Gypsy language. The most common gypsy phrases

Gypsy language (gypsy. Romani chib [romani chib]) is the language of the western branches of the gypsies. It belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. The Romani language developed in conditions of isolation from the closely related Indo-Aryan language environment, retaining the main lexical fund of the Old Indo-Aryan languages ​​and typological proximity with the Middle Indian and New Indian languages. Over centuries of wandering, the gypsy language mixed with words borrowed from the languages ​​​​of the countries where the gypsies lived. The English gypsies speak a broken language which is a mixture of gypsy and English words. In English, the Romani language is called "Romani". In the same language, the name of a gypsy motorhome is "vardo". There are a lot of dialects. The main ones: Eastern European (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) and its varieties in Poland, Balkan - Albanian gypsies, etc., plus Maladvian, Hungarian, Romanian. And Western European - continental Europe, England, etc. The fact is that in addition to the "root" words, a lot of local dialectic words are mixed into the language ... On the territory of Eastern Europe (including Russia), the following dialects are most widespread: Kotlyar (Kelderari) is rather conservative, the percentage of borrowings from the Romanian language is high in the vocabulary, and the influence of the Russian language is noticeable. Lovarsky (Carpatho-Gypsy) - in the vocabulary there is an increased percentage of borrowings from the Hungarian and Romanian languages. Russian-Roma (Northern Russian) - has largely undergone creolization; syntax and word formation were rebuilt under the influence of the Russian language, the article is almost never used. Prefixes and particles of Russian origin are often used. Lots of borrowings from Polish and German. It is related to the dialects of Polish, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian gypsies, as well as Sinti gypsies. There are several dialects of the Romani language in Western Europe. Sinti gypsies speak a dialect related to the dialects of Russian and Baltic gypsies, but with borrowings mainly from German and French. Various British gypsies have their own dialects. In connection with the active migrations of gypsies from Romania, as well as the Lovars, the Kalderari and close dialects, as well as the Lovar dialect, are actively used. The gypsies living in the Basque Country speak Errominchela Creole, which is based on Basque grammar and predominantly gypsy (Kaldarari) vocabulary. Supra-dialectal norm There is also a gypsy supra-dialect koine, khetani romani, in which, in particular, articles are written in the gypsy Wikipedia. Due to the large degree of divergence between dialects, khetani romani does not reflect the features of living gypsy speech and is used mainly for writing short propaganda publications or written (rarely live) communication between representatives of different gypsy groups. Khetani Romani was greatly influenced by the Kalderari dialect, due to the prevalence of the Kalderari around the world.

Gypsies are one of the most amazing peoples that can only be found in the world. Many would envy their inner emancipation and lifelong optimism. The gypsies never had their own state, and yet they carried their traditions and culture through the centuries. According to the degree of their presence on the planet, they can compete with another people scattered around the world until recently - the Jews. It is no coincidence that Jews and Gypsies were at the very top of the list of those representatives of the human race that were subject to complete destruction, according to Hitler's racial laws. But if about the genocide of Jews - the Holocaust - many books have been written and many films have been shot, dozens of museums in different countries are devoted to this topic, then few people know about Kali Trash - the genocide of gypsies. Simply because there was no one to stand up for the gypsies.

Figure 1. Gypsy girl. Eastern Europe
Source unknown

Both Jews and Gypsies are united by a belief in their own special destiny, which, in fact, helped them survive - after all, both Jews and Gypsies lived for centuries as minorities among other peoples, with languages, customs, and religion alien to them, but at the same time same time were able to maintain their identity. Like the Jews, the Gypsies were scattered throughout various countries of Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, and North Africa. Both peoples "clung to their roots", practically not mixing with the local population. Both Jews and Gypsies have divisions into “friends” and “strangers” (Gypsies have rum-dirty, Jews have goyim Jews). It is noteworthy that neither one nor the other anywhere made up the majority of the population - and therefore found themselves without statehood by the beginning of the 20th century.

Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews from different regions of Eurasia used different languages ​​in everyday life. Thus, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe spoke almost exclusively Yiddish, a language of the Germanic group, very similar to German, but using the Hebrew alphabet. Persian Jews and Jews of Central Asia spoke Judeo-Persian and other Jewish-Iranian languages. The Jews of the Middle East and North Africa spoke various Jewish-Arabic dialsktah. The Sephardim, the descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in the 15th-16th centuries, spoke the Sephardic language (Ladino), close to Spanish.The gypsies, who do not have their own statehood, also speak several dialects that differ significantly from each other. Each locality uses its own dialect, with a lot of borrowed vocabulary. So, in Russia, Ukraine, Romania, dialects with a great influence of Romanian and Russian are used. The gypsies of Western Europe speak dialects with borrowings from German and French. On the periphery of the gypsy areola of settlement (modern Finland, Spain, Portugal, Scotland, Wales, Armenia, etc.), they use local languages ​​interspersed with gypsy vocabulary.

It is noteworthy that not only the gypsies absorb vocabulary into their language, but also the "aboriginal" peoples borrow some words. For example, widespread Russian jargons have a gypsy origin: love (money), steal (steal), hawal (eat, eat), labat (play a musical instrument). The English words lollipop (lollipop), pal (buddy), chav (gopnik), tiny (small, tiny) are similar. Changes also took place in the cultural environment: in Russia, especially in the 20th century, gypsy ensembles became widespread, which were very popular among all strata of society. In the southern part of Spain, the gypsies created the musical style of flamenco.

So where did the gypsies come from, why were they scattered all over the world, and why are they so disliked wherever they have the misfortune to live? The swarthy skin color and dark hair color clearly indicate that the ancestors of the gypsies came to Europe from the south. On the territory of the northern Indian state of Rajasthan, several tribes still live, which are considered related to the current gypsies. The largest of them are banjars; in addition to the Banjars, the possible ancestors of the Gypsies also include the Chamars, Lohars, Doms and Qajars.

