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Boontling
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Boontling is a jargon[1] or argot spoken only in Boonville, California. The town was named after a man named W.W. Boone, the second cousin to Daniel Boone, who settled in the area in the 1850s. Back then, members of the community included sheep herders and apple farmers.[2] Boontling was created in the 1890s. As of 2015, it was considered nearly extinct, with fewer than 100 living speakers, many of whom were not fluent.[3] It has an Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) sub-tag of boont (i.e. en-boont).[4] The lingo has become somewhat infamous, at least in local circles or within the legends of California, owing to its small-town nature and curious-sounding name, as well as its very limited speakership.
The language gained attention in the 1960s and 1970s from researchers like Myrtle R. Rawles and Charles C. Adams, as well as publicity brought from Boontling-speaker Bobby (Chipmunk) Glover and historian Jack (Wee Fuzz) June.
History and description
[edit]Although Boontling is based on English, many of its unusual words are unique to Boonville, California. Scottish Gaelic and Irish, and some Pomoan and Spanish words also contribute to this jargon.[5] Boontling was invented in the late 19th century and had quite a following at the turn of the 20th century. It is now mostly spoken by aging counter-culturists and native Anderson Valley residents. Because the town of Boonville has only a little more than 700 residents, Boontling is an extremely esoteric jargon, and is quickly becoming archaic. It has over a thousand unique words and phrases.
Origins
[edit]The Anderson Valley, of which Boonville is the largest town, was an isolated farming, ranching, and logging community during the late 19th century. There are several differing versions as to the origin of Boontling. Some assert that the jargon was created by the women, children, and young men in the hop fields and sheep-shearing sheds as a means of recreation, and that it spread through the community as the children continued using it when they grew up.[6]
Another origin story recounted by Myrtle R. Rawles is that Boontling was created by the children of Boonville as a language game which enabled them to speak freely in front of elders without being understood.[7] Such an origin is credited to two children — Ed "Squirrel" Clement and Lank McGimsey — who started making up words in the summer of 1890.[8]
Documentation
[edit]Based on interviews of family and neighbors, Myrtle Rawles wrote an article, "'Boontling': Esoteric Speech of Boonville, California," published in 1966 by the California Folklore Society (presently Western States Folklore Society) in Western Folklore, Volume 25, No. 2, and reprinted under the title Boontling, or the strange Boonville language by the Mendocino County Historical Society in 1967.[7] Researcher Charles C. Adams studied the lingo in the 1960s and wrote a doctoral dissertation based on his research. In 1971 University of Texas Press published his book, Boontling: an American Lingo, which included an extensive dictionary.[5]
Boontling briefly enjoyed a national audience in the mid-1970s when a Boontling speaker named Bobby (Chipmunk) Glover was a regular guest on the well-known The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on the NBC television network. Boontling historian Jack (Wee Fuzz) June appeared on the game show To Tell the Truth. Because Boontling is a spoken jargon rather than a written one, spellings of its words vary greatly. Most spellings were not formalized until the 1970s, primarily by the writings of Jack (Wee Fuzz) June.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Language, dialect or jargon?". 23 June 2010.
- ^ Bartell, John (July 30, 2021). "Boonville and the secret language of Boontling | Bartell's Backroads". abc10.com. Retrieved October 4, 2025.
- ^ Sieg, Stina (17 January 2015). "Do You Harp A Slib Of The Ling? One Small Town's Opaque Language". NPR.org.
- ^ "Language subtag registry".
- ^ a b Haddock, Vicki (Feb 5, 2001). "Hamlet's Dying Lingo / Boonville's homegrown jargon appears headed for history". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ "Boontling". Anderson Valley Historical Society. Retrieved 2024-03-23.
- ^ a b Rawles, Myrtle R. (1967). Boontling, or the Strange Boonville Language. Mendocino Historical Society. ASIN B0007FTRGQ. OCLC 11243401.
- ^ Rawls, James J. (1994). Dr. History's Sampler: More Stories of California's Past. McGraw-Hill. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-07-051482-9.
Sources
[edit]- Rawles, Myrtle R. (1966); "'Boontling': Esoteric Language of Boonville, California." In Western Folklore, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 93–103. California Folklore Society [Western States Folklore Society].
