Dictionary of the Gypsy Language 1755

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The dictionary of the gypsy language 1755 , along with a "letter from a gypsy to his wife, in which he gives her news of his miserable condition in which he is", is an important historical testimony to the language and social history of the Sinti and Roma in Germany from the 18th century. It stands at the beginning of the writing of Romani and is the first alphabetical dictionary of this Indo-Aryan language, which goes back to ancient Indian . Dictionary and letter have hardly been noticed by general linguistics, Romance studies, social history and minority research. As an educational subject, it is in the broader context of the perception of minorities, their social history and their language, here the Sinti and Roma , who have been discriminated against for centuries and only recognized as a national minority at the end of the 1990s .

Lore

The number of copies of the "Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language 1755" is not known. Also no publisher is mentioned; according to this, a privately organized edition of the work can be assumed and, given the few copies that can still be identified today, a rather small edition. There does not seem to have been a reprint or a 2nd edition of the work. In any case, there is no evidence of this. Original prints of the work are now kept in the Bavarian State Library in Munich, in the University / State Library of Passau, in the Cathedral Library in Freising and in the University Library in Jena. The Jenaer Druck contains handwritten supplements to the dictionary and a two-page, handwritten short grammar of Romani with conjugation paradigms and sentence examples. Some copies of the work have apparently reached auction houses and second-hand bookshops via unknown routes. A copy that is now kept in the IGS research center in Münster was found by Klaus Siewert in an antiquarian bookshop: the basis for the photomechanical reproduction of the work (facsimile edition). Other copies have been lost, such as the one in auction catalog 78 (October 2011) of “Kiefer. Book and art auctions “/ Pforzheim offered print of the work. According to the auction house, the copy was sold to a private (unknown) collector in 2011.

content

4 unpaginated pages: title page and preface “Inclined reader!”; Pp. 5 to 36: two-column dictionary "Hoch = German" / "In Zigeuner = language"; P. 37 to 39: "A gypsy's letter to his wife ...".

Author and editor

The author or editor of the "Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language" does not reveal himself. Neither on the title page nor in his foreword to the reader does he give any direct or indirect reference to his identity. This corresponds entirely to the procedure of comparable writings of that time. The author of the letter attached to the dictionary also remains anonymous. The question of the authenticity of the writing, i.e. whether it is an authentic or fictional text, cannot be answered with certainty. There is some evidence that the letter is not to be regarded as an authentic document, for example the incorrect language (“no normal word boundaries”, Norbert Boretzky ). The violation of the word boundaries could also be traced back to the editorial work of someone who is ignorant of the “Gypsy language” or the composer of the text. Neither in the title nor in his “preliminary report” does the author of the “Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language” clearly state his goal associated with the publication of the work. “Since I do not want to have such a directory on the language taught, but only to satisfy the curiosity of some readers, and to create a useful pastime for language researchers; I think I have said enough ”(“ Preliminary report ”, p. [4]). Even more nebulous and from a defensive position that is difficult to fathom today, the author of the foreword writes to the reader in his “preliminary report”: “Without my memory, you will see how little thanks this message of mine will deserve from people who know something about this language want. But this doesn't move me at all ”(p. [3]). Conversely, what is clear is that the "Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language" is not a revelation, that is, not a collection of Romani lexemes as can be found in German secret languages ​​of the Rotwelsch dialect type and the cattle dealer language. This shows, among other things, the arrangement of German-Romani (and not vice versa).

dictionary

Beginning of the dictionary

According to its lexicographical conception, the dictionary is a simple, alphabetically arranged and two-column glossary “Hoch = German” / “Gypsy = Language”. About 800 German lexemes are listed , to which the corresponding “gypsy-language” words are added in simple word equations. Here and there alternative lexemes are noted, for example blind / Bijakkingro or nashdidekela. Further lexicographical information on the relevant lexemes, e.g. B. on grammar , etymology and word history or sentence examples are not given. All in all, the vocabulary on offer is a classic everyday Romani vocabulary in terms of its word fields. We learn almost nothing about the origin of the word material presented in the “Words = Book of the Gypsy = Language”. Ultimately, it remains unclear whether the editor of the lexicon obtained his words from other written sources or consulted sources. Norbert Boretzky assumes, because of a note in the so-called preliminary report (p. 3): “these people, (who) ... disagree among themselves”, from “Sinti informants”, which fits the heterogeneity of the language of the document. In any case, the editor himself was not a spokesman for Romani; For the middle of the 18th century, the oral tradition of Romani points far away from a possible written version by native speakers.

Language of the dictionary

According to Norbert Boretzky's Romist expertise, the language of the dictionary is a conservative, inflected German Sinti. The glossary contains around 360 pre-European hereditary words; there are also about 40 word formations with this etyma. In addition to the hereditary words, there are around 30 Graezisms and around 25 Slavisms and Germanisms each. Examples of Germanisms: mondo, zwerglo, dumno, bruneshach, retticka, bechari, jagari, gwittrola, narwelo.

Letter from a gypsy to his wife

My dear woman!

I traveled from Frankfurth to Neustadt: I had a lot of hardships on the way. My fellow companions always quarreled; it was cold and bad weather; the children got sick; my inn, where I stayed, burned down; my goat and the recently bored calf ran away; the flax, hemp and wool that my wife-in-law and stepdaughter spun are burned. In short: I was so poor that we were almost all naked. I thought to nourish myself through work with wood and my hands, or through trade and change; alone nobody wanted to buy anything from me, or to accept something in pledge, I was attacked by a band of soldiers who wounded many of us, killed three, and brought me to a fortress forever. Heaven will save you from such a calamity, and I insist: Your faithful husband

The “letter from a gypsy to his wife, in which he informs her of his miserable condition in which he finds himself” is attached to the dictionary part of the print as a two-column bilingual text Romani-German. If you look at its content, the editor directs the reader's gaze to the difficult social situation of a minority, which many contemporaries of the 18th century encountered with exclusion, discrimination and persecution. A sign of empathy and Christian solidarity is the handwritten Our Father at the end of the moving letter in the Jena copy.

