Hilary, thanks for the correction on the "Jack" = "Jack Jones" = "Alone". I had expected the much more commonly used expression (to me anyway) "on his Todd" and tried to mix the two.

Thanks also for the information on "karsi". I had (incorrectly) assumed that it arrived in English with the 8th Army from Egypt, as I think shufti and bint did.

Can anyone think of any words from backslang to enter the common language apart from "yob"? And is backslang itself still in use anywhere? I know my sister and her school friends used a backslang (I think they called it "Pig Latin") but they discovered to their cost that one of the mothers was still fluent from her childhood.

Rod