Romano Lavo-Lil (Romany Dictionary) | Page 5

being so limited, the Gypsies have of course words of
their own only for the most common objects and ideas; as soon as they
wish to express something beyond these they must have recourse to
English, and even to express some very common objects, ideas, and
feelings, they are quite at a loss in their own tongue, and must either
employ English words or very vague terms indeed. They have words
for the sun and the moon, but they have no word for the stars, and when
they wish to name them in Gypsy, they use a word answering to 'lights.'
They have a word for a horse and for a mare, but they have no word for
a colt, which in some other dialects of the Gypsy is called kuro; and to
express a colt they make use of the words tawno gry, a little horse,
which after all may mean a pony. They have words for black, white,

and red, but none for the less positive colours--none for grey, green,
and yellow. They have no definite word either for hare or rabbit;
shoshoi, by which they generally designate a rabbit, signifies a hare as
well, and kaun-engro, a word invented to distinguish a hare, and which
signifies ear-fellow, is no more applicable to a hare than to a rabbit, as
both have long ears. They have no certain word either for to-morrow or
yesterday, collico signifying both indifferently. A remarkable
coincidence must here be mentioned, as it serves to show how closely
related are Sanscrit and Gypsy. Shoshoi and collico are nearly of the
same sound as the Sanscrit sasa and kalya, and exactly of the same
import; for as the Gypsy shoshoi signifies both hare and rabbit, and
collico to-morrow as well as yesterday, so does the Sanscrit sasa
signify both hare and rabbit, and kalya tomorrow as well as yesterday.
The poverty of their language in nouns the Gypsies endeavour to
remedy by the frequent use of the word engro. This word affixed to a
noun or verb turns it into something figurative, by which they designate,
seldom very appropriately, some object for which they have no positive
name. Engro properly means a fellow, and engri, which is the feminine
or neuter modification, a thing. When the noun or verb terminates in a
vowel, engro is turned into mengro, and engri into mengri. I have
already shown how, by affixing engro to kaun, the Gypsies have
invented a word to express a hare. In like manner, by affixing engro to
pov, earth, they have coined a word for a potato, which they call
pov-engro or pov-engri, earth-fellow or thing; and by adding engro to
rukh, or mengro to rooko, they have really a very pretty figurative
name for a squirrel, which they call rukh-engro or rooko-mengro,
literally a fellow of the tree. Poggra-mengri, a breaking thing, and
pea-mengri, a drinking thing, by which they express, respectively, a
mill and a teapot, will serve as examples of the manner by which they
turn verbs into substantives. This method of finding names for objects,
for which there are properly no terms in Gypsy, might be carried to a
great length--much farther, indeed, than the Gypsies are in the habit of
carrying it: a slack-rope dancer might be termed
bittitardranoshellokellimengro, or slightly- drawn-rope-dancing fellow;
a drum, duicoshtcurenomengri, or a thing beaten by two sticks; a
tambourine, angustrecurenimengri, or a thing beaten by the fingers; and
a fife, muipudenimengri, or thing blown by the mouth. All these

compound words, however, would be more or less indefinite, and far
beyond the comprehension of the Gypsies in general.
The verbs are very few, and with two or three exceptions expressive
only of that which springs from what is physical and bodily, totally
unconnected with the mind, for which, indeed, the English Gypsy has
no word; the term used for mind, zi--which is a modification of the
Hungarian sziv--meaning heart. There are such verbs in this dialect as
to eat, drink, walk, run, hear, see, live, die; but there are no such verbs
as to hope, mean, hinder, prove, forbid, teaze, soothe. There is the verb
apasavello, I believe; but that word, which is Wallachian, properly
means being trusted, and was incorporated in the Gypsy language from
the Gypsies obtaining goods on trust from the Wallachians, which they
never intended to pay for. There is the verb for love, camova; but that
word is expressive of physical desire, and is connected with the
Sanscrit Cama, or Cupid. Here, however, the English must not triumph
over the Gypsies, as their own verb 'love' is connected with a Sanscrit
word signifying 'lust.' One pure and abstract metaphysical verb the
English Gypsy must be allowed to possess--namely, penchava, I think,
a word of illustrious origin, being derived from