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 brass 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 pronunciation 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 pronouncing 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
assertion 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 Analogues_ 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} _Mashing_, 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 Verfassung der Juden_, part IV. ch. 4, sect. 2.
{209} _The Past in the Present_, part 2, lect. 3
{222} _Yoma_, fol. 21, col. 2.
{238} _Zimbel_. The cymbal of the Austrian gypsies is a stringed
instrument, like the zitter.
{241} _Crocus_, in common slang an itinerant quack, mountebank, or
seller of medicine; _Pitcher_, a street dealer.
{270} A brief _resume_ of the most characteristic gypsy mode of
obtaining property.
{279} Lady, in gypsy _rani_. The process of degradation is curiously
marked in this language. _Rani_ (_rawnee_), in Hindi, is a queen.
_Rye_, or _rae_, a gentleman, in its native land, is applicable to a
nobleman, while _rashai_, a clergyman, even of the smallest dissenting
type, rises in the original _rishi_ to a saint of the highest order.
{280} This was the very same affair and the same gypsies described and
mentioned on page 383 of _In Gypsy Tents_, by Francis Hindes Groome,
Edinburgh, 1880. I am well acquainted with them.
{285} _Primulaveris_: in German _Schlussel blume_, that is, key flowers;
also Mary's-keys and keys of heaven. Both the primrose and tulip are
believed in South Germany to be an Open Sesame to hidden treasure.
{292} Omar Khayyam, _Rubaiyat_.
{293} _Johnnykin and the Goblins_. London: Macmillan.
{302a} Vide _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, vol. xvi. part 2,
1856 p. 285.
{302b} _Die Zigeuner_.
{307a} _The Dialect of the English Gypsies_.
{307b} I beg the reader to bear it in mind that all this is literally as
it was given by an old gypsy, and that I am not responsible for its
accuracy or inaccuracy.
{317a} Literally, the earth-sewer.
{317b} _Kali foki_. _Kalo_ means, as in Hindustani, not only black, but
also lazy. Pronounced _kaw-lo_.
{319a} _Gorgio_. Gentile; any man not a gypsy. Possibly from _ghora
aji_ "Master white man," Hindu. Used as _goi_ is applied by Hebrews to
the unbelievers.
{319b} _Romeli_, _rom'ni_. Wandering, gypsying. It is remarkable that
_remna_, in Hindu, means to roam.
{320} _Chollo-tem_. Whole country, world.
{324} There is a great moral difference, not only in the gypsy mind, but
in that of the peasant, between stealing and poaching. But in fact, as
regards the appropriation of poultry of any kind, a young English gypsy
has neither more nor less scruple than other poor people of his class.
{325} _Man lana_, Hindostani: to set the heart upon. _Manner_, Eng.
Gyp.: to encourage; also, to forbid.
{327} _Chovihan_, m., _chovihani_, fem., often _cho'ian_ or _cho'ani_, a
witch. Probably from the Hindu _'toanee_, a witch, which has nearly the
same pronunciation as the English gypsy word.
{335} _Travels in Beloochistan and Scinde_, p. 153.
{341a} English gypsies also call the moon _shul_ and _shone_.
{341b} _Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo_, by Dr. Henry Rink. London
1875, p. 236.