Lexicographical tradition

The “Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language” stands at the beginning of the written recording of Romani. More than half a century later, in the 20s of the 19th century, several works followed that were dedicated to the lexicographical documentation of Romani; including above all:

• Puchmayer, Anton Jaroslaw. Románi Čib, that is: grammar and dictionary of the Gypsy language, along with some fables in the same. In addition, the Hantýrka or the Czech thief language as an appendix. Prague, Fürst-Erzbischöfliche Buchdruckerey 1821 and • Ferdinand Bischoff, German = Zigeunerisches Wortbuch, Ilmenau 1827.

 Rudolph von Sowa's dictionaries are on the way to today's modern lexicographical and linguistic-geographical documentation and research into Romani (Boretzky / Igla 1994; Boretzky / Igla 2004; Matras 1998; Matras: Romani Project *; University of Graz, RomLex **) (1902), Jan Rozwadowkski (1936), V. Lesny (1941/1942) and Siegmund A. Wolf (1960), who was one of the first to document free of non-scientific and racial ideological interests.

* https://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk//

** http://romani.uni-graz.at/romlex/

reception

The print from 1755 has apparently been largely forgotten after its publication. After its publication, the work is only mentioned here and there, listed with its bibliographical data, or sparse commented:

• Anton Friedrich Büsching's description of the earth, Hamburg 1805, p. 766 (supplements): “Dictionary of the Gypsy Language, Frkf. And Leipz. 1755. 8 (Hierbey can be recommended among some other writings about the Gypsies, especially HMG Grellmann's historical experiment on the Gypsies, Dessau 1783 (...)). "

• Johann Christoph Adelung, Mithridates or general language studies with the Our Father as a language sample in almost five hundred languages ​​and dialects. (...) continued and edited by Johann Severin Vater, Zweyter Theil, Berlin 1809, p. 225: "Vocabularium des Rotwelschen (...), but the same thing, as happened by others, is mistakenly confused with the language of the gypsies" (based on Conr. Gesners Mithridates 1555) (…) WHBJ Addendum to the Rotwelschen grammar or dictionary of the Gypsy (not yet) language [sic], Frankf. a. M. 1704 (…) “Rotwell's grammar or art of language, di instruction, etc., Frankf. aM 1755, 8; contains both a Rotwelsch-Deutsches and a Deutsch-Rotwelsches dictionary, along with some essays in this language ”. See also Johann Christoph Adelung, Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect, 1798, Sp. 1180; In both editions the "Dictionary of the Gypsies = Language" 1755 is not explicitly mentioned.

• General gazette of Germans. Or General Intelligence Sheet…, Vol. I, 1810, Col. 1099: "This dictionary contains many interferences from the Bohemian language, from which the French name of the Gypsies les Bohemiens probably originated".

• The gypsies in Europe and Asia. Ethnographic-linguistic investigation, primarily of their origin and language. By August Pott, Halle 1844–1845: Mention of the printing and assessment of the authenticity of the dictionary: “usable original work”.

• From the inner life of the gypsies. By Heinrich von Wlislocki, Berlin 1892, p. 6 (mention of the title). From the "preliminary remark" of Wlislocki's bibliography: "Compilation of the titles of works and more important articles in magazines (...) that relate to the history and language, the songs and sagas, the legal and social position of the gypsies."

According to contemporary reception, the work did not have much impact; Even in the 19th century there are only sparse comments on the document. This applies equally to the Romani dictionary of words and to the “writing of a gypsy to his wife”, which was probably missed as a strong argument against the antiziganism of the time. In the foreground was the interest in the mysterious language of the "Gypsies", which has often and erroneously been associated with the Rotwelschen. It was not until 1836 that a factual differentiation was established in the Real = Encyclopedia for the educated classes, which also sees Romani as the donor language in German Rotwelsch dialects and thus the triad "Rotwelsch as a special language" - "Romani as the mother tongue of the Sinti and Roma" - Romani -Lexeme as cover words in Rotwelsch and Rotwelsch dialects apart (Allgemeine Deutsche Real = Encyclopedia for the educated estates, Vol. IX, Leipzig 1836, p. 434)

literature

"Words = Book of the Gypsies = Language" Frankfurt and Leipzig 1755 . Edited and commented by Klaus Siewert. With contributions by Norbert Boretzky. Verlag Auf der Warft, Hamburg and Münster 2020, ISBN 978-3-947218-11-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ (Edition: Siewert / Boretzky 2020)
  2. ↑ The work by Klaus Siewert and Norbert Boretzky 2020 is the first scientific study of the print from 1755.
  3. ↑ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: pp. 33–34; 71-78
  4. ↑ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: p. 33
  5. ↑ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: pp. 34–38
  6. ↑ Series Sondersprachenforschung, Volumes 1–16ff., Harrassowitz Verlag and Secret Language Publishing, 1996–2019ff.
  7. ^ Klaus Siewert: "Hebrew". The market language of the horse and cattle traders in Northern Germany . 1st edition. Secret Languages ​​Verlag, Hamburg / Münster, ISBN 978-3-947218-01-1 , p. 39-119; 157-159 .
  8. ^ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: pp. 37–38
  9. ^ From the original print from the Research Center for Special Language Research / IGS in Münster
  10. ↑ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: pp. 53–68
  11. ↑ Siewert / Boretzky 2020: pp. 38–39; 65-67; 78
  12. ^ From the original print from the Research Center for Special Language Research / IGS in Münster