The Gypsies Part 34

Shum To own.

L'yogh To lose.

Crimum Sheep.

Khadyog Stone.

Nglou Nail.

Gial Yellow, red.

Talosk Weather.

Laprogh Bird.

Madel Tail.

Carob To cut.

Lubran, luber To hit.

Thom Violently.

Mish it thom Hit it hard.

Subli, or soobli Man (_siublach_, a vagrant. Gaelic).

There you are, readers! Make good cheer of it, as Panurge said of what was beyond him. For what this language really is pa.s.seth me and mine.

Of Celtic origin it surely is, for Owen gave me every syllable so garnished with gutturals that I, being even less of one of the Celtes than a Chinaman, have not succeeded in writing a single word according to his p.r.o.nunciation of it. Thus even Minklers sounds more like _minkias_, or _pikias_, as he gave it.

To the foregoing I add the numerals and a few phrases:--

Hain, or heen One.

Do Two.

Tri Three.

Ch'air, or k'hair Four.

Cood Five.

She, or shay Six.

Schaacht, or schach' Seven.

Ocht Eight.

Ayen, or nai Nine.

Dy'ai, djai, or dai Ten.

Hinniadh Eleven.

Do yed'h Twelve.

Trin yedh Thirteen.

K'hair yedh, etc. Fourteen, etc.

Tat 'th chesin ogomsa That belongs to me.

Grannis to my deal It belongs to me.

Dioch maa krady in in this nadas I am staying here.

Tash emilesh He is staying there.

Boghin the bra.s.s Cooking the food.

My deal is mislin I am going.

The nidias of the kiena don't The people of the house don't know granny what we're a tharyin what we're saying.

This was said within hearing of and in reference to a bevy of servants, of every hue save white, who were in full view in the kitchen, and who were manifestly deeply interested and delighted in our interview, as well as in the constant use of my note-book, and our conference in an unknown tongue, since Owen and I spoke frequently in Romany.

That bhoghd out yer mailya You let that fall from your hand.

I also obtained a verse of a ballad, which I may not literally render into pure English:--

"Cosson kailyah corrum me morro sari, Me gul ogalyach mir; Rahet manent trasha moroch Me tu sosti mo diele."

"Coming from Galway, tired and weary, I met a woman; I'll go bail by this time to-morrow, You'll have had enough of me."

_Me tu sosti_, "Thou shalt be (of) me," is Romany, which is freely used in Shelta.

The question which I cannot solve is, On which of the Celtic languages is this jargon based? My informant declares that it is quite independent of Old Irish, Welsh, or Gaelic. In p.r.o.nunciation it appears to be almost identical with the latter; but while there are Gaelic words in it, it is certain that much examination and inquiry have failed to show that it is contained in that language. That it is "the talk of the ould Picts--thim that built the stone houses like beehives"--is, I confess, too conjectural for a philologist. I have no doubt that when the Picts were suppressed thousands of them must have become wandering outlaws, like the Romany, and that their language in time became a secret tongue of vagabonds on the roads. This is the history of many such lingoes; but unfortunately Owen's opinion, even if it be legendary, will not prove that the Painted People spoke the Shelta tongue. I must call attention, however, to one or two curious points. I have spoken of Shelta as a jargon; but it is, in fact, a language, for it can be spoken grammatically and without using English or Romany. And again, there is a corrupt method of p.r.o.nouncing it, according to English, while correctly enunciated it is purely Celtic in sound. More than this I have naught to say.

Shelta is perhaps the last Old British dialect as yet existing which has thus far remained undiscovered. There is no hint of it in John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary, nor has it been recognized by the Dialect Society. Mr. Simson, had he known the "Tinklers" better, would have found that not Romany, but Shelta, was the really secret language which they employed, although Romany is also more or less familiar to them all.

To me there is in it something very weird and strange. I cannot well say why; it seems as if it might be spoken by witches and talking toads, and uttered by the Druid stones, which are fabled to come down by moonlight to the water-side to drink, and who will, if surprised during their walk, answer any questions. Anent which I would fain ask my Spiritualist friends one which I have long yearned to put. Since you, my dear ghost-raisers, can call spirits from the vasty deep of the outside-most beyond, will you not--having many millions from which to call--raise up one of the Pictish race, and, having brought it in from the _Ewigkeit_, take down a vocabulary of the language? Let it be a lady _par preference_,--the fair being by far the more fluent in words. Moreover, it is probable that as the Picts were a painted race, woman among them must have been very much to the fore, and that Madame Rachels occupied a high position with rouge, enamels, and other appliances to make them young and beautiful forever. According to Southey, the British blue-stocking is descended from these woad-stained ancestresses, which a.s.sertion dimly hints at their having been literary. In which case, _voila notre affaire_! for then the business would be promptly done.

Wizards of the secret spells, I adjure ye, raise me a Pictess for the sake of philology--and the picturesque!

Footnotes:

{19} From the observations of Frederic Drew (_The Northern Barrier of India_, London, 1877) there can be little doubt that the Dom, or Dum, belong to the pre-Aryan race or races of India. "They are described in the Shastras as Sopukh, or Dog-Eaters" (_Types of India_). I have somewhere met with the statement that the Dom was pre-Aryan, but allowed to rank as Hindoo on account of services rendered to the early conquerors.

{22} Up-stairs in this gentleman's dialect signified up or upon, like _top_ Pidgin-English.

{23} _Puccasa_, Sanskrit. Low, inferior. Given by Pliny E. Chase in his _Sanskrit a.n.a.logues_ as the root-word for several inferior animals.

{26} _A Trip up the Volga to the Fair of Nijni-Novgovod_. By H. A.

Munro Butler Johnstone. 1875.

{42} _Seven Years in the Deserts of America_.

{61} In Old English Romany this is called _dorrikin_; in common parade, _dukkerin_. Both forms are really old.

{68} Flower-flag-nation man; that is, American.

{69a} _Leadee_, reads.

{69b} _Dly_, dry.

{69c} _Lun_, run.

{82} Diamonds true. _O latcho bar_ (in England, _tatcho bar_), "the true or real stone," is the gypsy for a diamond.

{97} Within a mile, Maginn lies buried, without a monument.

{108} _Mas.h.i.+ng_, a word of gypsy origin (_mashdva_), meaning fascination by the eye, or taking in.

{125} Goerres, _Christliche Mystik_, i. 296. 1. 23.

{134} _The Saxons in England_, i. 3.

{159} _Peru urphu_! "Increase and multiply!" _Vide_ Bodenschatz _Kirchliche Verfa.s.sung der Juden_, part IV. ch. 4, sect. 2.

{209} _The Past in the Present_, part 2, lect. 3