Skip to main content

Historical Sources on the Romani Language

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics

Abstract

This chapter discusses the first written attestations of Romani language, from the Collectanea of Johannes ex Graffing (1515) to the publication of Pott’s Die Zigeuner in Europe und Asien (1845), paying special attention to the earliest documents. Attention is given to the cultural context in which they appear, their functionality, their dialectal adscription, and their interest for our knowledge of Romani.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • ab Hortis, Samuel Augustin. 1776. “Von der Sprache der Zigeuner” and “Beschluß von der Sprache der Zigeuner”. In Kaiserlich-Königlich allergnädigst privilegierte Anzeigen aus sämmtlich-kaiserlich-königlichen Erbländern, Jahrgang 6, 85–88 and 93–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adiego, Ignasi-Xavier. 1998. The Spanish-Gypsy vocabulary of manuscript 3929, Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid (eighteenth century): A rereading. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 8: 1–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adiego, Ignasi-Xavier. 2002. Un Vocabulario espanol-gitano del Marqués de Sentmenat (1697–1762). Edición y estudio lingüistico. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona.

    Google Scholar 

  • Adiego, Ignasi-Xavier. 2013. The oldest attestation of the Romani language in Spain: The Aucto del finamiento de Jacob (sixteenth century). Romani Studies 23: 245–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adiego, Ignasi-Xavier. 2016. Romani or Pseudo-Romani?: On the lord’s prayer in ‘Nubian’ by Jean-Baptiste Gramaye (1622). Romani Studies 26: 175–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archaimbault, Sylvie. 2010. Peter Simon Pallas (1741–1811), un naturaliste parmi les mots. Histoire Épistémologie Langage 32: 69–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ascoli, Graziadio. 1865. Zigeunerisches. Halle: Heynemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacmeister, Hartwig. 1773. Idea et desideria de colligendis linguarum speciminibus. Petropoli: Typis Academiae Scientiarum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, Peter. 1997. Review of McGowan (1996). Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 7 (1): 49–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, Peter. 2000. The genesis of Angloromani. In Scholarship and the Gypsy struggle: Commitment in Romani studies: A collection of papers and poems to celebrate Donald Kenrick’s seventieth year, ed. Thomas Acton, 14–31. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, Peter. 2002. An early vocabulary of British Romani (1616): A linguistic analysis. Romani Studies, 5th ser., 12 (2): 75–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barthélémy, André. 1975. Le glossaire tsigane-latin de Scaliger. Etudes Tsiganes 21 (4): 5–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Björckman, Samuel P. 1730. Dissertatio academica de Ciganis. Uppsaliae: Literis Wernerianis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borde [Boorde], Andrew. 1542(?). The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge: The which doth teache a man to speake parte of all maner of languages and to knowe the vsage and fashion of al maner of coũtreys. And for to knowe the moste parte of all maner of coynes of money, ye which is curraunt in euery region. London: Wyllyam Copland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borde, Andrew. 1870. The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge… edited by Frederik James Furnivall. London: N. Trübner and Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Büttner, Christian Wilhelm. 1771. Vergleichungs-Tafeln der Schriftarten verschiedener Völker in denen vergangenen und gegenwärtigen Zeiten. Erstes Stück. Göttingen und Gotha: Johann Christian Dieterich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carling, Gerd, Lenny Lindell, and Gilbert Ambrazaitis. 2014. Scandoromani: Remnants of a mixed language. Leiden: Brill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cazes, Hélène (ed.). 2010. Bonaventura Vulcanius, works and networks. Leiden-Boston: Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Courthiade, Marcel. 2014. Les premières approches linguistiques du rromani (1500–1800): entre présupposés, dégoût, ambitions et objectivité de méthode. Dossiers d’HEL, SHESL, 2014, Linguistiques d’intervention. Des usages socio-politiques des savoirs sur le langage et les langues, p. 10. Available at https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01115106/document. Accessed 11 November 2018.

