Introductory Note

OAT* ,1 C AUG 2023 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. The present Volume of the Linguistic Survey contains an account of the so-called if Gipsy Languages” of India, so far as information concerning them has become available. It has been prepared by Professor Sten Konow, of Christiania, Norway, who was for several years my Assistant, and to whose learning and unsparing collaboration I am heavily indebted. I have myself carefully gojie through his manuscript, and have here and there added a few remarks over my signature. As General Editor’ of this series of volumes, I am therefore responsible for all statements contained in it. GEORGE A. GBIEBSON. lib rasy > n a t i o n a l i n r •„ f J tC ADM) « .► f dacca. f CONTENTS. ------- «------- P aob-. SYSTEM OP TRANSLITERATION . ..................................................... .......... yii INTRODUCTORY NOTE . ................................................................ is GIPSY LANGUAGES. INTRODUCTION - ..............................................................................................................................................................1 Name .......... .. ..... 1 Languages .................. 1 Authorities ................. 4 Number of speakers at 1911 Census* ............. 4- Classification ................ 5 Argots ................. 7 Indian argots ................. 8 Conclusions ................ 10 P endhaeI ................. 12 Specimens .................. 13- BhamtI ................. 17 Specimens ................ 1 8 BeldarI ................. 22' Specimen from Ellichpur , . 2 4 „ „ Buldana .............. 25- „ „ Jaisalmir .............. 27 „ „ R a m d u rg ............................................................... .......................................................................... 30- Od k i ....................................................................................................................................................................................31 Name ................. 31 Language ................. 31 Marathi affinities .............. 32 Gujarati-Rajasthani affinities ............. 33 Other affinities a ............. 33- Specimen from t*anch Mahals ............. 34 „ ABmedabad ............. 37' „ „ Cutch ............... 39- „ „ Hyderabad ............. 43 „ „ Muzaffargarh ............. 45- L ip l .................. 47 Specimen ................. 48 S & I ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 49- Name of the tribe ............... 49 Area within which found .............. 49' Number of speakers ...... ....... 49 Authorities ................ 50 Ordinary dialect ................ 50 Pronunciation 51 Nouns ................ 51 Pronouns ............... 52' Verbs ............... i . 52 Specimens from Northern Panjab 54 Specimen from Kheri ‘ . 59' Criminal Sasi ....... ^ ......*. 60 Specimens ......... ... 64- b p a t c l ib r a r y ...... 'Jl ................ - - M1 Accession No Claes No. Source. Cost; LlNGUISTIQ SURVEY OF INDIA. SYSTEM OF TRANSLITERATION ADOPTED. A.—For the Deva-nagari alphabet, and others related to it— ^ cf> ^TT d, t i, i; I, u, ri, jj e, xze, Q.ai, o, o, ^ au^ Jca Tg kha ?T ga 'Si gha ^ na ^ cha & chha ej ja m jha sr na Z to> 3 fha ^ da Z dha *?r na r[ ta ST tha ^ da ^ dhd na IT pa tj; pha ^ b a V{ bha vt ma g ya x.ra ^ la ^ va or tea II 6a TSf sha ^ sa 'f ha ^ ra ^ rha 35 la '3SW lha Visarga (:) is represented by h, thus kramaSah. Anusuodra (’) is represented by m, thus sirhh, cfsj varhs. In Bengali and some other languages it is pronounced na, and is then written na: thus bangsa. Anundsika or Chandra-bindu is represented by the sign ~ oyer the letter nasalized, tfyus i f me. B.— For the Arabic alphabet, as adapted to Hindostani— t 1 a, etc. ^ j ii d j r or * t <-» b <5r ch S d• j? T t V p r t h j ? j z U° ? f ^ t Ich/ v zh. 6 ' 2 o t 1o t sJ k s 1 * i . w 9 J I r m <£) n when representing anundsika in Deva-nagari, by " over nasalized vowel. j to or- v a h Uf y, etc. Tanwin is represented by n, thus fauran. Alif-e maqsura is represented by a4;—thus da1 tea. Ih the Arabic character, a final silent h is not transliterated,—thus banda. __ > When pronounced, it is written,—thus gundh. Vowels when not pronounced at the end of a word, are not written in translitera tion. Thus 3f«T ban, not bana. When not pronounced in the middle* of a word or only slightly pronounced in the middle or at the end of a word, they are written in small sharacters above the line. Thus (Hindi) ^ cfl dekhatd, pronounced dekhtd; (Kash- * \ j * ^ . mlrl) t8ah; ^ J bar*, pronounced kor ; (Bihari) ^ dekhath'.- VOL. X I. Viii 0 .