Further reading
[edit]- Boontling: An American Lingo, by Charles Adams, ISBN 0-939665-05-0.
- A Slib of Lorey (translation: A bit of folklore) by Edna Sanders
- English to Boontling by Judy Belshe-Toernblom. Published by JudyBelshe@aol.com ISBN 978-0-9655530-2-5
External links
[edit]- Boontling: An American Lingo
- History of Boontling at the Anderson Valley Museum
- Mendocino Middle School Boontling Dictionary
- Haddock, Vicki. "Hamlet's Dying Lingo" in San Francisco Chronicle, February 5, 2001.
- Boontling Language of Boonville
- "Boontling: A Lost American Language" (video). Yahoo.com. 9 January 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
Boontling
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Boontling is a unique dialect, or "lingo," that emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County, California, particularly around the town of Boonville.[1]
Developed as a private jargon among women and children laboring in the hop fields of the isolated Belk (or Bell) region, it allowed discreet communication amid the era's farming and logging economy, later spreading to most valley residents.[2][3]
Linguistically, Boontling draws from shortened forms of English, Scottish, Irish, Spanish, and Pomo Native American words, supplemented by creative eponyms based on local individuals' names, resulting in a vocabulary of over 1,000 specialized terms that reflect the community's humor, culture, and daily life—for instance, bahl gorms for "good food," horn of zeese for "cup of coffee," and pike meaning "to walk."[2][1][3]
Though once a vibrant marker of regional identity, Boontling is now critically endangered, with fewer than 100 fluent speakers, mostly elderly, as of the 2020s.[4]
Preservation initiatives, including glossaries compiled by the Anderson Valley Historical Society and the seminal 1971 dictionary by linguist Charles C. Adams, alongside local cultural promotions by businesses like the Anderson Valley Brewing Company, sustain interest in this hyper-local linguistic heritage.[2][1][3]
History
Origins
Boontling emerged in the 1890s among children and women working in the hop fields of Boonville, California, as a playful secret language designed to exclude outsiders and adults from their conversations.[5] Local accounts trace its initial creation to young figures such as Ed "Squirrel" Clement and Lank McGimsey, who began inventing words around 1890 while in the fields and sheep-shearing sheds of the Belk Region.[5] This development occurred within the isolated farming, ranching, and logging community of Anderson Valley, where geographic seclusion fostered tight-knit social bonds and unique cultural practices.[6][7] The dialect's formation drew from the multilingual environment of the valley, blending shortenings and adaptations from English, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Spanish, and Pomoan languages spoken by settlers and indigenous residents.[1][8] These influences reflected the diverse backgrounds of the hop pickers and laborers, who incorporated local terms and phonetic modifications to create an argot intelligible only to insiders.[1] Named after Boonville—established in the late 1860s and honoring early settler W.W. Boone—the lingo quickly spread among families in the immediate vicinity, serving as a marker of community identity in the Belk and Bell Valleys.[6][5] By the early 20th century, it had become a shared vernacular, later documented by researchers seeking to preserve its oral traditions.[7]Development and Spread
Boontling transitioned from a playful invention among children to a practical argot adopted by adult workers in the Anderson Valley's hop fields and vineyards by the early 1900s. Initially developed for secretive communication during labor-intensive tasks, it spread as families and laborers integrated its terms into everyday exchanges, allowing for discreet discussions amid the isolation of rural Mendocino County. By this period, the dialect had become a valley-wide spoken form among approximately 700 residents, reflecting the small, tight-knit community's reliance on shared linguistic codes for social bonding.[9][10] The dialect reached its peak usage during the 1920s through 1940s, when it permeated daily conversations for purposes of privacy, humor, and local identity reinforcement. Workers in agricultural settings employed Boontling to exclude outsiders, such as itinerant laborers or visitors, while fostering in-group camaraderie; for instance, terms derived from hop-picking routines became commonplace in field dialogues. This era saw its broadest integration, with speakers weaving Boontling phrases into routine interactions at communal venues like the Any Time Saloon, where adults expanded its vocabulary during social gatherings.