Plural Number.
| Scho Kerjom | Hum Kurrtathe | We did make |
| Tumen Kerjen | Tum Kurrtathe | Ye did make |
| On Kerde | Jnne Kurrtathe | They did make |
The comparison thus far will, it is presumed, be sufficient to convince every person of the truth of the position, that the Gipsey language is really that of Hindostan. Let the reader look over the catalogue once more, and it will appear, on the average, that every third Gipsey word is likewise an Hindostan one; or still more, out of thirty Gipsey words, eleven or twelve are constantly of Hindostan. This agreement is uncommonly great: it must at the same time be remembered, that the words above communicated have been learned from the Gipseys within a few years; consequently, at a time when they had been nearly four complete centuries away from Hindostan, their native country (as we may now assert it to be), among people who spoke languages totally different, and in which the Gipseys themselves conversed. Under the constant, and so long continued, influx of these languages, their own must necessarily have suffered great alteration; more especially as they are a people entirely ignorant, without either writing or literature. One foreign word after another must have crept into their language; consequently, by the frequent use of such words, the Gipsey word of the same signification was more rarely used, and by degrees lost from their recollection: by which circumstance the original composition of their language became completely deranged; [190] which is the reason why, as any person may convince himself by inspection, various languages and idioms—Turkish, Grecian, Latin, Wallachian, Hungarian, Sclavonian, German, and others—make part of the foregoing vocabulary. The word rome, man, is Coptic; with, perhaps, a few more. It does not appear that there is so much Persian in the Gipsey language, as has been generally imagined; and even what there is of it they may have brought with them from their native country, as many Persian words are current in Hindostan.
After all these reflections, we ought rather to wonder that the number of Hindostan words in the Gipsey language is so considerable, than to require it should be greater, in order to furnish sufficient proof of the Hindostan language being the Gipseys’ mother tongue.
But we have a right, from the agreement which appears in the catalogue published, to conclude the affinity is much more intimate. The idea hitherto adopted has been that, among the Gipsey words quoted, all those of the Hindostan language, answering to the annexed meaning, appear, which are still extant in the Gipsey language. But this is certainly by no means the case. It will be recollected, from the first part, how great a secret the Gipseys make of their language, and how suspicious they appear when any person wishes to learn a few words of it. Even if the Gipsey is not perverse, he is very inattentive; and is consequently likely to answer some other rather than the true Gipsey word. Under such circumstances, it is very possible, nay even probable, that in the foregoing catalogue there may many words be inserted, for which true Gipsey, of course Hindostan, words might be found; but that the Gipseys when enquired of, either from levity or by design, did not declare them.
Further, it is not all absurd to pronounce, that there remain more, or at least different, true Gipsey words among those residing in one country than another. And if, at a future period, some person should, as an experiment on the above catalogue, examine a second or third time parties of Gipseys in different countries, and compare the words obtained with those already delivered, the catalogue would certainly receive a considerable augmentation in favour of our hypothesis.
Finally, we must consider the Hindostan language itself. This, it is true, is fundamentally the same all over Hindostan; but, like every other language in the world, has different dialects in the various provinces. The eastern dialect, spoken about the Ganges, has different names for some things, and different inflexions of some words, from the western one spoken about the Indus. There is, besides, a third, varying from both these, viz. the Surat dialect, which has a number of Malabar and other words mixed with it. To this must be added, that in the Hindostan, as well as in every other language, there are often several names for the same thing. The particular dialect bearing the closest affinity to the Gipsey language, as will appear hereafter, is the western, and perhaps more especially that of Surat. Had this therefore, or the western one in general, been the standard of the above comparison; and had we not, for want of words in these dialects, been obliged frequently to have recourse to the eastern one, spoken in Bengal; or had we, even in the latter, been able to obtain so many words, that where the Gipsey, from not knowing any more, could only give us a single expression, we might have produced, not one or two as at present, but all, or at least the greater part, of the synonymous appellations: we should infallibly in this manner recover, in the Hindostan language, many a Gipsey word, which even the learned are unable to derive from the European or any other language, and yet have as little appearance of being Hindostan. With respect to the construction and inflexions of the two languages, they are evidently the same. That of Hindostan has only two genders; the Gipsey the same. In the former every word ended in j is feminine, all the rest masculine; in the latter the same rule is observed. That makes the inflections entirely by the article, adding it at the end of the word; the Gipsey language proceeds exactly in the same manner. Finally, likewise, bating a trifling variation, this identical similarity is evident in the pronouns.
So much for the language of the Gipseys. As this is indubitably Hindostan, it would be sufficient of itself to prove the descent of those people from Hindostan. But we shall now proceed to other grounds, which, united with the proofs from the language, will leave us less reason to doubt concerning this matter.
That the Gipseys, and natives of Hindostan, resemble each other in complexion and shape, and are equally timorous and cowardly, is undeniable. But we shall pass over these, together with some other circumstances; as, perhaps, neither the one nor the other are such distinguishing marks as not to be met with among other Oriental people.
The name of Polgar, likewise, carries some weight with it, which we find among the Gipseys in the earliest times, before they began to change the names they brought with them for those used in Europe. Polgar, as we may remember, was the name of the leader who, in the year 1496, obtained a safe-conduct from the Hungarian king Uladislaus II. by virtue of which he, with his horde, consisting of twenty-five tents or families, had the liberty of travelling about where he pleased. This name Polgar originates in India, where it is the appellation of a deity presiding over marriages and matrimonial concerns: the Indians are very fond of bearing this name, as well as the names of their other deities.