HISTORY ABOUT THE GIPSY MIGRATION AND ABOUT THE ROMANY LANGUAGE

 

To understand the nature and the current state of the group of languages that the denominated romany conforms, it becomes necessary to leave of the origins and the evolution of the human group that it builds and it elaborates this languages through the daily use. In definitive, knowing the partner-historical circumstances of a population can only end up understanding each other the current state of the languages that they represent to the same one (linguistic varieties, geographical distribution of the same ones, number of speakers, characteristic grammatical, etc.).

The agreement about the origins and the gipsies' evolution is not absolute, but certain tendencies accepted internationally by the scientific community exist. Among these, is accepted that the gipsy origin is located in India, that has been proposed and ratified by the linguistic theories. This theories have been able to establish a relationship among the romany languages and the Indo-european languages spoken in that Asian country. The gipsies represent a magnificent example that it shows the belief that the languages are the key of the identity of the speakers towns: distributed arround the world for a lot of centuries, the Rom (as well as they are known) are united by a common origin that the linguistic data prove. Subdivided in so many dialects like countries in those that these people have lived, this common language takes the impression of their trips and unites them to India, their original homeland: it calls the attention the persistence in certain grammatical ways that, together with a basic vocabulary referred fundamentally to the most common concepts (in spite of the phonetic changes), are in the same way in the current languages Hindi and Punjabi, as well as in the dardics languages:

Therefore, the one on the way to the Gipsies begins in the India, in short it is thought that they left of the Northwest area of the country, from where they will begin what will be a long one to go on pilgrimage that it will take them toward the West, until arriving to the western end of Europe (Spain) in the XV century. It is for it erroneous the opinion that it was generated in many western countries about the egyptian origin of this town, of where the name of " Gipsies " will come that is used at the moment as denomination of these in languages like spanish and english (Gypsies). The gipsy town, then, is Indian of origin and european and transnational of projection.

One of the theories more endorsed by the specialists of the topic attests the exit of the India in the century IX, time in which the Islam invades this country. This forced to undertake a great migration toward the West to the Indians that they lived in the Norwest territories of the indostanic peninsular. The second great grateful migration would take place in the XIII century, when the gipsy called today abandoned their houses before the arrival of the Mongolian armies that they began the conquest of the territory. Starting from then, the exodus of travelers is continuous, and the contact of these with the towns arround all Europe will go giving place to the intralinguistic variation of that proto-romany that it will conclude in the current state of existent varieties. To understand this, it is necessary to conceive a discontinuous migration of non homogeneous populations: the people waves coming from the East played sedentary periods in the countries crossed; this caused cultural and linguistic loans between " guests " and " innkeepers ". However, and like general rule, the gipsies never stayed in a permanent way, what avoided the total assimilation of these and the loss of their identity.

Even so, before extending for the european continent, the romany people crosses Persia, where they probably begin to arise, soon after the mixture among the different ethnoses fromf Asia (Sindhi, Sott...), the first generations of the considered group Rom or Dom (in the area of the Caucasus), of those who the current gipsies descend. There they settled down during a time and they exercised of soldiers, farmers, artisans, artists, etc., and from there they have to emigrate later due to the invasions of the hunos, of the arabs and of the mongolian ones that, together with serious famines and a sharp despair to find some better conditions of life, they made that these have to leave in search of european lands that they offers them an opportunity. Of that journey until the doors of Europe, it have been marks in the romany languages, such as the presence of lexical elements of Iranian or armenian origin. Some of these Iranian words that are in all the varieties of the romany are the following ones: baxt (luck, fortune), ambrol (pear), khangeri (church), angustri (ring), ruv (wolf), vurdon (?). The Words of armenian origin are: bov (oven) and grast (horse). Other, on the other hand, they keep to their surroundings a polemic for the armenian / iranian origin, which is not still very clear: zor (force), cikat (front).

Finally, the entrance to the european continent takes place through Greece, where there are data that they locates them there in the XIV century. In this time are detected establishments in all the mediterranean islands and in the continental Greece. It was here where their stay was more prolonged, and this has caused an important lexical and grammatical print that all the romany varying of Europe have inherited later. Among the words of Greek origin: drom (way), karfin (fingernail), klidi (important), kokalo (bone), papin (goose), petals (horseshoe), tsox (skirt), zumi (soup), (v)amoni (anvil), and isviri (hammer). In questions grammatical, many dialects Rom has morphemes of Greek origin: -me, usually used to form the last participle (ramome: written; pahome: ice cream; vezlime: embroidery); and -mos, that is used to form names from verbs or adjetivs and it substitutes to the desinence -pe of Indian origin that still survives in some " dialects " (pimos or pibe: drink, of the pi -: to drink; nevimos or nevipe: novelty, news, of the one snowed,: new; ternimos or ternipe: youth, of the triplet,: young; barvalimos or barvalipe: wealth, of the barvalo: rich).

Starting from the fourteenth century ,the languages of the Rom will begin to transform and to diverge quickly in function of the geographical area in which these settled.

Among these transformations, we can find those that affect to rich and complex mophologics structures characteristic of these romany varieties that they enter in the continent. These highlight for a wide range of declines of the name, which adapt in a different way according to what place it welcomes them. In the Balkan varieties, for example, this declines are conserved more difficultly, but the casual system of these languages allows that a name, masculine or feminine and singular or plural, maintain up to eight morphologic cases. Taking the example of the plural of "phral"(brother):

The verbs in these varieties have five times: present: kerav (I make) the imperfect past: keravas (I was making) the past: kerdem (I made) perfect: kerdemas (I have made) the future: kam-kerv (I will make).