[7][9] Family transmission played a central role in disseminating Boontling, as parents and elders passed down terms tied to local agriculture—such as those for harvesting tools or crop varieties—and social life during home activities and community events like sheep-shearing or harvest festivals. Children absorbed the dialect through intergenerational storytelling and play, ensuring its continuity within households. Usage exhibited variations by gender: it began as female-led among women and children in hop fields, who coined initial words for gossip, but shifted toward male-dominated application in work settings like vineyards and logging, where men adapted terms for practical commands and jests.[2][9] By the early 20th century, Boontling achieved communal acceptance, appearing in schools where teachers incorporated it into lessons and local sports teams used it for team chants, as well as in stores for customer banter that reinforced valley insularity. This widespread embrace highlighted its evolution into a marker of regional pride, spoken fluidly across generations in public and private spheres.[11][12]Documentation and Preservation
The documentation of Boontling began in earnest in the mid-20th century as the dialect faced decline with the passing of native speakers. The first formal written accounts appeared in Myrtle R. Rawles' 1966 article "'Boontling': Esoteric Speech of Boonville, California," published in Western Folklore, which drew on interviews with local residents to describe the language's structure and usage. This was followed by Rawles' 1967 book Boontling, or, The Strange Boonville Language, issued by the Mendocino County Historical Society, which expanded on local dialects including Boontling through additional family and community narratives.[13] A significant milestone came with Charles C. Adams' 1971 book Boontling: An American Lingo with a Dictionary of Boontling, published by the University of Texas Press, which compiled over 1,000 terms along with their etymologies, phonemic analyses, and cultural contexts based on fieldwork in Anderson Valley.[14] Fluent speakers played key roles in these efforts; for instance, Bobby "Chipmunk" Glover appeared on national television programs like The Tonight Show in the 1970s, demonstrating spoken Boontling and raising awareness among broader audiences.[11] Similarly, Jack "Wee Fuzz" June contributed to preservation by standardizing spellings of Boontling words in his 1970s writings, addressing the dialect's previously inconsistent orthography.[2] The Anderson Valley Historical Society further advanced documentation through the creation of glossaries cataloging essential terms and audio recordings capturing native pronunciations from the 1970s onward.[2] Pre-digital preservation relied heavily on analog methods, such as personal notebooks filled with lexical notes and oral history interviews conducted with elders like Phocian McGimpsey and Luster Bivans, whose recollections provided invaluable firsthand accounts of the dialect's evolution and daily application.[2][15]Linguistic Characteristics
Phonology and Pronunciation
Boontling's phonology closely mirrors that of standard English, functioning as a jargon overlaid on the existing sound system rather than introducing a fundamentally distinct phonological inventory. This alignment is evident in its retention of English consonants, vowels, and prosodic features, allowing speakers to integrate Boontling terms seamlessly into everyday speech. According to linguistic analysis, the dialect's sounds, grammar, and syntax remain essentially English, distinguishing it from full languages while enabling its use as a secretive argot in social contexts.[16] Key phonological modifications occur primarily in word formation processes, where English roots undergo simplifications such as elision (omission of sounds), cropping (truncation of syllables), and accent shifting to create opaque yet pronounceable terms. These changes facilitate rapid, mumbled delivery in informal settings like agricultural fields, enhancing the jargon’s exclusivity. For instance, the word "bahl" (meaning "good") derives from "ball" but features a broadened vowel sound /bɑːl/, reflecting a deliberate phonetic alteration for distinctiveness. Onomatopoeic elements further enrich the sound system, with terms like "barl" imitating a gunshot or "kilockety" mimicking a train's rhythm, directly incorporating environmental noises into the lexicon.[8][17] Pronunciation in Boontling bears influences from the Scottish, Irish, and Pomoan linguistic substrates of early Anderson Valley settlers, introducing subtle variations such as non-standard vowel qualities borrowed from Scots dialects. Native speakers, shaped by the local accent, exhibit these traits more authentically, while outsiders often approximate them imperfectly, leading to noticeable differences in fluency and intonation. Recordings of elderly Boonters reveal a rhythmic, clipped quality to utterances, underscoring the jargon’s evolution for quick, covert communication among insiders.[18][8]Word Formation and Lexicon
