Gypsy Dialects extract
Taken from one of the introductory chapters before the bibliographic listings begin.
The terminology and scholarship of Romani
Nomenclature, as with so much else in this field, varies widely. Those whom others may call ‘Gypsies’ often refer to themselves (when speaking their own language) as Rom (singular) or Roma (plural). Although derived from the words for ‘Gypsy man’ and ‘Gypsy men’, the term Roma is increasingly used in a more inclusive ethnic sense, and many take offence at the use of the term ‘Gypsy’ (particularly when spelt in the lower case, as ‘gypsy’ or ‘gipsy’). Non-English terms are similarly weighted and fraught. In France, umbrage is taken at the use of the letter ‘z’ in the spelling of Tzigane (with ‘s’, as in Tsigane, being the preferred orthography). And in Germany the commonly used term Zigeuner is considered as offensive as the English ‘Gipsy’ (with Roma or Sinti being preferred).
Other self-referential terms, generally used by more assimilated and sedentary groups, include Sinti (also spelt Sinte and Sinto, less often Senti and Cinti) in Germany and Italy; Manush (also spelt Manouche or Manuã) in France; Calé (or Kalé) in the Iberian Peninsula; Kalé in Finland and Wales; and Romanies or Romanichals (sometimes spelt Romany Chals and Romanitchals) in Britain, Finland and the Basque country. It should be noted that, “Romanichal, Gitanos, Kalé, Sinti, Manush, and others do not use Roma when referring to themselves, but to others.” Sutherland (216) devotes an entire chapter to the intricacies of internal self-identification within a Vlax group (including the use of multiple personal names), while Cohn (46) provides a detailed discussion of kinship terminology, and Kosti© (276) analyses the structure and origin of such terminology.
Although in fact immigrants from India, most European terms reflect the mistaken belief that these exceptional people originated in Egypt. First appearing in Europe in the fourteenth century, some Roma claimed to have come from ‘Little Egypt’, a nebulous term which during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance encompassed any part of the Near East and most points beyond. Hence, the corruption by a process of aphesis of ‘Egyptian’ into the English ‘Gypsy’, the French Gitan, the Spanish Gitano, the Greek Gyphtos, and so on. Not surprisingly, therefore, the earliest written specimen of Romani, published in 1547, misidentified the language as “Egipt speche”. Portions of the baker’s dozen of sentences collected then by Andrew Borde are still comprehensible to some Roma today: “Wyl you drynke some wine? Mole pis lauena?” and “Geue me aples and peers! Da mai paba la ambrell!”
The standard term used in modern scholarly literature to describe any or all of the languages spoken by ‘Gypsies’ is ‘Romani’ spelt with ‘i’ (although occasionally the ‘y’ spelling, ‘Romany’, is employed, most notably in the British Museum’s General Catalogue of Printed Books and the Library of Congress’ National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints). The official Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) list, aka ‘Subject Authority Headings’,