Figure 2. A teenage banjar in a festive costume. Rajasthan (Northwest India).
Photo of the author.

Historians have not yet been able to establish for certain when exactly the gypsies set off on their great journey, but it is assumed that this happened in the interval between VI and X centuries of our era. The route of movement is more precisely known. Having left North-West India, the nomadic tribes first lived for a long time on the territory of modern Iran and Turkey, from there they began to move north - to the territory of modern Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. Later, around XV century, the gypsies through the territory of modern Romania began to settle first in the countries of Central Europe (modern Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia), then moved to Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Spain. Around the same time ( XV - XVI century) another branch of the gypsies, having passed from the territory of modern Iran and Turkey through Egypt, settled in the countries of North Africa and also reached modern Spain and Portugal. In the end XVII century, the gypsies ended up in the outlying territories of the Russian Empire (modern Baltic states, Crimea, Moldova).

Why did the gypsies leave their homes and go on a long journey? Scientists do not yet know the exact answer, but they suggest that, most likely, several nomadic Indian tribes at some point began to go beyond the traditional area of ​​​​settlement. Currently, in India, about five percent of the population is constantly migrating - as a rule, these are itinerant artisans, whose route is more or less constant. The basis of the nomadic way of life of the gypsies and their Indian ancestors was not a "romantic desire to change places", as some readers may think based on the stories of M. Gorky and E. Lotyanu's films, but the economic factor: the tabor artisans needed markets for their products, artists needed new audiences to perform; fortunetellers needed a new clientele. In each case, the nomadic area was relatively small - approximately 300-500 square kilometers. This may explain the fact that it took the nomads several centuries to reach Western Europe.

As the nomadic tribes moved farther and farther away from their historical homeland, they became more and more consolidated. In India, many tribes form a separate caste - the total number of castes in this country exceeds 3000, transitions between castes are difficult or completely prohibited. Most likely, the ancestors of modern gypsies who left the territory of Hindustan belonged to different castes (their main occupations were blacksmithing and pottery, weaving baskets, making and tinning boilers, street performances, fortune-telling, etc.). While they were in the territory of present-day Iran and Afghanistan, they did not stand out too much from the indigenous people - they were almost as dark-haired and swarthy. In addition, there were many nomadic pastoralists around, so the way of life of the gypsies did not seem to be something special.

As the gypsies moved farther away from their historical homeland, their differences in dress and traditions became more and more noticeable in comparison with the local population. Apparently, then the various Indian tribes-castes began to gradually grow together, forming a new community, which we call "gypsies."

There were other changes as well. One of the largest and most powerful states in X - XIV centuries on the territory of Europe and Asia Minor was Byzantium, which at that time occupied the territory of modern Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria. Several hundred years of living in the territory of Christian Byzantium led to the fact that the Gypsies converted to Christianity, apparently, this happened around XII-XIV centuries. Byzantine written sources of that time do not distinguish gypsies from other social and ethnic groups. This indirectly indicates that at that time the Roma were not perceived as a marginal or criminal group.

The Byzantine Empire was one of the longest-lived empires in history. It existed for more than a thousand years, but by the middle XV century completely died out and fell under the pressure of the Ottoman Turks. As Byzantium faded, the gypsies again set off - they began to settle in the lands of the surrounding countries. It was then that the process of marginalization of the Roma began.

Europe XV centuries lost to many countries of the East in technology and in living standards. The era of great sea voyages, which opened up new lands and rich opportunities for Europeans, was just beginning. Before the industrial and bourgeois revolutions, which put Europe on a height unattainable for other countries, it was still far away. Europeans at that time lived poorly, there was not enough food for everyone, and they did not need other people's mouths at all. The negative attitude towards gypsies as “extra mouths” was aggravated by the fact that during the collapse of Byzantium, the most mobile, most adventurous groups of gypsies moved to Europe, as is usually the case with social cataclysms, among which there were many beggars, petty thieves, fortunetellers. Honest workers, who at one time received numerous letters of privilege in Byzantium, apparently were in no hurry to move to new lands, hoping to adapt to the new orders of the Ottoman Turks. By the time artisans, animal trainers, artists and horse traders (representatives of typical gypsy professions) found themselves in Central and Western Europe, they fell under the already established negative stereotype of perception and could not change it.

An additional factor in the marginalization of the Roma was the guild and territorial restrictions of medieval Europe. The right to engage in crafts was then inherited - so the son of a shoemaker became a shoemaker, and the son of a blacksmith became a blacksmith. It was impossible to change profession; in addition, most of the inhabitants of medieval cities have never been outside the city walls in their entire lives and are wary of all strangers. Gypsy artisans who arrived in Central Europe faced hostile and negative attitude from the local population and the fact that, due to guild restrictions, they could not engage in the crafts that they had long earned a living (primarily working with metal).

Starting from the XVI century, economic relations in Europe began to change. Manufactories arose, which led to the mass ruin of artisans. In England, the need for grazing meadows for the needs of the textile industry led to a policy of enclosure in which peasants were driven from their common lands, and the vacated land was used to herd sheep. Since unemployment benefits and other mechanisms to support socially vulnerable segments of the population did not exist at that time, the number of vagrants, petty robbers and beggars grew. Cruel laws were passed against them throughout Europe, often assuming the death penalty for the fact of begging. Nomadic, semi-nomadic, as well as trying to settle down, but ruined gypsies became victims of these laws.

Fleeing from the persecution of the authorities, the gypsies became more secretive - they moved at night, lived in caves, forests and other secluded places. This contributed to the emergence and widespread myths about gypsies as cannibals, satanists, vampires and werewolves. At the same time, rumors appeared about gypsies kidnapping children (allegedly for eating and performing satanic rites).