Boontling's lexicon comprises approximately 1,000 to 1,600 words, primarily consisting of nouns and verbs rooted in the everyday experiences of rural Anderson Valley life, such as farming, social interactions, and local landmarks.[8][4] This limited but specialized vocabulary reflects the dialect's origins as a secretive jargon among hop field workers and residents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, emphasizing practical and community-specific concepts over abstract or literary terms.[17] The primary methods of word formation in Boontling involve shortening English words for brevity and exclusivity, as seen in terms like "gorm" derived from "gormandize" to mean "to eat." Compounding combines existing elements to create new meanings, often linking objects or actions, such as "bucky walter," which merges "buckies" (nickels) and "walter" (telephone) to denote a pay phone. Eponyms, drawn from names of local people and places, form a significant portion of the lexicon, including "barney" (to kiss or hug, from a resident named Barney) and "walter" (telephone, from someone named Walter), personalizing the language and reinforcing community ties.[8] Foreign influences enrich Boontling's word creation, incorporating Spanish loanwords like "doolsey" meaning "sweet" (from "dulce"), and Pomoan terms for natural elements, such as "boo" for potato (from Pomo "bu"). These borrowings highlight the dialect's adaptation to the multicultural environment of Mendocino County, blending European settler languages with indigenous and Hispanic elements. Semantic fields are overwhelmingly oriented toward rural existence, including terms for livestock, crops, and labor, while the original secretive intent of the jargon evolved into playful, humorous idioms that added levity to conversations among insiders. For example, sweet potato is "doolsey boo".[8][17] Phonological simplifications, such as vowel shifts and consonant reductions common in the dialect, facilitated these creative processes by making altered words easier to pronounce in casual speech.[8]Grammar and Syntax
Boontling adheres closely to the grammatical and syntactic framework of English, functioning primarily as a lexical jargon rather than an independent language with its own morphological or syntactical rules.[16] This means that sentences in Boontling follow standard English word order, tense formations, and agreement patterns, with Boontling-specific vocabulary inserted as direct substitutes for English words without altering the underlying structure.[19] Linguist Charles C. Adams, who documented the dialect extensively, described its grammar and syntax as "essentially English," emphasizing that Boontling lacks the inflectional complexities or creole-like developments seen in true constructed languages.[16] The integration of Boontling words into English sentences creates hybrid constructions that maintain intelligibility for speakers while obscuring meaning for outsiders. For instance, a typical sentence might replace common nouns or verbs with Boontling terms, such as "We’re piking to the dusties," which translates to "We’re heading to the cemetery," using the Boontling verb "piking" (going) and noun "dusties" (cemetery) within otherwise standard English syntax.[20] Another example appears in adapted English nursery rhymes, where the structure remains identical but vocabulary shifts: the Boontling version of "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" reads "Cerk, Cerk, the tooter's tweed, Strung a borp and shied; They gormed the borp And dreeked wee Cerk And he piked plenty greeneyed," preserving English subject-verb-object order and past tense markers while substituting terms like "cerk" (a proper name equivalent) and "borp" (pig).[19] Due to its status as an argot developed for rapid, secretive communication among Anderson Valley residents, Boontling does not feature a distinct conjugation system or extensive morphological innovations; verbs and nouns retain English inflections, such as adding "-ed" for past tense or "-s" for plurals, without simplification beyond casual spoken English norms.[16] This reliance on English syntax allows for seamless code-switching in conversation, where speakers might intersperse Boontling terms like "horn of zeese" (cup of coffee) into full English sentences for emphasis or privacy, such as "Pass me a horn of zeese before we pike out."[16] Overall, these characteristics underscore Boontling's role as a specialized overlay on English, prioritizing lexical creativity over syntactical divergence.[20]Vocabulary
