Prison Argot: A Sociolinguistic and Lexicographic Study |  | Author: Gilbert L. Encinas
Publisher: University Press of America
Category: Book
List Price: $44.00
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as of 7/29/2010 09:28 CDT details
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Seller: Uptome Books
Rating:  1 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 104
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0761820442
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.44086927
EAN: 9780761820444
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Product Description
Prison Society has always had its own unique language. With roots in codes and secret communications, it has evolved over many years, allowing criminals to communicate with each other privately. This language, called "argot" from the French argot -- a beggars' guild, criminal cant, and slang -- has significant meaning to inmates. Coded communication allows prisoners to define their relative status and rights, just as workers who were members of corporations and guilds had their own argot for the same purpose. "Prison Argot" is Gilbert L. Encinas' study of the different elements of prison language.
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| Customer Reviews:
Disappointing book - more academic and theoretical than practical and useful July 26, 2008
northhollywoodbookfan (los angeles)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are actually only five pages of prison slang to be found inside this book. The rest of the book, written for a graduate or PhD level reader, was intended to focus on the cultural aspects of prison life from an academic or researcher's perspective.
I also question the value of conducting research within a facility that doesn't reflect the ethnic mix of most jails or prisons in the U.S. The prison unit studied was one that contained an inmate population that the author described as 1% African American, a number that was folded into the white category, since 1% isn't a large enough ethnic base to use for research or comparison. The author focused on English and Spanish prison slang, as well as a few indigenous Mexican dialects, which makes his research interesting but not particularly applicable or useful in understanding prison culture on a larger scale.
Black slang is a critical part of prison lore and lexicon, and crosses over into all of prison life, so a study undertaken with a prison population that has only 1% of inmates defined as African-American creates an inaccurate portrayal of the true lexicon and verbage of prison life.
A far more readable book for a non-academic would be 'You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From a Prison Fish,' a memoir written by ex-con Jimmy Lerner. That book is rich in prison slang and seen through Lerner's eyes as he masters the lingo and the social mores of prison life.
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