It is not our intention to follow the conquests of the Mahometans from the days of Walid and Mahmoud to those of Timour and Nadir; sufficient to observe, that the greatest part of India was subdued, new monarchies established, and the old religion, though far too powerful and widely spread to be extirpated, was to a considerable extent abashed and humbled before the bright rising sun of Islam. The Persian language, which the conquerors [324] of whatever denomination introduced with them to Hindustan, and which their descendants at the present day still retain, though not lords of the ascendant, speedily became widely extended in these regions, where it had previously been unknown. As the language of the court, it was of course studied and acquired by all those natives whose wealth, rank, and influence necessarily brought them into connection with the ruling powers; and as the language of the camp, it was carried into every part of the country where the duties of the soldiery sooner or later conducted them; the result of which relations between the conquerors and conquered was the adoption into the popular dialects of India of an infinity of modern Persian words, not merely those of science, such as it exists in the East, and of luxury and refinement, but even those which serve to express many of the most common objects, necessities, and ideas, so that at the present day a knowledge of the Persian is essential for the thorough understanding of the principal dialects of Hindustan, on which account, as well as for the assistance which it affords in communication with the Mahometans, it is cultivated with peculiar care by the present possessors of the land.
No surprise, therefore, can be entertained that the speech of the Gitános in general, who, in all probability, departed from Hindustan long subsequent to the first Mahometan invasions, abounds, like other Indian dialects, with words either purely Persian, or slightly modified to accommodate them to the genius of the language. Whether the Rommany originally constituted part of the natives of Multan or Guzerat, and abandoned their native land to escape from the torch and sword of Tamerlane and his Mongols, as Grellmann and others have supposed, or whether, as is much more probable, they were a thievish caste, like some others still to be found in Hindustan, who fled westward, either from the vengeance of justice, or in pursuit of plunder, their speaking Persian is alike satisfactorily accounted for. With the view of exhibiting how closely their language is connected with the Sanscrit and Persian, we subjoin the first ten numerals in the three tongues, those of the Gypsy according to the Hungarian dialect. [325a]
| Gypsy. | Persian. | Sanscrit. [325b] | |
| 1 | Jek | Ek | Ega |
| 2 | Dui | Du | Dvaya |
| 3 | Trin | Se | Treya |
| 4 | Schtar | Chehar | Tschatvar |
| 5 | Pansch | Pansch | Pantscha |
| 6 | Tschov | Schesche | Schasda |
| 7 | Efta | Heft | Sapta |
| 8 | Ochto | Hescht | Aschta |
| 9 | Enija | Nu | Nava |
| 10 | Dösch | De | Dascha |
It would be easy for us to adduce a thousand instances, as striking as the above, of the affinity of the Gypsy tongue to the Persian, Sanscrit, and the Indian dialects, but we have not space for further observation on a point which long since has been sufficiently discussed by others endowed with abler pens than our own; but having made these preliminary remarks, which we deemed necessary for the elucidation of the subject, we now hasten to speak of the Gitáno language as used in Spain, and to determine, by its evidence (and we again repeat, that the language is the only criterion by which the question can be determined), how far the Gitános of Spain are entitled to claim connection with the tribes who, under the names of Zingáni, etc., are to be found in various parts of Europe, following, in general, a life of wandering adventure, and practising the same kind of thievish arts which enable those in Spain to obtain a livelihood at the expense of the more honest and industrious of the community.
The Gitános of Spain, as already stated, are generally believed to be the descendants of the Moriscos, and have been asserted to be such in printed books. [326] Now they are known to speak a language or jargon amongst themselves which the other natives of Spain do not understand; of course, then, supposing them to be of Morisco origin, the words of this tongue or jargon, which are not Spanish, are the relics of the Arabic or Moorish tongue once spoken in Spain, which they have inherited from their Moorish ancestors. Now it is well known, that the Moorish of Spain was the same tongue as that spoken at present by the Moors of Barbary, from which country Spain was invaded by the Arabs, and to which they again retired when unable to maintain their ground against the armies of the Christians. We will, therefore, collate the numerals of the Spanish Gitáno with those of the Moorish tongue, preceding both with those of the Hungarian Gypsy, of which we have already made use, for the purpose of making clear the affinity of that language to the Sanscrit and Persian. By this collation we shall at once perceive whether the Gitáno of Spain bears most resemblance to the Arabic, or the Rommany of other lands.
