to some, who said of the
temple, that it was adorned with fair
stones, and with gifts: These things which ye see, days shall
come, when stone shall not remain upon stone, which shall not be
demolished. And they asked him and said: Master, when shall this
be? and what sign shall there be when this begins? He said: See,
that ye be not deceived, because many shall come in my name,
saying: I am (he), and the time is near:
beware ye of going after
them: and when ye shall hear (of) wars and revolts do not fear,
because it is needful that this happen first, for the end shall not
be immediately. Then he said to them: Nation shall rise against
nation, and country against country, and there shall be great
tremblings of earth among the towns, and pestilences and famines;
and there shall be
frightful things, and great signs in the heaven:
but before all this they shall make ye
captive, and shall
persecute, delivering ye over to the synagogue, and prisons; and
they shall carry ye to the kings, and the
governors, on
account of
my name: and this shall happen to you for truth. Keep then firm
in your hearts, not to think before how ye have to answer, for I
will give you mouth and
wisdom, which all your enemies shall not be
able to
resist, or
contradict. And ye shall be delivered over by
your fathers, and brothers, and relations, and friends, and they
shall put to death some of you; and all shall hate you for my name;
but not one hair of your heads shall
perish. With your
patience ye
shall possess your souls: but when ye shall see Jerusalem
surrounded, then know that its fall is near; then those who are in
Judea, let them escape to the mountains; and those who are in the
midst of her, let them go out; and those who are in the fields, let
them not enter into her; because those are days of
vengeance, that
all the things which are written may happen; but alas to the
pregnant and those who give suck in those days, for there shall be
great
distress upon the earth, and it shall move
onward against
this people; and they shall fall by the edge of the sword; and they
shall be carried
captive to all the countries, and Jerusalem shall
be trodden by the nations, until are
accomplished the times of the
nations; and there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and
in the stars; and in the earth trouble of nations from the fear
which the sea and its billows shall cause; leaving men
frozen with
terror of the things which shall come upon all the world; because
the powers of the heavens shall be
shaken; and then they shall see
the Son of Man coming upon a cloud with great power and glory:
when these things begin to happen, look ye, and raise your heads,
for your redemption is near.
THE ENGLISH DIALECT OF THE ROMMANY
'TACHIPEN if I jaw 'doi, I can lel a bit of tan to hatch: N'etist
I shan't puch kekomi wafu gorgies.'
The above
sentence, dear reader, I heard from the mouth of Mr.
Petulengro, the last time that he did me the honour to visit me at
my poor house, which was the day after Mol-divvus, (109) 1842: he
stayed with me during the greatest part of the morning, discoursing
on the affairs of Egypt, the
aspect of which, he
assured me, was
becoming daily worse and worse. 'There is no living for the poor
people, brother,' said he, 'the chok-engres (police)
pursue us from
place to place, and the gorgios are become either so poor or
miserly, that they
grudge our cattle a bite of grass by the way
side, and ourselves a yard of ground to light a fire upon. Unless
times alter, brother, and of that I see no
probability, unless you
are made either poknees or mecralliskoe geiro (justice of the peace
or prime minister), I am afraid the poor persons will have to give
up wandering
altogether, and then what will become of them?
'However, brother,' he continued, in a more
cheerful tone, 'I am no
hindity mush, (110) as you well know. I suppose you have not
forgot how, fifteen years ago, when you made horse-shoes in the
little dingle by the side of the great north road, I lent you fifty
cottors (111) to purchase the wonderful trotting cob of the
innkeeper with the green Newmarket coat, which three days after you
sold for two hundred.
'Well, brother, if you had wanted the two hundred, instead of the
fifty, I could have lent them to you, and would have done so, for I
knew you would not be long pazorrhus to me. I am no hindity mush,
brother, no Irishman; I laid out the other day twenty pounds in
buying rupenoe peam-engries; (112) and in the Chong-gav, (113) have
a house of my own with a yard behind it.
'AND, FORSOOTH, IF I GO THITHER, I CAN CHOOSE A PLACE TO LIGHT A
FIRE UPON, AND SHALL HAVE NO NECESSITY TO ASK LEAVE OF THESE HERE
GENTILES.'
Well, dear reader, this last is the
translation of the Gypsy
sentence which heads the chapter, and which is a very
characteristic
specimen of the general way of
speaking of the
English Gypsies.
The language, as they generally speak it, is a broken jargon, in
which few of the
grammaticalpeculiarities of the Rommany are to be
distinguished. In fact, what has been said of the Spanish Gypsy
dialect holds good with respect to the English as
commonlyspoken:
yet the English
dialect has in
reality suffered much less than the
Spanish, and still retains its original syntax to a certain extent,
its
peculiar manner of conjugating verbs, and declining nouns and
pronouns. I must, however, qualify this last
assertion, by
observing that in the
genuine Rommany there are no prepositions,
but, on the
contrary, post-positions; now, in the case of the
English
dialect, these post-positions have been lost, and their
want, with the
exception of the genitive, has been supplied with
English prepositions, as may be seen by a short example:-
Hungarian Gypsy.(114) English Gypsy. English.
