"There can be no doubt that migration, documented and undocumented, will increase in the future. Even the most optimistic predictions of the consequences of climate change or other major disruptions include massive migration. As new and greater populations are forced into the underground, we are fostering the growth of new migratory languages, and these new languages are in turn fostering what Gog, the King of the Tramps, called self-awareness, the knowledge that the undocumented belong to a new and growing class of migrants that stretches to many parts of the world.
What if Rotwelsch wasn't a historical curiosity, but a harbinger of the future?
Rotwelsch Lesson: The American Oath of Allegiance
I dibber, and gable, that I will rat on any welsch baldower, schiankel, martine zi kohl which I have geschomst.
I hereby declare, under oath, that I absolutely, and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any Foreign Prince, Potentate, State or Sovereignty of whom or of which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen.
(Literal translation: I say and swear that I will betray [there is no word in Rotswelsch for allegiance or fidelity] all foreign leaders, kings and states which I used to serve.)"
Page 210
No comments:
Post a Comment