The spiral of mutual distrust and rejection continued to unwind. Due to the limited or complete absence of legal opportunities for earning money, forced to somehow find a living for themselves, the gypsies increasingly began to engage in theft, robbery and other not entirely legal activities.

Figure 5. Nikolai Bessonov. "Fortune telling".

In the conditions of a hostile external environment, the gypsies (especially the gypsies from the countries of Western Europe) began to culturally "lock in on themselves", literally and strictly following the old traditions. In search of a better life, the gypsies gradually began to settle in the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe, moved to the countries of the New World, but practically nowhere did they switch to a settled way of life and practically nowhere could they integrate into the local society - everywhere they remained strangers.

In XX century, many countries attempted to destroy the traditionalism of the gypsies, tie them to a permanent place of residence, give them the opportunity to earn money through official employment. In the USSR, this policy was relatively successful - about ninety percent of all gypsies settled down.

The collapse of the Soviet bloc countries led to the destruction of the way of life of the gypsies in Eastern Europe and the former USSR. Until the mid-1990s, the gypsies of the USSR and other countries of Eastern Europe were actively engaged in small-scale underground production, speculation and other similar illegal businesses. The disappearance of the deficit, the development of a market economy in the countries of the Soviet bloc deprived the gypsies of the niche due to which they succeeded in the second half XX century. The low level of education, the lack of a long-term view of the development of their own business led to the fact that most of the Roma were squeezed out of the sphere of petty trade, thanks to which the Roma flourished in the 1980s and 1990s.

The impoverished gypsies returned to begging, and also became more actively involved in the sale of drugs, fraud and petty theft. The disappearance of the Iron Curtain in the USSR and the opening of borders in Europe contributed to an increase in gypsy migration. For example, Romanian gypsies in the 2010s began to actively move to the countries of Western and Northern Europe, where they are also engaged mainly in begging and other socially condemned ways of earning money.

So, the gypsies, leaving India about a thousand years ago, gradually dispersed as artisans throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor. As the Byzantine Empire declined, that is, approximately from the beginning XV century, the gypsies gradually began to settle in the countries of Central, Eastern, Northern and Western Europe, and starting from XVIII centuries began to move to the countries of the New World. Faced with the guild restrictions of feudal Europe, the gypsies gradually sank to the social bottom, surviving everywhere with dubious, not entirely legal ways of earning.

In XX century, many countries began to pursue a policy of forcing the ancient nomadic people to a settled way of life. The younger generation of gypsies began to attend schools, secondary specialized and higher educational institutions; engineers, doctors, and scientists appeared among the representatives of an illiterate people for centuries.

What will happen next? It seems that the Gypsies will either again become marginalized, sinking to the social bottom, or will gradually merge into the society around them, raising their educational and cultural level, mastering modern professions and adopting skills and customs from more successful peoples. The path of gradual assimilation is also possible - for example, already now the gypsy groups of the British Isles, Transcarpathia and Central Asia have completely or almost completely lost their native language. In those countries where they can get access to education, the gypsies will gradually more and more integrate into the outside world on decent conditions. In these regions, while maintaining their identity, they will be able to create a new level of culture, rethink traditions - as the South Koreans or Finns rethought their traditions, having gone from a primitive economy to economic prosperity in a few decades XX century. Where this succeeds, friction between the gypsies and the indigenous population will decrease, and the original colorful customs of the ancient nomadic people will attract the interest not of law enforcement officers, but of tourists, historians and the general public.

In addition to Jews and Gypsies, that list also included those born with congenital neurological and somatic diseases, homosexuals, mentally retarded people, people with mental illness and many other categories of people - from Hitler's point of view, they were all inferior, and because of this, they were initially subject to all sorts of restrictions, then - isolation and destruction.

Most modern states, especially European ones, were formed in the 17th - 19th centuries on the basis of the national identity of the peoples inhabiting the respective territory. In the bulk of modern states, representatives of the titular people make up the vast majority of the population.

Most modern gypsies consider themselves Christians, although the gypsy version of Christianity differs from all other denominations and movements. At the same time, the Gypsies, who lived in the territory of the Ottoman Empire and other Muslim states, actively converted to Islam.

It is noteworthy that the attitude towards Jews and Gypsies among European peoples was very similar. Despite the fact that many Jews were able to find a way to socially integrate into the life of European society, at the everyday level they were presented with the same claims as the gypsies: the abduction of babies, satanic rites, etc. Just like the gypsies, the Jews, in response, closed themselves even more within their community (they did not communicate with non-Jews, did business only with fellow believers, did not marry non-Jews, etc.), which caused even greater rejection. At the everyday level, anti-Semitism, as well as anti-Gypsy sentiments, were widespread - without them, the terrible German racial laws would not have been adopted.

Both the stick and carrot methods were used. So, laws were passed that provided for the criminal prosecution of vagrant gypsies (they were equated with parasites). At the same time, local authorities really made efforts to integrate and assimilate the Roma - they were provided with jobs, they were provided with housing, and they raised the level of education. In the USSR, the world's first gypsy theater "Romen" was created, which still exists today.

The Romani language is sometimes seen as a group of dialects or related languages ​​that constitute a single genetic subgroup. It is not an official language in any state, but is recognized as a national minority language in many countries. And in countries with a large proportion of the Romani population (for example, in Slovakia), the Romani language is now in the process of codification. Four major varieties of the Romany language can be distinguished - Vlach Romany (about 900 thousand speakers), Balkan Romany (700 thousand), Carpathian Romany (500 thousand) and Sinti (300 thousand).

The gypsy language is a close relative of the languages ​​​​of central and northern India, which is considered the birthplace of the gypsies. Usually the Romani language is referred to the central Indo-Aryan languages ​​(together with Gujarati, Rajasthani, etc.). There is even a theory according to which the word "sinti" itself comes from the name of the Sindh region (northeast Pakistan and west India).