  • Crofton, Henry. 1907. Borde’s egipt speche. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 1: 157–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, John. 1785. Collections on the Zingara, or Gypsey language; by Jacob Bryant. In Archaeologia: Or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity 7: 387–394 [= The annual register, or a view of the history politics and literature for the years 1784 and 1785 (Second edition: 1800), 83–89].

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrenborg, H. 1909. Swedish Tsiganologues. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 3: 111–119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Etzler, Allan. 1944. Zigenarna och deras avkomlingar i Sverige. Historia och språk, Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finck, Franz Nikolaus. 1903. Lehrbuch des Dialekts der deutschen Zigeuner. Marburg: N. G. Elwert.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Victor A., and Robert Dankoff. 1991. The earliest text in Balkan (Rumelian) Romani: A passage from Evliya Çelebi’s Seyähat-näme. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 1: 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganander, Christfrid. 1780. Undersökning om de så kallade Tattare eller Zigeuner, Cingari, Bohemiens. Manuscript conserved in Stockholm: Kungl. Svenska Vitterhetsakademien.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, John M. 1921. A Gypsy-Spanish word-list. Revue Hispanique 53: 614–615.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, Charles Etienne. 1741. Historie de la vie et des ouvrages de M. La Croze. Seconde partie, Amsterdam: Frabçois Changuion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kahraman, S. A., Yücel Dağlı, and Robert Dankoff. 2003. Evliyâ Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi. VIII. Kitap. İstanbul: Altan Matbaacılık Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluyver, A. 1900. Eene onuitgegeven lijst van woorden, afkomstig van Zigeuners uit het midden der zestiende eeuw. In Mededeelingen van de Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde in Leiden over het jaar 1899 en 1900, 45–55. Leiden: E.J. Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kluyver, A. 1911. Un glossaire tsigane du seizième siècle. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 4: 131–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knauer, Georg Nicolaus. 2010. The earliest vocabulary of Romani words (c.1515) in the Collectanea of Johannes ex Grafing, a student of Johannes Reuchlin and Conrad Celtis. Romani Studies, 5th ser., 20 (1): 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leblon, Bernard. 1982. Les Gitans dans la littérature espagnol. Toulouse: France-Ibérie Recherche.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ludolfus, Iobus [= Hiob Ludolf]. 1691. Ad suam historiam Aethiopicam antehac editam commentarius. Francofurti Ad Moenum: Typis Martini Jacqueti.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacRitchie, David. 1894. Scottish Gypsies under the stewarts. Edinburgh: David Douglas.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marsden, William. 1785. Observations on the language of the people commonly called Gypsies. In Archaeologia: Or miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity 7: 382–386 [= The annual register, or a view of the history politics and literature for the years 1784 and 1785 (second edition: 1800), 81–83 (without word list)].

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 1999. Johann Rüdiger and the study of Romani in eighteenth century Germany. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 9: 89–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 2002. Romani: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 2010. Romani in Britain: The afterlife of a language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McGowan, Alan. 1996. The Winchester confessions 1615–1616: Depositions of travellers, Gypsies, fraudsters, and makers of counterfeit documents, including a vocabulary of the Romany language. South Chailley, East Sussex: Romany and Traveller family History Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Megiser, Hyeronimus. 1603. Thesaurus polyglottus uel Dictionarium multilingue. Francofurti ad Moenum [Frankfurt]: sumptibus authoris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miklosich, Franz. 1874. Die ältesten Denkmäler der Zigeunersprache. Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 77: 759–771.

    Google Scholar 

  • N.N. 1726. Beschreibung des Chur-Sächsischen allgemeinen Zucht-, Waysen- und Armen-Hauses (….) Anno 1716. Bei dieser neuen Auflage mit einem Rotwelschen und Zigeunerischen Lexico (…) vermehrand et, Leipzig: Bei Christoph Hekels sel. Sohn.

