{{Short description|Secret language of Bulgarian builders and masons}} {{South Slavic languages sidebar}} '''Meshterski''' ({{langx|bg|мещерски}}) or '''Meshtrenski''' (мещренски) was a cant, or secret sociolect, of the south Bulgarian builders, bricklayers and masons.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seecorridors.eu/?w_p=19&w_l=1&w_c=9&w_id=1375|title=Наследство според типа: Дюлгерство|date=2006–2008|publisher=Културните коридори на Югоизточна Европа |language=Bulgarian|accessdate=2008-11-29}}</ref> The name comes from the word мещра ''meshtra'', "master", from Latin ''magister''. Meshterski served a linguistically isolating purpose, enabling the builders to communicate in secrecy, and a socially isolating purpose, emphasizing the builders' perceived supremacy over their contractors.<ref name=first>Николов, "[http://xoomer.alice.it/pavelnik/Biblio/Lingva/Dr/Dr112.htm Глава I]".</ref>
==Distribution and vocabulary== The sociolect emerged among the Bulgarian masons in southwestern Macedonia, adjacent to the Albanian lands. As a result, it includes a large number of Albanian loanwords, e.g. бука ''buka'', "bread", from ''bukё''; гяхта ''gyahta'', "cheese", from ''djathë''; мерам ''meram'', "to take", from ''marr''. There are much fewer loans from Greek (e.g. лашма ''lashma'', "mud", from λάσπη ''laspi''; карекла ''karekla'', "chair", from καρέκλα ''karékla'') and Turkish (e.g. пиринч ''pirinch'', "rice", from ''pirinç''; сакал ''sakal'', "beard", from ''sakal'').<ref name=second>Николов, "[http://xoomer.alice.it/pavelnik/Biblio/Lingva/Dr/Dr113.htm Глава II]".</ref> Later, the language spread through migration to northeastern Macedonia (the region of Gotse Delchev), the Rhodope Mountains around Smolyan, and the areas of Asenovgrad, Kazanlak and the sub-Balkan valleys.<ref name=first/>
Although loanwords often remained semantically unchanged, the Bulgarian vocabulary in the sociolect was substituted with native metaphors, metonyms and words from different roots, so as to conceal the true meaning to outsiders, e.g. мокра ''mokra'' ("wet", fem.) for вода ''voda'', "water"; гледач ''gledach'' ("looker") for око ''oko'', "eye", обло ''oblo'' ("round", neut.) for яйце ''yaytse'', "egg".<ref name=second/> The lexis of Meshterski included not only professional terms and basic vocabulary, but also other words, including religious terms, such as Светлив ''Svetliv'', "Luminous", referring to God or a saint.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ongal.net/editions/6Kult_obr/25Koro_didi.doc|title=Религиозна лексика в тайните дюлгерски говори|last=Кузманова|first=Даниела|author2=Константин Рангочев|publisher=Асоциация за антропология, етнология и фолклористика „Онгъл”|language=Bulgarian|accessdate=2008-11-29}}</ref>
Meshterski also spread to other social areas: it was borrowed by tinsmiths in at least one village in the Rhodopes, although with a much reduced vocabulary and renamed to ''Ganamarski''.<ref name=third>Николов, "[http://xoomer.alice.it/pavelnik/Biblio/Lingva/Dr/Dr115.htm Глава III]".</ref> Albanian words mediated through Meshterski have also entered informal Bulgarian; these included кекав ''kekav'', "weak, sickly" (from ''keq''); кинти ''kinti'', "money, dough" (from ''qind'', "hundred"), скивам ''skivam'', "to see, to take a look" (from ''shqyrtoj''), келеш ''kelesh'', "squirt, mangy fellow" (from ''qelesh'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.promacedonia.org/bugarash/albvbg.html|title=Албанците в България|last=Бобев|first=Боби|author2=Тома Кацори|date=1998|language=Bulgarian|accessdate=2008-11-29}}</ref>
==Examples== {| class="wikitable" !colspan=2|Cyrillic||colspan=2|Latin||<nowiki/> |- !Meshterski||Bulgarian||Meshterski||Bulgarian||English |- |Ветай, райчо, ветай!<ref name=first/> |Върви, слънце, върви! |Vetay, raycho, vetay! |Varvi, slantse, varvi! |Go, Sun, go! |- |Шуле, доветай балта!<ref name=first/> |Момче, донеси кал! |Shule, dovetay balta! |Momche, donesi kal! |Boy, bring [some] mud! |}
==See also== * Banjački, the cant of bricklayers in Podrinje, western Balkans * Purishte, Albanian language sociolect spoken by masons of the Opar region
==Footnotes== {{reflist}}
==References== * {{cite web|url=http://xoomer.alice.it/pavelnik/Biblio/Lingva/Dr/Dr1.htm|title=Наблюдения върху тайния зидарски (мещренски) говор в селата Гела и Момчиловци|last=Николов|first=Павел|date=1979|publisher=ВТУ "Кирил и Методий", гр. Велико Търново, Филологически факултет, катедра "Българско езикознание" |language=Bulgarian|accessdate=2008-11-29}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20081006152746/http://xoomer.alice.it/pavelnik/Biblio/Lingva/Dr/Dr116.htm Short dictionary of Meshterski] {{in lang|bg}}
Category:Cant languages Category:Occupational cryptolects Category:Bulgarian language Category:Bulgarian-language dialects Category:Construction in Europe Category:Masonry