— Special letters peculiar to special languages will be dealt with under the head of the languages concerned, In the meantime the following more important instances may be noted:— (a) The ts sound found in Marathi (^), Pashto Q.), Kashmiri (^, ^ ), Tibetan (i), and elsewherej is represented by ts. So, the aspirate of that sound is represented by tsh. (b) The dz sound found in Marathi (sr), Pashto (£), and Tibetan (!) is repre sented by ds, and its aspirate by dzh. (c) Kashmiri ^ («r) is represented by n. * (d) SindhI Western Panjabi (and elsewhere on the N.-W. Frontier) 'f, and Pashto j or ^ are represented by n. (e) The following are letters peculiar to Pashto :— C> t ; £ is or dz, according to pronunciation; d ; j r ; ^ or g, accord ing to pronunciation ; sh or kh, according to pronunciation; J or ^ n. ( / ) The following are letters peculiar to SindhI:— <-r> bb; ^ bh ; o th} ^ t ; o th ; Jj, ph ; ^ j j ; ^ chh ; <3 dh ; i d ; o dd ; $ dh ; £=> h ; kh ; ^ gg ; gh; 1* S & V” D.— Certain sounds, which are not provided for above, occur in transcribing- l?.r.gu&ges which have no alphabet, or in writing phonetically- (as distinct from transli terating) languages (such as Bengali) whose spelling does not repre the spoken sounds. The principal of these are the following:— a, represents the sound of the a in all. a, „ a in hat. e, * „ e in met. o, „ o in hot. e, „ e in the French etait. „ o in the *first o in promote. £ „ o in the German schdn. ii, „ ii in the miihe. th_, ,, th in think. • dh, „ th in this. The semi-consonants peculiar to the Munda languages are indicated by an Apos trophe. Thus k\ t’, p ’, and so on. E.— When.it is necessary to mark an accented syllable, the acute accent is used. Thus in (Khowar) dssistai, he was, the acute accent shows that the accent falls on the first, and not, as might be expected, on the second syllable. ,G ip s y L a n g u a g e s . INTRODUCTION. Migratory tribes are found all over India, and are of different kinds. Some o f them, like the Pendharis, are descended from adventurers and individuals belonging to- various castes and trades; others, like the Banjaras, Ods, and so on, are occupational units, who wander all over the country in pursuance of their trade; others again are much of the same kind as the Gipsies of Europe, tumblers, jugglers, acrobats, or thieves- and robbers, who have come under the Criminal Tribes Act. It has become customary to call these tribes Gipsies, but this designation does not Name imply any connexion between them and the Gipsies of Europe. The word Gipsy, which is, as is Well known, a corruption of Egyptian, was originally applied to those well-known migratory tribes •who began to make their name known and feared in Europe from the beginning of the 15th century, because they described themselves as coming from Egypt. The word has- J;hen ,also come to be used to denote other peoples of similar, Inigratory, habits, and this is the sense in which it has been used in this Survey. The Gipsy Languages are, accord ingly, dialects spoken by the vagrant tribes of India. Our information about these forms of speech is necessarily limited. Many of these L a n gu a g es vagrants simply speak the language of their neighbours. Others are bilingual or even multilingual, adopting the speech of the district where they happen to stay in all their dealings with outsiders, but retaining a peculiar dialect of their own when talking among themselves. For this- latter purpose many of these tribes have also developed a secret argot, which they commonly call ParsI, { Persian,’ and they are naturally shy of initiating others into it. These argots will be dealt with below. They have not anything to do with grammar, but are based on some dialect, which may be designated as the. home tongue of the tribe.. Moreover, such tribes as have not developed any artificial argot, often have a dialect of their own. Such forms of. speech cannot, of course, be expected to present the same consistency as ordinary vernaculars. It is a consequence of the migratory habits of the- tribes, that their languages are to some extent mixed. Where the base is comparatively uniform and practically identical with one definite tongue, such dialects have, in this Survey, been dealt with in connexion with that form of speech. Thus the dialects -of the following vagrant tribes have been described in connexion with Dravidian languages in Vol. IV of this Survey. Name of dialect. Estimated number of speakers. Korava and Yerukala 55,116 Kaikadl 8,289 Burgandi • • • 265 GOlarl . • • • 3,614 Kurumba • • . 10,399 V adarl . , . # * • 27,099 T otal 104,782 2 GIPSY \1ANGTJAGES. Others have been dealt with in connexion with the Bhil languages in Vol. IX, Part iii, of this Survey, viz.: — -------------------r / Name of dialcct. JSstimated number of speakers. 43,000 B a o r

Load more