The Romani language is very conservative in terms of grammatical structures. It retained almost unchanged the Indo-Aryan markers of present-tense facial consistency and the consonant endings of the nominative case, phenomena that have disappeared in most other modern languages ​​of central India. And the relatively recently developed model of facial consistency in the past tense makes it related to the languages ​​of the northwest of India - Kashmiri, Shina, etc. This fact is considered additional confirmation that the homeland of the gypsies is central India, from where they migrated to the northwest.

The reason that forced the ancestors of the Gypsies to emigrate from the Indian Peninsula is still not known, but there are various theories. For example, trace influences from Greek, Turkish, and, to a lesser extent, Iranian languages ​​indicate a long stay in Anatolia. The Mongol invasion of Europe, which began in the first half of the 13th century, caused another wave of migration. At this time, the gypsies arrived in Europe, from where they scattered to other continents.

Although the first writings in the Romani language appeared as early as the 16th century (mainly in Eastern Europe), the Romani literary tradition never developed - mainly because it was used mainly as a secret language or slang. In 1989, the French linguist Marcel Courtiade proposed a spelling standard based on the Latin alphabet, which became the official alphabet of the International Romani Union. The most notable feature of Courtiade's system is the use of "metacharacters" designed to smooth out phonological differences between dialects (especially in the degree of palatalization) and "morphographs" that are used to display the morphophonological alternation of case suffixes in different phonological positions.

In addition to it, Panvlash, Cyrillic and various anglicized writing systems are also used.

Panvlashian orthography does not have a single standard form, but is rather a set of orthographic norms with common graphemes. It is based on the Latin alphabet, supplemented with a few diacritics, as in Eastern European languages. English-based orthography is used predominantly in North America, and diacritical graphemes are replaced by digraphs: č = ch, š = sh, ž = zh. And Romanian and Russian gypsies use Cyrillic writing.

In addition to the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, the gypsies also use other types of writing. For example, in Greece, the gypsies write mainly in the Greek alphabet, and in Iran - in Arabic. In general, there is a tendency among Romani speakers to use orthography based on the script of the main contact language. Another trend is the increasingly active use of irregular anglicized spelling, which is apparently associated with the spread of the Internet and e-mail.

The content of the article

gypsies, or Roma - a nomadic people, more precisely, ethnic groups with common roots and language, whose origin can be traced from northwestern India. Today they live in many countries of the world. Gypsies are usually black-haired and swarthy, which is especially characteristic of populations living in countries close to India, although lighter skin is not typical for gypsies at all. Despite spreading all over the world, the Roma everywhere remain a clearly defined people, more or less adhering to their own customs, language and maintaining social distance from the non-Roma peoples in whose environment they live.

Gypsies are known by a number of names. In the Middle Ages, when the Gypsies first appeared in Europe, they were erroneously called Egyptians, as they were identified as Mohammedans - immigrants from Egypt. Gradually, this word (Egyptians, Gyptians) was abbreviated, becoming "gypsy" ("gipsy" in English), "gitano" in Spanish and "giphtos" in Greek. Gypsies are also called "zigeuner" in German, "gypsies" in Russian, "zingari" in Italian, which are variations of the Greek word athinganoi, meaning "do not touch" - an insulting name for a religious group that previously inhabited Asia Minor and avoided, like the gypsies , contacts with strangers. But the Gypsies do not like these names, preferring the self-designation "Roma" (plural, Roma or Roma) from "Romani (person)".

Origin.

In the middle of the 18th century European scientists managed to find evidence that the Romani language comes directly from the classical Indian language Sanskrit, which indicates the Indian origin of its speakers. The sero-anthropological data, in particular information about blood types, also indicate an origin from India.

Much, however, remains obscure about the early history of the Gypsies. Although they speak one of the languages ​​of the Indian group, it is very possible that they are actually descended from the Dravidian natives of this subcontinent, who eventually began to speak the language of the Aryan invaders who occupied their territory. In recent years, scholars in India itself have embarked on an academic study of the Gypsies, and, in addition, there is a revival of interest in this subject in scientific circles in the West. Gradually, the myths and misinformation surrounding the questions of the history and origin of this people are dissipated. It became clear, for example, that the Gypsies were nomads not because they had any nomadic instinct, but because widespread discriminatory legislation left them no choice but to continue their constant migration.

Migration and resettlement.

New historical and linguistic evidence indicates that the Gypsies migrated from northwestern India in the first quarter of the 11th century. as a result of a series of Islamic invasions led by Mohammed Ghaznavid. According to one hypothesis, the ancestors of the Gypsies (who are sometimes called “Dhomba” in the literature) organized themselves into military units called Rajputs to fight these invasions. Over the next two centuries, the Gypsies moved further and further west, stopping in Persia, Armenia and the territory of the Byzantine Empire (in the modern language of the Gypsies there are many Persian and Armenian words and, especially, many words from Byzantine Greek), and reached southeastern Europe in the middle of the 13th century.

The movement into the Balkans was also caused by the spread of Islam, which had caused the gypsies to migrate from India two centuries earlier.

Not the entire mass of Gypsies crossed the Bosphorus and ended up in Europe, one of its offshoots migrated eastward to the areas of today's Eastern Turkey and Armenia and became a separate and quite distinct sub-ethnic group known as "lom" ("Lom").

Another population widely distributed throughout the Middle East is the "dom" ("Dom"), which was long thought to be part of the original Gypsy migration (from India, but later separated from the mainstream somewhere in Syria). While the "home" itself and their language are clearly of Indian origin, their ancestors evidently represented a separate and much earlier wave (possibly 5th century) of migration from India.