    Google Scholar 

  • N.N. 1755. Beytrag zur Rotwellischen Grammatik, oder: Wörter-Buch, von der Zigeuner-Sprache, nebst einem Schreiben eines Zigeuners an seine Frau … Frankfurt und Leipzig: n.p.

    Google Scholar 

  • N.N. 1930. Vulcanius’ Romani vocabulary. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd ser., 9: 16–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pallas, Peter Simon. 1782. Neue nordische Beiträge zur physikalischen und geographischen Erd- und Völker-Beschreibung, Naturgeschichte und Ökonomie. Bd. 3. St. Petersburg, Leipzig: Johann Zacharias Logan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paspati, Alexandre G. 1870. Etudes sur les Tchinghianes ou Bohémiens de l’Empire Ottoman. Constantinople: Antoine Koroméla.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piasere, Leonardo. 1994. Il piu antico testo Italiano in Romanes (1646): una riscoperta e una lettura etnostorica. Universita’ degli Studi di Verona, Facolta’ di Lettere e Filosofia, Istituto di Psicologia, Report 56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pott, August, 1844. Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien: ethnographisch-linguistische Untersuchung, vornehmlich ihrer Herkunft und Sprache, nach gedruckten und ungedruckten Quellen. Halle: Heyneman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ranking, D. F. de l’Hoste. 1913. An Italian Gypsy comedy. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 7 (1): 59–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruch, Martin. 1986. Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte der deutschsprachigen Zigeunerforschung von den Anfängen bis 1900. PhD thesis, University of Freiburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rüdiger, Johann Christian Christoph. 1782. Neuester Zuwachs der teutsche, fremden und allgemeinen Sprachkunde in eigenen Aufsätzen, vol. 1. Stück Leipzig: P. G. Kummer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, John. 1911. Jacob Bryant: Being an analysis of his Anglo-Romani vocabulary, with a discussion of the place and date of collection and an attempt to show that Bryant, not Rüdiger, was the earliest discoverer of the Indian origin of the Gypsies. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 4: 162–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sampson, John. 1926. The dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulzius, Benjaminus [Benjamin Schultze].1745. Grammatica hindostanica collectis in diuturna inter Hindostanos commoratione in justum ordinem redactis ac larga exemporum [sic] luce perfusis regulis constans et missionariorum usui consecrata. Halae Saxonum: In typographia Instituti Judaici.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valtonen, Pertti. 1969. Finnish Romani research. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd ser., 48: 124–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vekerdi, József. 1962. Gypsy fragments from the early eighteenth century. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 14 (1): 123–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vekerdi, József. 1982. A magyarországi cigány kutatások története. Debrecen: Kossuth Lajos Tudományegyetem.

    Google Scholar 

  • von Adelung, Friedrich. 1815. Catherinens der grossen Verdienste um die vergleichende Sprachenkunde. St. Petersburg: Friedrich Drechsler.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vulcanius [= De Smet], Bonaventura. 1597. De literis et lengua Getarum siue Gothorum, Ludguni Batavorum [= Leiden]: ex officina Plantiniana, apud Franciscum Raphelengium.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, Max L. 1937. Stray notes on Spanish Romani. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 3rd ser., 16: 27–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallaszky, Paullus [Pál]. 1785. Conspectus reipublicae litterariae in Hungaria ab initiis regni ad nostra usque tempora delineatus. Posonii et Lipsiae: Antonius Loewe.

    Google Scholar 

  • Willems, Wim.1997. In search of the true Gypsy. From enlightenment to final solution. London-Portland: Frank Cass [= 2017, London and New York: Routledge].

    Google Scholar 

  • Windstedt, E. O. 1908. Some old German-Gypsy word-lists. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, n.s., 2: 109–117.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, Sigmund A. 1987. Großes Wörterbuch der Zigeunersprache (romani tšiw), 2nd ed. Hamburg: Helmut Buske.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Adiego, IX. (2020). Historical Sources on the Romani Language. In: Matras, Y., Tenser, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28105-2_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28105-2_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28104-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28105-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics