“THE WEAKER SEX” (?)
A curious fact I have noted, is that Romany names for some of the commonest things, articles in everyday use, have been forgotten by the gypsies, while the names of some objects for which they have no occasion, year in, year out, have been retained in all their original purity. Time and again have I been asked for the Romany names of certain common objects, and upon a word being supplied, my interrogator has repeated it again and again to impress it upon his memory. One of the most fluent speakers I ever met had forgotten the word for “plate,” while another was unable to say “thank you” in Romany, albeit each had a very extensive knowledge of the tongue, including names for many animals, flowers and insects, and was an adept at word building; with respect to this practice it must be borne in mind that the gypsy uses the Romany language much in the same way that a potter uses clay,—he does not alter the character of the material, but moulds it into an expression of his idea.
Usually he is little worried by genders or any rules of grammar, his sole purpose being to convey his ideas in the simplest manner possible in the best Romany he has at command, and he considers it as his language, for the use only of himself and his people, being unwilling that a gorgio should learn even a few words of it.
“What would be the use of Romany,” said an old man to me, “if sore dinneleskoe gorgios jinned what mande penned?”
So general is this jealous feeling, that all knowledge of the language will frequently be disowned, and I have often known gypsies intentionally misinform non-gypsies by supplying wrong words; for instance, I heard a gypsy tell an inquiring gorgio that the word “match” was “yog cosh” in gypsy. Upon analyzing this and finding it signified “fire stick,” the information would be accepted as correct, until it was discovered that it also meant a firebrand, and that there is a very different genuine Romany word denoting this specific match and nothing else.
The true Romanichal prides himself on his knowledge of the tongue, which, when well spoken, he designates “deep” Romany, and I have known real exponents of it in descendants of the old, old gypsies who have been described, with some little exaggeration, perhaps, as having been “as black as the ace of spades”; at the same time, I am acquainted with other families who are much darker-complexioned than many Hindoos, whose Romany is comparatively meagre.
Apropos of the suspicious reticence of the gypsy, I recollect that while in the hop gardens, a man came one day to the spot where a gypsy girl and I were picking, and having heard a little of our conversation, came nearer and said—
“I say, I should like to learn Romany.”