Terms from Agriculture and Daily Work
Boontling vocabulary related to agriculture and daily work emerged primarily among women and children laboring in the hop fields of Anderson Valley during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, serving as a means to communicate privately during long hours of picking and processing crops. This lexicon reflects the rural routines of farming life, incorporating terms for food preparation, livestock handling, harvesting tools and actions, and social breaks amid labor. Many words derive from local nicknames, imitative sounds, or borrowings from neighboring languages like Spanish and Pomo, adapted to the demands of hop ranch work and vineyard tending. Historical accounts note its use in work calls and songs to coordinate tasks or share gossip without oversight from supervisors.[2] Key examples illustrate how Boontling captured the essence of agricultural labor. For instance, zeese refers to coffee, essential for sustaining workers during early morning starts or breaks; it honors Z.C., a hunter-camp cook known for brewing potent batches from his initials. Bahl gorms denotes good food, often evoking hearty harvest meals shared after picking sessions, with "bahl" meaning good and "gorms" from "gorm" (to eat or food). Gorm itself broadly signifies food or the act of eating, a frequent topic amid daily ranch routines. In livestock care, breggo names a sheep, borrowed from Spanish "borrego" for a yearling lamb, common in valley herding. Charl means to milk a cow, mimicking the sound of liquid hitting a pail, a staple chore on mixed farms. Deeblin’-’n-deetlin’ describes a grueling session of castrating and docking lambs' tails, combining "de-balling" and "de-tailing" for efficiency in sheep farming. Chimpmunk is to hoard or store up provisions, inspired by the rodent's winter stockpiling habit, relevant to preserving harvest yields.[17][4] Vineyard and hop-specific terms highlight the valley's crop focus. Fratty shams stands for grapevines, blending "fratty" (wine) with "shams" (brush or poles supporting vines), tied to the labor of tending and harvesting grapes alongside hops. Frattey alone means wine, a product of agricultural effort celebrated in work breaks. Boo designates a potato, adapted from Pomo "bu," a root crop grown in rotation with hops for farm sustenance. Ganno refers to an apple, particularly small red varieties dried for storage, possibly from Spanish influence, underscoring orchard work integrated with field labor. For movement and tools in daily routines, pike means to walk or travel, as in trekking to fields, while buckey walter is a pay phone used by workers to coordinate shifts, combining "buckey" (nickel) with "Walter" (the first phone owner in the area). Jape signifies driving a vehicle, a later adaptation for transporting produce or tools. Post-labor socializing included tidrik, a dance or party from "tea drink," marking the end of harvest days. Heelch describes a large amount, as in a bountiful hop yield. These terms, totaling over 1,200 in the full lexicon, were woven into 1900s work songs like calls to "pike the hop rows" or chants during picking to maintain rhythm.[2][17][4]| Term | Meaning | Etymology/Origin | Context in Agriculture/Daily Work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zeese | Coffee | Named after Z.C., a cook famous for strong brews (initials). | Fuel for long field shifts or morning routines. |
| Bahl gorms | Good food | "Bahl" (good) + "gorms" (food/eat). | Harvest meals after picking. |
| Gorm | Food; to eat | General adaptation for sustenance. | Discussing meals during labor breaks. |
| Breggo | Sheep | From Spanish "borrego" (yearling lamb). | Herding and sheep farming tasks. |
| Charl | To milk a cow | Imitative of milk hitting a bucket. | Dairy chores on farms. |
| Deeblin’-’n-deetlin’ | Castrating/docking lambs | "De-balling" + "de-tailing." | Seasonal livestock processing sessions. |
| Chimpmunk | To hoard/store up | From chipmunk's food-storing behavior. | Preserving crops for winter. |
| Fratty shams | Grapevines | "Fratty" (wine) + "shams" (brush/poles). | Vineyard tending and support structures. |
| Frattey | Wine | Local term for fermented grape product. | End-product of grape labor. |
| Boo | Potato | From Pomo Indian "bu." | Root crop in farm rotation. |
| Ganno | Apple (for drying) | Possibly Spanish origin. | Orchard harvesting and drying. |
| Pike | To walk/travel; a hike | Descriptive of movement. | Trekking to/from fields. |
