From the Bucket and Pail to the Fields of Wheat
Last week, Wired’s Threat Level posted a list of slang used by gang members, compiled by law enforcement officials down in Texas. Much of it is easily deciphered, or feeble attempts at being clever - your typical attempts at forging comaraderie through specialized jargon. But a couple bits jumped out at me, because I was already familiar with them - and not in the context of street or prison gangs, either.
Many of the slang terms listed in the document as being used by the Aryan Brotherhood (and other Aryan gangs) - “above and beneath”, “apples and pears”, “April and May”, “ball and chalk”, “bucket and pail”, and dozens more - are actually classical examples of cockney rhyming slang, one of England’s most unique - and annoying - linguistic exports. I don’t want to particularly disparage these gang members - who are, after all, generally much larger and more violent than I - but I have to wonder if they’re even aware of the origins of their peculiar slang? They don’t - as far as I can tell - use the Cockney Alphabet - but I’m not sure anyone actually does, for that matter. I’m sure that part of the attraction is the ease with which rhyming slang can be learned, and remembered; it’s not as if the Aryan Brotherhood can really go around using Esperanto, after all…
(By the way, “above and beneath” = “teeth”; “apples and pears” = “stairs”; “April and May” = “today”; “ball and chalk” = “walk”; and “”bucket and pail” = “jail” (or “gaol”). “Fields of wheat” is slang for “street”.)
See, you really do learn something every day!
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