and from the relationship to the Dutch-speaking area. A number of humpic word creations may have arisen through contact with other traveling people. The relationships between the Tödden and the Teute, the kempens Martian merchants, are not entirely clear . JGM Moormann points to a strange correspondence in 32 words that occur in both the Teuten language and the Töddenssprache Humpisch. Josef Veldtrup thinks that it is not certain which term was taken from whom. Other words appear to have an English, French, Spanish, Latin, or Greek origin. Words that have a Yiddish or “ Gypsy ” descent are rather rare according to Veldtrup.

literature

  • Josef Veldtrup: Bargunsch or humpisch. The secret language of the Westphalian Tiötten , Aschendorff 1981, ISBN 3-402-05985-1
  • Hubert Rickelmann : Die Tüötten in their trade and change. A contribution to the economic, social and family history in the former Upper County of Lingen, the County of Tecklenburg and the neighboring areas , Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn 1960, 2nd edition 1976, ISBN 3-506-77221-X
  • Louis Stüve: The secret languages, especially the Tiöttenssprache , Recke 1923
  • Friedrich Kluge : Rotwelsch , Strasbourg 1901
  • JGM Moormann: De Geheimtalen , (2 volumes), Zutphen 1932, 1934
  • Klaus Siewert: Humble . a secret language of Westphalian linen dealers; with document attachments, typescript of the work by Louis Stüve, Die Tiöttenssprache, Recke 1923, with handwritten corrections by Fritz Hettlage; Correspondence between Friedrich Kluge and Louis Stüve 1900–1901. GSV, Hamburg; Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-939211-12-9 .