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The Zincali-Part41_George Borrow(1803-1881)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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arisen fortuitously in the various countries where it is at present

spoken, but that its origin is one and the same, it being probably



invented by the outlaws of one particular country; by individuals

of which it was, in course of time, carried to others, where its



principles, if not its words, were adopted; for upon no other

supposition can we account for its general metaphorical character



in regions various and distant. It is, of course, impossible to

state with certainty the country in which this jargon first arose,



yet there is cogent reason for supposing that it may have been

Italy. The Germans call it Rothwelsch, which signifies 'Red



Italian,' a name which appears to point out Italy as its

birthplace; and which, though by no means of sufficient importance



to determine the question, is strongly corroborative of the

supposition, when coupled with the following fact. We have already



intimated, that wherever it is spoken, this speech, though composed

for the most part of words of the language of the particular



country, applied in a metaphorical sense, exhibits a considerable

sprinkling of foreign words; now of these words no slight number



are Italian or bastard Latin, whether in Germany, whether in Spain,

or in other countries more or less remote from Italy. When we



consider the ignorance of thieves in general, their total want of

education, the slight knowledge which they possess even of their



mother tongue, it is hardly reasonable to suppose that in any

country they were ever capable of having recourse to foreign



languages, for the purpose of enriching any peculiarvocabulary or

phraseology which they might deem convenient to use among



themselves; nevertheless, by associating with foreign thieves, who

had either left their native country for their crimes, or from a



hope of reaping a rich harvest of plunder in other lands, it would

be easy for them to adopt a considerable number of words belonging



to the languages of their foreign associates, from whom perhaps

they derived an increase of knowledge in thievish arts of every



description. At the commencement of the fifteenth century no

nation in Europe was at all calculated to vie with the Italian in



arts of any kind, whether those whose tendency was the benefit or

improvement of society, or those the practice of which serves to



injure and undermine it. The artists and artisans of Italy were to

be found in all the countries of Europe, from Madrid to Moscow, and



so were its charlatans, its jugglers, and multitudes of its

children, who lived by fraud and cunning. Therefore, when a



comprehensive view of the subject is taken, there appears to be

little improbability in supposing, that not only were the Italians



the originators of the metaphorical robber jargon, which has been

termed 'Red Italian,' but that they were mainlyinstrumental in



causing it to be adopted by the thievish race in various countries

of Europe.



It is here, however, necessary to state, that in the robber jargon

of Europe, elements of another language are to be discovered, and



perhaps in greater number than the Italian words. The language

which we allude to is the Rommany; this language has been, in



general, confounded with the vocabulary used among thieves, which,

however, is a gross error, so gross, indeed, that it is almost



impossible to conceive the manner in which it originated: the

speech of the Gypsies being a genuine language of Oriental origin,



and the former little more than a phraseology of convenience,

founded upon particular European tongues. It will be sufficient



here to remark, that the Gypsies do not understand the jargon of

the thieves, whilst the latter, with perhaps a few exceptions, are



ignorant of the language of the former. Certain words, however, of

the Rommany have found admission into the said jargon, which may be



accounted for by the supposition that the Gypsies, being themselves

by birth, education, and profession, thieves of the first water,



have, on various occasions, formed alliances with the outlaws of

the various countries in which they are at present to be found,






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