Job Yow He
Leste Leste Of him
Las Las To him
Les Los Him
Lester From leste From him
Leha With leste With him
PLURAL.
Hungarian Gypsy English Gypsy. English
Jole Yaun They
Lente Lente Of them
Len Len To them
Len Len Them
Lender From Lende From them
The following
comparison of words selected at
random from the
English and Spanish
dialects of the Rommany will, perhaps, not be
uninteresting to the philologist or even to the general reader.
Could a doubt be at present entertained that the Gypsy language is
virtually the same in all parts of the world where it is
spoken, I
conceive that such a
vocabulary would at once remove it.
English Gypsy. Spanish Gypsy.
Ant Cria Crianse
Bread Morro Manro
City Forus Foros
Dead Mulo Mulo
Enough Dosta Dosta
Fish Matcho Macho
Great Boro Baro
House Ker Quer
Iron Saster Sas
King Krallis Cralis
Love(I) Camova Camelo
Moon Tchun Chimutra
Night Rarde Rati
Onion Purrum Porumia
Poison Drav Drao
Quick Sig Sigo
Rain Brishindo Brejindal
Sunday Koorokey Curque
Teeth Danor Dani
Village Gav Gao
White Pauno Parno
Yes Avali Ungale
As
specimens of how the English
dialect maybe written, the
following
translations of the Lord's Prayer and Belief will perhaps
suffice.
THE LORD'S PRAYER
Miry dad, odoi oprey adrey tiro tatcho tan; Medeveleskoe si tiro
nav; awel tiro tem, be kairdo tiro lav acoi drey pov sa odoi adrey
kosgo tan: dey mande ke-divvus miry diry morro, ta fordel man sor
so me pazzorrus tute, sa me fordel sor so wavior mushor pazzorrus
amande; ma riggur man adrey kek dosch, ley man abri sor wafodu;
tiro se o tem, tiro or zoozli-wast, tiro or corauni, kanaw ta ever-
komi. Avali. Tatchipen.
LITERAL TRANSLATION
My Father, yonder up within thy good place; god-like be thy name;
come thy kingdom, be done thy word here in earth as yonder in good
place. Give to me to-day my dear bread, and
forgive me all that I
am
indebted to thee, as I
forgive all that other men are
indebtedto me; not lead me into any ill; take me out (of) all evil; thine
is the kingdom, thine the strong hand, thine the crown, now and
evermore. Yea. Truth.
THE BELIEF
Me apasavenna drey mi-dovvel, Dad soro-ruslo, savo kedas charvus ta
pov: apasavenna drey olescro yeck chavo moro arauno Christos, lias
medeveleskoe Baval-engro, beano of wendror of medeveleskoe gairy
Mary: kurredo tuley me-cralliskoe geiro Pontius Pilaten wast;
nasko pre rukh, moreno, chivios adrey o hev; jas yov tuley o kalo
dron ke wafudo tan, bengeskoe stariben; jongorasa o trito divvus,
atchasa opre to tatcho tan, Mi-dovvels kair; bestela kanaw odoi pre
Mi-dovvels tacho wast Dad soro-boro; ava sig to lel shoonaben opre
mestepen and merripen. Apasa-venna en develeskoe Baval-engro; Boro
develeskoe congri, develeskoe pios of sore tacho foky ketteney,
soror wafudu-penes fordias, soror mulor jongorella, kek merella
apopli. Avali, palor.
LITERAL TRANSLATION
I believe in my God, Father all powerful, who made heaven and
earth; I believe in his one Son our Lord Christ, conceived by Holy
Ghost, (117) born of bowels of Holy Virgin Mary,
beaten under the
royal
governor Pontius Pilate's hand; hung on a tree, slain, put
into the grave; went he down the black road to bad place, the
devil's prison; he awaked the third day, ascended up to good place,
my God's house; sits now there on my God's right hand Father-all-
powerful; shall come soon to hold judgment over life and death. I
believe in Holy Ghost; Great Holy Church, Holy
festival of all good
people together, all sins
forgiveness, that all dead arise, no more
die again. Yea, brothers.
SPECIMEN OF A SONG IN THE VULGAR OR BROKEN ROMMANY
As I was a jawing to the gav yeck divvus,
I met on the dron miro Rommany chi:
I puch'd yoi whether she com sar mande;
And she penn'd: tu si wafo Rommany,
And I penn'd, I shall ker tu miro tacho Rommany,
Fornigh tute but dui chave:
Methinks I'll cam tute for miro merripen,
If tu but pen, thou wilt commo sar mande.
TRANSLATION
One day as I was going to the village,
I met on the road my Rommany lass:
I ask'd her whether she would come with me,
And she said thou hast another wife.
I said, I will make thee my
lawful wife,
Because thou hast but two children;
Methinks I will love thee until my death,
If thou but say thou wilt come with me.
Many other
specimens of the English Gypsy muse might be here
adduced; it is
probable, however, that the above will have fully
satisfied the
curiosity of the reader. It has been inserted here
for the purpose of showing that the Gypsies have songs in their own