In the Byzantine Empire, the Gypsies acquired a deep knowledge of metalworking, as indicated by the metallurgical vocabulary in the Gypsy language of Greek and Armenian (non-Indian) origin. When the gypsies came to the Balkans and, in particular, to the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, this knowledge and skills ensured a steady demand for their services. This new artisan population of gypsies proved to be so valuable, in fact, that in the early 1300s laws were passed making them the property of their employers, i.e. slaves. By 1500, about half of the gypsies managed to leave the Balkans for the north and west of Europe. The resulting division between those who remained in slavery in Wallachia and Moldavia (today's Romania) for five and a half centuries, and those who left there, is of fundamental importance in the history of the Gypsies and is referred to in literature as the First European Gypsy Diaspora.

It didn't take long for the people of the Balkans to realize that the Gypsies were completely different from the Muslims they feared so much. But the population in countries more distant from the Balkans, i.e. in France, Holland, and Germany, for example, one had never met directly with Muslims before. When the gypsies came there with their exotic speech, appearance and clothing, they were associated with Muslims and were called "pagans", "Turks", "Tatars" and "Saracens". The Gypsies were easy targets because they had no country to return to, no military, political or economic power to defend themselves. Over time, one country after another began to introduce repressive measures against them. In Western Europe, punishments for being Romani included lashing, mutilation, deportation, galley slavery, and even, in some places, execution; in eastern Europe, the gypsies remained slaves.

Political changes in Europe in the 19th century, including the abolition of slavery for the Gypsies, led to a sharp increase in their migration, which marked the period of the Second European Diaspora of the Gypsies. A third diaspora emerged in the 1990s with the fall of communist regimes throughout eastern Europe.

The gypsies who were in slavery were either domestic slaves or slaves in the fields. These broad categories include many smaller professional groups. The Gypsies, taken to work in the houses of the landowners, eventually lost their language of Indian origin and acquired Romanian based on Latin. Now Romanian-speaking gypsies such as "boyash" ("boyash"), "rudari" ("miners") and "ursari" ("guide bears") are found not only in Hungary and the Balkans, but also in Western Europe and other regions of the Western Hemisphere.

Much more of the ancient traditions have been preserved by groups of gypsies descended from field slaves. Kalderas ("coppers"), lovara ("horse traders"), churara ("sieve makers") and mochvaya (from the Serbian city of Mochva) all these groups speak closely related dialects of the Romani language. These languages ​​form a dialect group called Vlax or Vlach, characterized by a strong influence of Romanian in it. By the end of the 19th century Vlaxo-speaking gypsies undertook long journeys in search of places where they could settle. Countries in Western Europe were inhospitable due to centuries of antigypsy legislation in them, so the main flow of migration went east to Russia, Ukraine and even China, or, through Greece and Turkey by sea to North and South America, South Africa and Australia. After the First World War, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in central Europe caused a mass exodus of Roma from these lands to western Europe and North America.

During World War II, the Nazis chose the Gypsies as the target of genocide, and the Gypsies were destined, along with the Jews, for extermination by the notorious decree of Reinhard Heydrich of July 31, 1941, to implement the "Final Solution". By 1945, almost 80% of all gypsies in Europe had died.

modern settlement.

Gypsies are dispersed throughout Europe and western Asia and are found in parts of Africa, North and South America, and Australia. However, it is not possible to establish the exact number of Roma in each country, since censuses and immigration statistics rarely distinguish them as a special article, and centuries of persecution have taught Roma to be careful in indicating their ethnicity in census questionnaires. There are between 9 and 12 million Roma in the world. This estimate is given by the International Roma Union: about one million in North America, about the same in South America, and between 6 and 8 million in Europe, where Roma are concentrated mainly in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and elsewhere in the Balkans.

In the approximately one thousand years since the exodus of the Gypsies from India, their way of life has become remarkably varied, although each group has retained to a greater or lesser extent elements of the main culture of the Gypsies. Those that have settled in one place for a long time tend to acquire the national features of the people who have adopted them. In both Americas, a significant number of gypsies appeared in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although there is a tradition among the gypsies that on the third voyage of Columbus in 1498, gypsy sailors were among the crew, and the first representatives of this people appeared there in pre-colonial times. It is documented that the first gypsies appeared in Latin America (in the Caribbean) in 1539, when persecution against this people began in Western Europe. They were gypsies from Spain and Portugal.

New waves of immigrants began arriving in the Americas after 1990.

Gypsy life.

Despite their common linguistic, cultural and genetic heritage, the Gypsy groups have become so diverse as a result of the influence of time and space factors that it would be wrong to try to draw a generalized portrait of them. In the rest of the article, special attention is paid to the Vlaxo-speaking gypsies, who are the largest and most geographically distributed population.

social organization.

Taken as a whole, the life of gypsies is called "romanipen" or "romania" and is built on the basis of a complex system of family relations. A group of kindred families forms a clan (“vista” clan), headed by a leader called “baro” (he is not a king; the so-called kings and queens among the gypsies are an invention of journalists). He is the recognized leader of his group and can direct its movements and represent it in contact with outsiders. On important matters, he may consult with the elders of the whist. Violations of the rules of morality and behavior can be considered by a special male assembly called "kris" ("kris"). This court has jurisdiction over a wide range of infringements, including material and matrimonial matters. Punishments may include the imposition of fines or expulsion from the community, the offender being called merimé or ritually unclean. Since communication with non-gypsies is avoided as a matter of course, and since the gypsy community itself must exclude whoever is merimé, the individual in this position finds himself ultimately in complete isolation. This idea of ​​ritual pollution, inherited from India and extended to the individual in his relation to food, animals and other human beings, was the most general factor that contributed to the fact that Gypsy populations remained separate from others and internally united.