| Hungarian Gypsy. | Spanish Gitáno. | Moorish Arabic. | |
| 1 | Jek | Yeque | Wahud |
| 2 | Dui | Dui | Snain |
| 3 | Trin | Trin | Slatza |
| 4 | Schtar | Estar | Arba |
| 5 | Pansch | Pansche | Khamsa |
| 6 | Tschov | Job. Zoi | Seta |
| 7 | Efta | Hefta | Sebéa |
| 8 | Ochto | Otor | Sminía |
| 9 | Enija | Esnia (Nu. Pers.) | Tussa |
| 10 | Dösch | Deque | Aschra |
We believe the above specimens will go very far to change the opinion of those who have imbibed the idea that the Gitános of Spain are the descendants of Moors, and are of an origin different from that of the wandering tribes of Rommany in other parts of the world, the specimens of the two dialects of the Gypsy, as far as they go, being so strikingly similar, as to leave no doubt of their original identity, whilst, on the contrary, with the Moorish neither the one nor the other exhibits the slightest point of similarity or connection. But with these specimens we shall not content ourselves, but proceed to give the names of the most common things and objects in the Hungarian and Spanish Gitáno, collaterally, with their equivalents in the Moorish Arabic; from which it will appear that whilst the former are one and the same language, they are in every respect at variance with the latter. When we consider that the Persian has adopted so many words and phrases from the Arabic, we are at first disposed to wonder that a considerable portion of these words are not to be discovered in every dialect of the Gypsy tongue, since the Persian has lent it so much of its vocabulary. Yet such is by no means the case, as it is very uncommon, in any one of these dialects, to discover words derived from the Arabic. Perhaps, however, the following consideration will help to solve this point. The Gitános, even before they left India, were probably much the same rude, thievish, and ignorant people as they are at the present day. Now the words adopted by the Persian from the Arabic, and which it subsequently introduced into the dialects of India, are sounds representing objects and ideas with which such a people as the Gitános could necessarily be but scantily acquainted, a people whose circle of ideas only embraces physical objects, and who never commune with their own minds, nor exert them but in devising low and vulgar schemes of pillage and deceit. Whatever is visible and common is seldom or never represented by the Persians, even in their books, by the help of Arabic words: the sun and stars, the sea and river, the earth, its trees, its fruits, its flowers, and all that it produces and supports, are seldom named by them by other terms than those which their own language is capable of affording; but in expressing the abstract thoughts of their minds, and they are a people who think much and well, they borrow largely from the language of their religion—the Arabic. We therefore, perhaps, ought not to be surprised that in the scanty phraseology of the Gitános, amongst so much Persian, we find so little that is Arabic; had their pursuits been less vile, their desires less animal, and their thoughts less circumscribed, it would probably have been otherwise; but from time immemorial they have shown themselves a nation of petty thieves, horse-traffickers, and the like, without a thought of the morrow, being content to provide against the evil of the passing day.
The following is a comparison of words in the three languages:—
| Hungarian Gypsy. [330] | Spanish Gitáno. | Moorish Arabic. | |
| Bone | Cokalos | Cocal | Adorn |
| City | Forjus | Foros | Beled |
| Day | Dives | Chibes | Youm |
| Drink (to) | Piava | Piyar | Yeschrab |
| Ear | Kan | Can | Oothin |
| Eye | Jakh | Aquia | Ein |
| Feather | Por | Porumia | Risch |
| Fire | Vag | Yaque | Afia |
| Fish | Maczo | Macho | Hutz |
| Foot | Pir | Piro, pindro | Rjil |
| Gold | Sonkai | Sonacai | Dahab |
| Great | Baro | Baro | Quibír |
| Hair | Bala | Bal | Schar |
| He, pron. | Wow | O | Hu |
| Head | Tschero | Jero | Ras |
| House | Ker | Quer | Dar |
| Husband | Rom | Ron | Zooje |
| Lightning | Molnija | Malunó | Brak |
| Love (to) | Camaba | Camelar | Yehib |
| Man | Manusch | Manu | Rajil |
| Milk | Tud | Chuti | Helib |
| Mountain | Bar | Bur | Djibil |
| Mouth | Mui | Mui | Fum |
| Name | Nao | Nao | Ism |
| Night | Rat | Rachi | Lila |
| Nose | Nakh | Naqui | Munghár |
| Old | Puro | Puro | Shaive |
| Red | Lal | Lalo | Hamr |
| Salt | Lon | Lon | Mela |
| Sing | Gjuwawa | Gilyabar | Iganni |
| Sun | Cam | Can | Schems |
| Thief | Tschor | Choro | Harám |
| Thou | Tu | Tucue | Antsin |
| Tongue | Tschib | Chipe | Lsán |
| Tooth | Dant | Dani | Sinn |
| Tree | Karscht | Caste | Schizara |
| Water | Pani | Pani | Ma |
| Wind | Barbar | Barban | Ruhk |
We shall offer no further observations respecting the affinity of the Spanish Gitáno to the other dialects, as we conceive we have already afforded sufficient proof of its original identity with them, and consequently shaken to the ground the absurd opinion that the Gitános of Spain are the descendants of the Arabs and Moriscos. We shall now conclude with a few remarks on the present state of the Gitáno language in Spain, where, perhaps, within the course of a few years, it will have perished, without leaving a vestige of its having once existed; and where, perhaps, the singular people who speak it are likewise doomed to disappear, becoming sooner or later engulfed and absorbed in the great body of the nation, amongst whom they have so long existed a separate and peculiar class.