Lavengro : $b The Scholar; The Gypsy; The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2)Borrow, George
General
Lavengro : $b The Scholar; The Gypsy; The Priest, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Borrow, George
England -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
"Pannam!" said I, "pannam! evidently connected with, if not derived from,
the Latin panis; even as the word tanner, which signifieth a sixpence, is
connected with, if not derived from, the Latin tener, which is itself
connected with, if not derived from, tawno or tawner, which, in the
language of Mr. Petulengro, signifieth a sucking child. {386} Let me
see, what is the term for bread in the language of Mr. Petulengro? Morro,
or manro, as I have sometimes heard it called; is there not some
connection between these words and panis? Yes, I think there is; and I
should not wonder if morro, manro, and panis were connected, perhaps
derived from the same root; but what is that root? I don't know--I wish
I did; though, perhaps, I should not be the happier. Morro--manro! I
rather think morro is the oldest form; it is easier to say morro than
manro. Morro! Irish, aran; Welsh, bara; English, bread. I can see a
resemblance between all the words, and pannam too; and I rather think
that the Petulengrian word is the elder. How odd it would be if the
language of Mr. Petulengro should eventually turn out to be the mother of
all the languages in the world; yet it is certain that there are some
languages in which the terms for bread have no connection with the word
used by Mr. Petulengro, notwithstanding that those languages, in many
other points, exhibit a close affinity to the language of the horse-shoe
master: for example, bread, in Hebrew, is Laham, which assuredly exhibits
little similitude to the word used by the aforesaid Petulengro. In
Armenian it is--"
"Zhats!" said the stranger, starting up. "By the Patriarch and the Three
Holy Churches, this is wonderful! How came you to know aught of
Armenian?"
CHAPTER XLVII
New Acquaintance--Wired Cases--Bread and Wine--Armenian Colonies--Learning
Without Money--What a Language--The Tide--Your Foible--Learning of the
Haiks--Old Proverb--Pressing Invitation.
Just as I was about to reply to the interrogation of my new-formed
acquaintance, a man, with a dusky countenance, probably one of the
Lascars, or Mulattos, of whom the old woman had spoken, came up and
whispered to him, and with this man he presently departed,--not, however,
before he had told me the place of his abode, and requested me to visit
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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