Marriages with Goje (non-Gypsies) are frowned upon; even the choice of marriage with other gypsies is limited. In the case of mixed marriages, children will only be considered Roma if their father is one. The family plays an active role in the marriage formalities, which to the uninitiated may seem lengthy and complicated. Firstly, there are long negotiations between the parents, especially about the amount of "darro" (dowry). This is the amount to be compensated for the earning potential of a bori or daughter-in-law who passes from her family and is included in the family of her new marriage relatives. The wedding itself (“abiav”) is held in a hall rented for this occasion with the presence of many friends and relatives. The celebrations accompanying the wedding usually last three days. Once established, a marriage union usually remains permanent, but if a divorce is necessary, the consent of the "kris" may be required. As a rule, civil and church marriages are becoming more frequent, even if they represent only the final phase of the traditional ritual.

The official religion did not have much influence on the way of life of the Gypsies, although they did not manage to avoid attempts by missionaries to convert them to their faith. They adopted, in most cases superficially, such religions as Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and the Protestantism of those countries in which they lived for some time. The exception is the surprising and very rapid acceptance by some groups of the charismatic "new" Christianity of recent years.

The most famous religious holidays of the Romani Catholics are the annual pilgrimages to Quebec to the Basilica of St. Anne (Sainte Anne de Beaupre) and the town of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer on the Mediterranean coast of France, where gypsies gather every time from everywhere 24 – May 25, to honor their patron saint Sarah (according to legend, an Egyptian).

Livelihood and recreation.

Gypsies prefer activities that provide them with a minimum duration of contact with the "gadge" and independence. Services that cater to occasional needs and an ever-changing clientele fit well with the Gypsy way of life, which may require the individual to leave urgently to attend a wedding or funeral, or a "kris" in another part of the country. Gypsies are versatile and the means by which they earn a living are numerous. But there are some main Gypsy trades, such as horse trading, metalworking, divination and, in some countries, picking vegetables or fruits. For joint economic ventures, the Roma can also form a purely functional association "kumpania", the members of which do not necessarily belong to the same genus or even to the same dialect group. In the field of self-employment, many Roma work as peddlers, especially in Europe. Some resell goods bought at a lower price, others trade on the streets, noisily offering their own goods, although in the 20th century. a number of gypsy crafts suffered from competition with mass-produced products. Women play their full role in earning a livelihood. It is they who carry baskets with manufactured goods from door to door and are engaged in fortune-telling.

Although many of the names of the various Gypsy groups are based on the professions they held during the period of slavery, they can no longer serve as a reliable guide to the activities of specific families. In Mexico, for example, "coppermen" are now far more often mobile film operators than metalworkers. For many "coppermen" in the United States, the main source of income is the fortune-telling parlor ("office"), which may be located in front of the fortune teller's house or in the front of the store.

Gypsies are also known to be great entertainers, especially as musicians and dancers (several famous actors, including Charles Chaplin, speak of their Gypsy ancestors). In Hungary, and in Romania in particular, gypsy orchestras with their virtuoso violinists and cymbalists have developed their own style, although much of what the audience hears is, in fact, European music in a gypsy interpretation. There is another, very special type of music, the original gypsy music, which is a highly rhythmic sequence of tones, in which few or no instruments are used and the dominant sound is often the sound of clapping hands. Research has shown that much of the Central European classical music tradition and the work of composers such as Liszt, Bartok, Dvorak, Verdi and Brahms are marked by significant Gypsy influences. The same has been demonstrated by research in relation to Jewish klezmer music, which is characterized by unusual scales and lively rhythms.

In Andalusia, in southern Spain, according to one study by the University of Wisconsin, gypsies, along with Moroccans, created the flamenco tradition as a covert way to express anger at the repressive Spanish regime. From Andalusia, the style spread through the Iberian Peninsula and then into Hispanic America until flamenco song, dance and guitar playing became an accepted form of folk entertainment. Since the late 1970s, the music of the six-guitar Gipsy Kings has propelled modern flamenco-based music into the pop charts, and the late Django Reinhardt's jazz guitar technique ) (he was a gypsy) experienced a renaissance thanks to his great-nephew Bireli Lagrene.

Like all peoples with a developed oral tradition, the narration among the Gypsies reaches the level of art. Over the course of many generations, they expanded their folklore baggage by selecting and adding to it the folk tales of the countries in which they settled. In exchange, they enriched the folklore of these nations with the oral histories acquired by them during past migrations.

Due to strict restrictions on socializing with outsiders, the Roma spent much of their free time in each other's company. Many of them believe that the negative effects of being among the gajes can only be offset by the time they spend among their own at communal ritual events such as christenings, weddings, etc.

Food, clothing and housing.

The eating habits of Western European Gypsy groups reflect the influence of their nomadic way of life. Soups and stews that can be cooked in one pot or cauldron, as well as fish and game meat, occupy a significant place in their cuisine. The diet of settled Eastern European gypsies is characterized by the use of a large amount of spices, especially hot varieties of pepper. In all groups of gypsies, food preparation is strictly conditioned by the observance of various taboos of relative cleanliness. The same cultural considerations determine the issues of clothing. In Gypsy culture, the lower part of the body is considered unclean and shameful, and women's legs, for example, are covered with long skirts. Similarly, a married woman should cover her head with a scarf. According to tradition, acquired valuables are turned into jewelry or gold coins, and the latter are sometimes worn on clothes as buttons. Since the head is considered the most important part of the body, many men draw attention to it by wearing wide hats and large mustaches, and women love large earrings.

Mobile homes are of great importance to families whose livelihoods require them to be constantly on the move. There are still a large number of gypsy families, especially in the Balkans, who travel in light open wagons drawn by horses or donkeys and sleep in tents of traditional design made of canvas or woolen blankets. A comparatively recent appearance of the gypsy's residential wagon, decorated with intricate carvings, complements rather than replaces the tent. Along with the less picturesque horse-drawn wagon, this residential wagon is rapidly falling into disuse, making way for the motorized trailer. Some gypsies with trucks or cars with trailers closely adhere to the old habits of people with carts, while others have fully embraced such modern conveniences as bottled kitchen gas and electricity.

The current population of gypsies.

