patenin

No-one knows much about the 'patenin', the feral street children that run wild on the London streets. They're regarded with wariness by slightly more civilised young ones, and either ignorant pity or abject fear by any adults. This usually depends on whether the adult is (un)lucky enough to witness them in their natural actions and environment.

 

The children, called 'patenin' though no-one is completely sure why, form their own societies and strange ways that only sometimes mirror those of the more civilised urchins and street children. They have their own strange, singsong language/dialect, which is called patter. This is likely because they're widely thought to be the children of the Patteran, or somehow related to the Gyptian clan. Whether this is true or not, however...the Patteran haven't claimed them, and the patenin aren't saying. Not so's anyone could understand them...