Radicalism of reading

[Vaska]

Cant is a precisely descriptive sociolinguistic term; you'll also find it
used a lot by 17th-century drama scholars.  Jonson's _Bartholomew's Fair_,
for instance, is full of all sorts of cant expressions.  As is loads of
stuff by minor Elizabethans.  

Vaska

>>> Aren't all of these "forms" of English simply called argot(s)? 
>>
>>Or cant(s) or patois.
>
>But all of these -- well, at least the first two -- are derogatory, and 
>none of them is used by people who actually study the variations of 
>language.
>
>Cheers,
>David