The profession of wool carder has, for a long time, contributed to structuring the socio-economic configuration of at least three towns in Abruzzo: Pietracamela (Teramo), Cerqueto di Fano Adriano (Teramo) and Fara San Martino (Chieti). Clearly an ancient activity, it seems to have characterized in particular the highest of the above-mentioned towns (1,005 meters above sea level): in the eighteenth century, Francesco Antonio Marcucci (1717-1798), viceregent of Rome and founder of the Congregation of the Pious Workers of the Immaculate Conception in Ascoli Piceno in 1744, wrote to a nun of the Order warning her against, gossips, who could ruin the souls of her neighbours like the «carders of Pietracamela» disentangled wool. The extent of their range of action was also remarkable: from an investigation by Ernesto Giammarco published in 1964, it results that each wool carder from Pietracamela had his own “market place” and moved north and north-west, following routes which led them to Tuscany (Garfagnana), Marche, Umbria, Romagna and even Emilia. During these long journeys (they left in the autumn and came back to the town at Christmas or in the spring) the carders developed and spoke a jargon of the trade, the “trignano” or the “tregnéla”. With a touch of romanticism Tommaso Bruno Stoppa associated this name with the Trignale woodland in the territory of Prati di Tivo, located between 1,500 and 1,800 metres above sea level, describing the jargon as “a forest language therefore, and therefore incomprehensible to non-woodcutters” (Stoppa, April 1947).  Like all the jargons linked to itinerant trades, it held an essentially cryptolalic function, aimed at making the conversations between the carders completely incomprehensible to the clients.  Although this trade disappeared several decades ago, its jargon remains a cultural heritage of the whole community (men and women), having blended in and partly integrated with the already characteristic local language-culture. An example given to us by Lino Montauti is somewhat emblematic: the expression “chettëlògnë saniuwònnë” which can be translated literally as “What is St. John saying?”, would actually be understood by those who know the jargon as “What time is it?” since Pietracamela’s public clock was, and still is, placed on an external wall of Saint John’s Church.