In colloquial Romany, as in English, a number of words are trimmed or abbreviated so that while conversation is thereby rendered more facile, the way of the would-be learner of the language is made additionally hard,—for instance, the term kekauvisky saster—the iron upon which the kettle is hung—is frequently abbreviated to kaubisaster,—kaubi being synonymous with kekauvi for kettle, and, as it gives less trouble to say, is really better, for one is less likely to confuse it with kek or kekko—meaning no, not, etc. Dickoi, too, is used for dick acoi (look here), and in place of paniskey shock (water-cress), the shorter word panishock is often substituted.
“DOLCE FAR NIENTE.”
As the scope of this work does not include the teaching of the Romany tongue, I will not weary the reader with other instances of gypsy word-clipping, but proceed with a brief general survey of the language, touching upon some interesting features and peculiarities, and give a few literal examples which have been either addressed to me, or have come directly under my notice while living among the people.
It will, of course, be understood that the translations are freely rendered, and that gypsy in common with other languages possesses peculiarities which must be learned by ear and cannot be adequately described in writing.
The attainment of fluency in the language is practically impossible apart from a lengthy sojourn by the aspirant with the people, and even this, by itself, will be of little use, for his physical and temperamental qualifications must be such as commend themselves to those whom he wishes to make his friends, and as a consequence—instructors. However, under the most favourable conditions, direct information will very rarely be imparted, so that the pupil’s progress will largely depend on his powers of absorption and imitation.
Generally, Romany is spoken with a free and altogether irregular admixture of English, making it very much more difficult for the novice to get a good start, for not only are the sandwiched English words absolutely meaningless to him, in the unlikely event of his being able to distinguish them, but some of the Romany words having a similar sound to English have a totally different meaning. As might be expected, some slight variations in the pronunciation or enunciation of the English portions occur in different localities; but Romany may be said to be almost free from provincialisms, so that one who is conversant with it will have little difficulty in conversing with gypsies from any part of the country.
