Romany

Following the recent to-ing and fro-ing on the answerbank about the word didacoi and whether or not it is a derogatory term, it seems like a good time to have a look at the Gypsy language, more correctly known as Romany.

Q. Gypsy or Romany

A. Or, indeed, Gipsy. Gypsy is a term which first appeared in English in the early 16th century and is a corruption of Egyptian, Egypt being the supposed homeland of the strange new people. True Gypsies refer to themselves by one generic name, Rom, which means 'man or 'husband'.

Q. So, given the fact that Gypsies are spread all over Europe, where did the language originate

A. Not just Europe these days, but all over the world. Most Gypsies, in addition to the major language of the country in which they live, speak one of the many dialects of Romany, a language closely related to the modern Indo-European languages of northern India, all of which are ultimately derived from Sanskrit. Romany seems to have been separated from its closest relatives around AD 1000.

However, while many of the grammatical and syntactical elements of the language reflect its roots, its vocabulary reflects the wanderings of its speakers. The main sources apart from the original Indian stock are Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian and the Slavic languages.

Q. They're Indians, then

A. It is generally agreed that Gypsy groups left India in repeated migrations from around the 10th century and that they were in Persia by the 11th, in south-eastern Europe by the beginning of the 14th and in western Europe by the 15th.

Q. How have they managed to keep their own language over the centuries

A. One of the reasons for the survival of the language is its usefulness as an argot, or secret language, since the Gypsy style of life often leads to conflict with neighbouring communities.

Q. Was it ever written down

A. There is no tradition of writing in Romany, just a very rich oral tradition. However, in the 20th century several eastern European countries have published poems and folktales in Romany, using their national scripts.

Q. Does the language vary much from place to place

A. Modern Gypsy dialects all over the world have been classified according to their European originals, of which thirteen have been recognised. These are Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech-Slovak, German, Polish, Russian, Finnish, Scandinavian, Italian, Serbo-Croat, Welsh and Spanish. The dialectal differentiations originated during the Gypsies' stay in the regions where these languages were spoken. While living in these regions they accepted many loanwords from the native tongues and sometimes phonetic and even grammatical features. In a reciprocal fashion Romany words have also been borrowed by the languages of the host nations, including English.

Q. And a few examples English

A.

barry: good (Scots dialect)

berkeleys (berk): breasts

chavvy (chey, chiavei): child (Cockney)

chorey (chorav): to steal (Scots dialect)

cosh (coshter): stick

mush (much): mate (London and south-east England)

[put the] mockers [on] (moxado): to jinx

radge: excited, crazy (Scots dialect)

scran: food (Scots and some dialects of English)

tanner: sixpence

Q. What about Gypsy's kiss, then

A. Not thinking of gypsy's curse A gypsy's kiss is rhyming slang for micturition.

See also the answerbank articles on the languages of India and rhyming slang

For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

By Simon Smith