| Buckey walter | Pay phone | "Buckey" (nickel) + "Walter" (first phone owner). | Coordinating work via communication. |
| Jape | To drive a car | Action term for transport. | Hauling tools or produce. |
| Tidrik | Dance/party | From "tea drink," for social gatherings. | Post-work harvest celebrations. |
| Heelch | Large amount | From "the whole cheese." | Abundant yields in fields. |
Terms from People and Places
Boontling vocabulary frequently drew from the names of local residents and families, creating eponyms that personalized the dialect and fostered a sense of intimacy among speakers. These terms often originated as nicknames or references to distinctive traits of individuals, allowing the community to encode gossip, humor, and daily interactions in a way that baffled outsiders. This practice not only enhanced secrecy—essential for discussing sensitive topics like relationships or work without eavesdroppers understanding—but also strengthened community bonds by weaving personal histories into the language itself.[17][2] The naming conventions in these eponyms reflect the Scottish and Irish heritage of many early settlers in Anderson Valley, where words were shortened or altered in phonetic patterns reminiscent of Gaelic influences, such as transforming surnames into playful or descriptive slang. For instance, terms like "kimmie," derived from the Scots-Irish "kimmer" meaning a gossiping woman or acquaintance, evolved to refer to men or strangers in some contexts, highlighting the fluid, community-driven adaptation of immigrant linguistic traits. This blending helped Boontling serve as a marker of local identity, transmitted through families and used to signal belonging in the isolated valley.[16][1] Place-based terms, or toponyms, similarly anchored the dialect to the geography of Anderson Valley, renaming landmarks and settlements in ways that evoked local lore and reinforced territorial pride. These derivations from nearby features or towns contributed to the language's role in maintaining secrecy during communal activities, like hop field work, where speakers could reference locations without alerting non-locals. Overall, such terms numbered in the hundreds, with eponyms comprising a significant portion of Boontling's roughly 1,000-word lexicon, underscoring its function as a cultural archive of the region's people and landscapes.[4][2] The following table provides representative examples of Boontling terms derived from people and places, including their meanings and origins where documented:| Term | Meaning | Origin |
|---|---|---|
| almittey | A loud burp or someone who burps loudly | Named after a local woman notorious for her noisy belching.[17] |
| apple-head | A girlfriend or young woman | Derived from a local woman's small head, used derisively in an incident.[17][2] |
| barney | To embrace, hug, or kiss | From Barney, a local man known for affectionately kissing women in greeting.[17] |
| barney flats | Hendy Woods State Park (redwood forest) | Named after Barney Roberts, an early settler in the area.[2][4] |
| belk region | Bell Valley (northeast of Boonville) | Shortened from "Bell," referencing the valley where Boontling originated in hop fields.[2] |
| boont | Boonville (the main town) | A shortening of "Boonville," central to the dialect's name and identity.[2][4] |
| buckey walter | A pay telephone | Combines "buckey" (nickel) with Walter Levi, the valley's first phone owner.[17] |
| charlie ball | To embarrass someone | From Charlie Ball, a local Native American man easily embarrassed.[2] |
| deep enders | Residents of Navarro (west side) | Refers to Navarro's location at the "deep end" of the valley.[2] |
| high rollers | Residents of Yorkville (east side) | Alludes to Yorkville's higher elevation, implying "rolling" hills.[2] |
| jeffer | A large fire | Named after Jeff, a local who built exceptionally big fires.[2] |
| kimmie | A man or stranger (sometimes woman in context) | From Scots-Irish "kimmer" (gossiper or comer), adapted for locals or outsiders.[16][17] |
| mink | A woman or girl | Possibly from local naming, used for female residents.[4] |
| moldunes | Large female breasts | From a local woman with notably large mammary development.[17] |
| poleeko | Philo (second-largest town) | Shortened from "Philo," a nearby settlement 6 miles west of Boonville.[2] |
| shoveltooth | A doctor | From a local physician with protruding, shovel-like teeth.[2] |
| taigey | Manic or emotionally disturbed | From "Taig" (short for tiger), a local man committed for irrational actions.[17] |
| wess | To fib or exaggerate | Named after Wes, a local known for stretching the truth in stories.[17] |
| zeese | Coffee | From Z.C., initials of Zachariah Clifton, the valley's coffee brewer on hunting trips.[21] |