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Argot
(851 words)

1. Linguistic dissociation and outsiders

Argot, like jargon, is language used by a particular group, but it differs from jargon in depending primarily on oral transmission and being used deliberately to exclude outsiders through coding.

The emergence of an argot requires the presence of a speech community [7]. In the early modern period, it was also important for the development of an argot that a large number of people were excluded from bourgeois…

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Jütte, Robert, “Argot”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_027650>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



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