[shel-tuh] 
| a private language, based in part on Irish, used among Travelers in the British Isles. |
| Shel·ta (shěl'tə) n. A secret jargon used by traditionally itinerant people in Great Britain and Ireland, based on systematic inversion or alteration of the initial consonants of Gaelic words. Also called Cant, Gammon. [From Shelta Sheldrū, perhaps alteration of Irish Gaelic béarla, language, English, from Old Irish bélrae, language, from bél, mouth.] |