The decline of names survived, however, with less difficulty in oriental Europe, due to the influence of the slavic languages, where the name stays totally declined. Other " dialects ", like the extinct group of welsh gipsies. They also conserved rich and complex declines. Nevertheless, in Western Europe the tendency for the declines was the one of disappearing, and the morphologic casess gives the protagonism to the expression of the same relationships by means of sintax mechanisms and particles like the prepositions. Some dialects Sinte of the central Europe have taken, as example of this, some of the prepositions characteristic of German: fon u pral (of the brother) an u pral (to the brother) mit u pral (with the brother).

Other transformations of the languages of the Rom, when entering in The Old Continent, are those that refer to the processes of formation of words: it surprises the formation of topics using like base roots of different etymological base. The mentioned group Sinte provide some samples of this mentionated, in which you can find examples like the word svigardaj (" mother-in-law ") that is made up of daj (" mother "; word of Indian origin) and an adaptation of the German word Schwieger (Schwieger-mutter: " mother-in-law "). Other words of similar formation: " ledome " (" ice cream "), it appears in a dialect of a group of Muslim gipsies of the south of Yugoslavia, and it is composed of the word Slavic led ("ice") followed by the suffix -me of Greek origin (like it has been seen before).

Lastly, we cannot forget the lexical question, because is one of the simplest sources constitutes for the confirmation of the influence that takes place between two or more languages in contact. The loan situations in this linguistic level usually converge in the first place and, therefore, before other grammatical questions as those mentioned before). Then, in the group of the romany languages, we can find extracted words of the languages with those that the romany languages have cohabited or they cohabit: slavic languages, baltics, Italian languages, rumanian, german, hungarian...

If we want to see better the current grammatical questions characteristic of the romany languages, we have to see the section General characteristics of the romany language.

Product of that historical and varied influence by other languages along its historical journey, is observed how those languages originated by the predecessors of the gipsies go getting rich and adapting to the new circumstances / means (as all alive language). This supposes, on the other hand, the unavoidable divergence among the same ones, hindering the inter-understanding between this original languages. We arrive this way to the establishment, in function of the areas of these gipsy populations' establishment, of the current linguistic groups that conform the denominated "Romany Group". In this aspect, it must be said that there is not a true agreement among the different specialists or in the publications about the topic. Some only contemplate the main gipsy nucleus that they have survived until today, including only the four more famous: Caló, Lovari, Sinte, and Kalderash. However, other detail something more the situation, and they present the following square:

  1. The Danube group, very frequently denominated VLAX. This term emphasizes the remarkable contribution of the rumanian vocabulary (Kalderash, Lovara, Curara, etc.)

  2. The western Balkan group (Istrians, Slovenes, Havates, Arlija, etc.)

  3. The Sinte (Eftavagarja, Kranarja, Krasarja, Slovak, etc.)

  4. Rom group of the center and south of Italy

  5. British group (the extincted welsh; today only survives the denominated "anglo-romani", a mixture between english and romany)

  6. Finnish group

  7. Greek-Turkish group (their existence like a separate group is debatable)

  8. Iberian group (today represented by the denominated "caló", the dialect of the hispanic-romany gipsies)

However, although this classification already introduces useful keys for the division of the different romany varieties, some people continues putting emphasis in the perspective of the main human groups, leaving aside certain languages that nowadays the gipsies speak. Then, and without stopping to keep in mind what the previous square contributes (names of the main gipsy populations from the cultural point of view), I prefer to center myself specifically in a classification linguistics. This classification keep in mind the romany languages existent in Europe.

It is necessary to specify, starting from the inter-linguistic frame presented in Europe, that today there is an important determination to configure a unified romany language. This unified language has to integrate to all the romany varieties of the different countries. This aim has not ends of political or territorial union (given this population's peculiar characteristics, which configures a " nation " without a country where to become effective), but rather it arises of a motivation that it pushes toward the cultural union based on their origins and common values. At the moment, this is only an intention of difficult realization, because, as all linguist should know, the languages are not entities that they can be designed in an office (these initiatives have already been given in other languages with the ulterior failure), they are a communication and action instrument and they depend in all moment of the use of the speakers. This means there is not a language if this is not used by the speakers as daily tool, for what it should be assumed and transmitted as maternal language for the successful fixation of the same one.

At the moment, nevertheless, the principles of this long and expensive process begin: there is an extended tendency to write in the call " romany " that it has not only given form to gipsy songs and fables, but rather it also begins to be given in other more private environments, as those of the literary works (then, it is not only in the traditional folklore). Now, there are also magazines published in this language (for example, in Ex-Yugoslavia), as well as grammars that they describe it. All these signal uses still manage a grouping of dialects, but the literary publications and the propagation in written form can be a first step toward the unification, bearing a deeper knowledge of this language among people that they use it (this will end in their daily use and their consequent transmission to the next generations; they could already possess it as maternal language).

Leaving of the exodus of the Rom, then, and to finish building this section that it will make the times of introduction, the gipsies have already arrived to Spain around the XV century, being in that time in totally extended for the whole Continent. We cannot stop to mention, having arrived then to this point of the development, that during this whole migration, and until our days, this town has been and it is object of constant exclusion and racism in all and each one of the countries where they have settled or they settle at the present time. Close to the current linguistic situation already mentioned, the european gipsies still fight today to reach a fair social situation, in which they can be unwrapped in equality of opportunities, and under conditions of worthy life, to preserve their culture and customs, among those are the romany languages. All about this respect it will be developed in the section about The current situation of the gipsies in Europe", as well as in each one of the sections inside of each country where the romany people today are . In the discursive development of the same ones, the social and linguistic domanis are indissoluble, because if we observe the specific situation that the Rom support in Europe, we can understand the current state of the languages that these speak.

 

- Information and images taken of:
  • Giulio Soravia: "A Wandering Voice: The Language of the Gypsies"
  • Web page of the association Unión Romaní