A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy LanguageSimson, Walter
History
A History of the Gipsies: with Specimens of the Gipsy Language
Simson, Walter
Romanies; Romanies -- Languages
The dialect of the English Gipsies, though mixed with English, is
tolerably pure, from the fact of its being intelligible to the race in
the centre of Russia.--_Borrow._--ED.
In May, 1829, while near the manse of Inverkeithing, my friend and I
accidentally fell in, on the high road, with four children, the youngest
of whom appeared to be about four, and the eldest about thirteen, years
of age. They were accompanied by a woman, about twenty years old, who
had the appearance of being married, but not the mother of any of the
children with her. Not one of the whole party could have been taken for
a Gipsy, but all had the exact appearance of being the family of some
indigent tradesman or labourer. Excepting the woman, whose hair was
dark, all of the company had hair of a light colour, some of them
inclining to yellow, with fair complexions. In not one of their
countenances could be seen those features by which many pretend the
Gipsies can, at all times, be distinguished from the rest of the
community. The manner, however, in which the woman, at first, addressed
me, created in my mind a suspicion that she was one of the tribe. In
order to ascertain the fact, I put a question to her in Gipsy, in such a
manner that it might appear to her that I was quite certain she was one
of the fraternity. She immediately smiled at my question, held down her
head, cast her eyes to the ground, then appeared as if she had been
detected in something wrong, and pretended not to understand what I
said. One of the children, however, being thrown entirely off his guard,
immediately said to her, "You know quite well what he says." The woman,
recovering from her surprise and confusion, and being assured she had
nothing to fear from me, now answered my question. She also replied to
every other interrogation I put to her, without showing the least fear
or hesitation. After I had repeated a few words more, and a sentence in
the Gipsy tongue, one of the boys exclaimed, "He has good cant!" and
then addressed me entirely in the Gipsy language. (All the Gipsies, as I
have already mentioned, call their language _cant_, for the purpose of
concealing their tribe.) The whole party seemed extremely happy that I
was acquainted with their speech. The woman put several questions to me,
in return, some of which were wholly in her own peculiar tongue. She
asked my name, place of residence, and whether I was a _nawken_--that is
a Gipsy. She further enquired whether my friend was also a _nawken_;
adding, with a smile, that she was sure I was a _tramper_. The children
sometimes conversed among themselves wholly in their own language; and,
when I could not understand the woman, as she requested, in her own
speech, to know my name, &c., one of them instantly interpreted the
sentence into English for me. One of the oldest boys, however, thinking
I was only pretending to be ignorant of their speech, observed, in
English, to his companions, "I am sure he is a tramper, and can speak as
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