Most Americans would not understand words such as bahl, harpin', and shoveltooth. These words belong to an unusual dialect called Boontling. The name itself is a mixture of "Boonville" and "lingo" and only a handful of people in the small town of Boonville in northern California can speak it.
The dialect started more than 150 years ago, but nobody knows why. One theory is that men wanted to tell dirty jokes but without their wives understanding any of it. There are further reasons given for creating this dialect in the video that you will find at the end of my post.
Boontling is also known for including influences of Irish, Spanish, Scottish-Gäelic and a barely known Californian language called Pomoan. Although there are many differences of how to speak English across the US, the dialect spoken near San Francisco is very unusual.
Today there are only about 1,000 Boontling speaking people left in the town and only 12 of them can speak it fluently. In former times, 3,000 people were thought to be able to speak Boontling. It was even used to be taught in local schools. But now, there are only a few left, who have a good command with the language and when these citizens will die, so will the dialect.
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