Various Romani groups in Europe were almost completely destroyed by the fires of the Holocaust, and it was only more than four decades later that their national movement began to gain momentum. For the Roma, the concept of "nationalism" does not mean the creation of a real nation-state, but implies the acquisition of recognition by mankind of the fact that the Roma are a separate non-territorial nation of people with their own history, language and culture.

The fact that Roma live all over Europe but do not have their own country has led to enormous problems since the fall of Eastern European communist regimes and the resurgence of ethnic nationalism there. Like those gypsies who first came to Europe seven and a half centuries ago, the European gypsies of the 20th century. are increasingly perceived as very different from traditional European peoples and a nuisance. To combat these prejudices, the Roma organized themselves into several political, social and cultural groups in order to develop ideals of self-determination. The International Roma Union has been a permanent member of the United Nations Economic and Social Development Council since 1979; by the end of the 1980s, he gained representation in the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNESCO, and in 1990 the formation of the European Roma Parliament began. By the beginning of the 1990s, a large number of such Roma professionals as journalists and political activists, educators, and politicians had already appeared. Ties were forged with the ancestral homeland of India - since the mid-1970s, the Indian Institute of Gypsy Studies has been operating in Chandigarh. Roma organizations focused their work on combating racism and stereotypes in the media, as well as obtaining reparations for war crimes that led to the death of Roma in the fires of the Holocaust. In addition, the issues of standardization of the Roma language for international use, the compilation of a twenty-volume encyclopedia in this language, were resolved. Gradually, the literary image of the "nomadic gypsies" is replaced by the image of the people, ready and able to take their place in today's heterogeneous society.

The main source of information on all aspects of Gypsy history, language and lifestyle is the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, published from 1888 to the present.

Accidentally stumbled upon.

Gypsy language (romano rakirebe).

greetings

Hello - bahtales
Hello - dubrIdin
Welcome! - Mishto yavYan!
Happy stay! (to many people) - te yavEn bahtalE!
Happy stay! (to a man) - te yavEs bakhtalO!

Good afternoon (everyone) - devEs lachO (sarEnge)

Standard phrases

Thanks - Nais
Be healthy - yavEn saste
Good night - lachi ryat
How are you? - Cheese tere business?
How are you? - Cheese tu jivEsa?
Everything is going well! - Sa avela mishto!
What is your name? - the cheese is kharen?
My name is... - man kharen...
You have a beautiful name - tUte gojo laf
I'm sorry - I'm sorry
What you said? - So Tu PyeongYang?
Can you hear me? - Tu man shunEsa?
Understood)? - Polyyan?
How do you feel? - Do you feel the cheese?
What should I do? - So mange te kira?
What do you want? - From that KamES?
I love you - me here kamAm / kamAv
I hate you - me here nakamAm / nakamAv
I give you my word - dava tukE mirO laf
It hurts… - man o dukhal…
I beg you - me here mangav
You know? - that JinEs?

Let's go home - yavEn khare
I will come - me avav
I won't tell you anything - nichi me tuter on pengawa
Wait! (Stop!) - tyrdЁv!
So it is - dey sy
It's true - hell chachipe
Who's there? (when they knock) - condy?
Don't go! - wow!
Come here - yav darik
Get out of here - jadad kher / yav durik
I beg you - me here mangawa
I see - me dykhav
I thought - mae doumindyom
I don't know how to say it - na ginom, hell peng cheese
Look! - Duc!
Do not be angry - on holidays
Do not smoke - on tyrdY; are you going to smoke? - AVESA TYRDES?
It's my fault? - me bango?
I remember everything - me sa rapirAva
Bought for me - manga kimle
What are you going to eat? - So that lEse tehAs?
Will I sit here? - Me datE pobushala?
Do you know where to go? - Tu dzhinEs, karik te dzhyas?
Where are you ball? - Kai tou sanAs?
We are leaving - ame karadasa
I'm fine - me shukAr
I went (we went) - mae gaeom (ame gaeom)
Done - gata
My God! - miro devel!

Closed - Zaker
Open - utkErdo

Pronouns

I - me
With me - mander
Me - mange/mange
With me - manza
Without me - bi world
I have - man o / mande
To me - ke me
My (my, mine) - world (world, world)

We are AME
Nam - amEnge
Our (our, our) - amorO (amorI, amorE)
To us - ke yame

You are the one
You are here
You have - tute
To you - tuke
Yours (your, yours, yours) - cho / terO (ti / terI, terE, tiR / terO)
To you - ki tu
Without you - bi terO

You are tume
Yours (your, yours) - tumarO (tumari, tumarE)

He is yov
Him - laske
His (in the genitive case) - les
His (as an adjective) - laskO

She - her/youne
Her - la

They are Ana
Im - lenge
Their (in the genitive case) - len

Himself - Kokuro
Own - pengo
Yourself - peskE
Yourself - pes

This is hell
This one is like

Everything - sa (sarO)
All - saverE
Everyone - SarEn
Everyone - sarEnge
Quite - sarEsa

Who - con
Nobody - nikon
With whom - kasa

So - kadyake
Together - khetane
Because - dulEski
What - with

Questions

What? - So?
Where? - Kai?
Where? - Karik?
How? - cheese?
What for? - palso?
Why? - nipples? (but more often - the same as in Russian)
When? - sneakers?
Who? - con?
How many? - but?
Which? - Savo?

Answers

Yes Yes; no - nat
No - nane
Good - shukAr/mishto
Bad - nashuka
Nothing - nothing
Nobody - nikon
Everything is ready - sa gata
Many - but
A little bit of a booty
I give you my word - dava tukE mirO love

Description

Handsome - hojo
Ugly - bank
You are my (my) pretty (th) - that world (peace) pretty
Dear - drago
Favorite (th) - kamlO (kamly)
Good (pretty) - lacho (lachinko)
Fool (fool) - dyrlyny (dyrlyno)
small - small
Big - baro
Poor - charoro
Rich - barvalo
Gypsy - rom / romal
Not a gypsy - gajo
"Devil with Horns" - Beng rogEnsa
New - nEvo
Sly / cunning (cunning) - uzhYanglo (uzhYangle)
Smart - godyavir
Happy (happy, happy) - bakhtalo (bakhtali, bakhtalE)
Daredevil (male) - mursh
Gypsy - romAno
Golden (golden, golden, golden) - sanakUno (sanakUny, sanakUno, sanakUne)
There are no more like them in the world - nane ada vavir pre light

Status Description

I feel bad (I feel good) - mange nashuk (mange shukAr)
I'm tired - me kranio
I slept - me popAcio
I got sick - me zanasvaluYo
I'm over it! - Mander is enough!
New - nEvo
Happy (happy) - bahtalo (bakhtali)
I want to sleep - kamElpe tesovEs

People (monushA)

The people are crazy
Good people - lache monushA
Girl / girl - chayuri; "docha" - tea
Girls/girls - chaYale
Woman - Rumy
Boy / guy - chavoro; "son" - chavoraAle
Boys/Guys - ChavAle
Man - Roma
Fortune teller - drabarovkina
Witch - shuvani
Little boy - tykhnenko chavoro
Friend (girlfriend, friends) - vortAko (vortAka, vortAchya)
Him (her) ... years - leskE (lakE) ... bersh
Two brothers - dui pshala

Relatives

Mom - yes
With mom - yes sa
Dad - dado/dad
Son - whoa
Daughter - tea
Sister - phrEn
With Sister - PhrenA So
Brother - pshal
With brother - pe pshalEse
Brother - pshalEske
Grandpa - papo
Grandma - mami
With grandma - baba co
Daughter-in-law Bori
Husband - Roma
Wife - Romanians
uncle - how
With uncle - kakE se
Aunt - bibi
With aunt - bbya co

Time

Year - bersh
Month - Shen
Day - devEs/des
Night - ryat; at night - ryate
Morning - daediminians
Evening - dekusare
In the morning - dodesara
Today - Dadyves
Tomorrow - taYa
The day after tomorrow - halibut
Now - the same as in Russian

Place

House - kher (you can - kher)
There - dute
Here - date
Road - DrOm; on the way - pe droma
Here - darik
There - fool
From here - dates
Forward - pale
Back - angel

Body parts

Eye (a) - yakh (A)
Nose - nakh
Lips - high
Teeth - dAnda
face - mui
Hand - Vast
Head - Shero/Shuru
Hair - bala
Belly - peer
Leg - punrro
On my feet - about the hero

Products

Cooking - tekareles haben
Woman cooks - rromni keravEla
What do you eat? - from that hass?
Eat - texAs
Drink - play
Boiled - carado
Apple - phabai
Pear - ambrol
Watermelon - lubenytsa
Melon - harbuzo
Apricot - baratskaya
Potato - colompiri
Cabbage - shah
Rice - rezo
Meat - mas
Sugar - prakhu
Water - PanI
Milk - thud
Coffee - kava
Vodka - bravInta

Creatures and animals

God - devel
Damn bang
Dog - jukel
Horse - gray
Bird - ChirEkly

Clothing, jewelry

Trousers - halloween
Scarf - dykhlo
Skirt - just like in Russian
Gold - sumnakay
Golden ring - sanakUno angrusty
Silver - Rupee

miscellanea

Conversation - rakirebe
Truth - chacho / chachipe
Lies - hohAype
Rain - brishind
Wind - balval
Heart/Soul - Ilo
Moon - shyonuto
Star - black; stars - chirgIn (I); asterisk - chirgenorI
Sun - kham
Money - love
Without money - without lovEngi
Fire - yag
Water - PanI
Blood - rat
Table - scamInd
Bed - chibe
Door - blowA
Song - Gila
Love - KamAm
Knife - churi
Light - yak
Leaflet / passport - lilOro
wedding - bjav
Stone - bar
Road/path - core
Tree - kasht

"winged"

May God punish you! - Te scarin man devel!
A dog won't bite a dog - djukel dzhukles on hala
Lying stone - pashlo bar
Sings like a bird - bagala cheese chirEkly
Your eyes are like stars - terE yakhA chirgin cheese

Miscellaneous phrases and actions

Come / come to me - yav ke me
He Knows Everything - Yeow SarO JinL
It's raining - brishind jyala
Where should I go? / Do you know where to go? - Karik tejav? / JeanEs, Karik tejYas?
Who is coming? - con avela?
We walk together - ame jyasa khetane
Don't be afraid - on dArpe
Give me your hand - de waste
I heard it - me hell shundem
I beg you - me here mangav
I don't ask you for anything - nothing me tuter on mangaAwa
I'll tell you - me here pengAwa
I won't tell you anything - nichi me tuter on pengAwa
Do you hear? - shunEsa?
Let's go (home) - yavEn (khare)
What should I do? / What do we do? - with mange te kira? / From kyrAs?
I thought (a) - mae doumindyom
It burns, but does not heat - khachen, ne on tatkirEl
Kiss - chamudEv
I remember the song - rapierAva me gily
Looking for - rodAm; found - lakhtem
You got angry - that kholysyan
Do you see it too? - Tu chi dykhes hell?
Okay, I'll come - Mishto, me java
You're lying, I know - tu hohavEsa, mae jinom
I don't know anything - Mae nichi on ginom
Me lived in ... - ame jindYam de ...
We visited ... - ame samAs de ...
We're going to the dance - ame gayom at the disco
We are leaving - ame karadasa
I want to see you - kamAm / kamAv ki tu
Come on! - mishto akana bre!
What, you left (came)? - that with, gee (javdya)?
I want to know - kamElpe jyanAv