FREDERICK S. ARNOLD. ■ 119 



clined to agree with their substantives, a verb with a mid- 

 dle voice and a complication of tenses including a second 

 aorist, and its own syntax. But the American Gypsies 

 I have described preserve scarcely any of the original 

 grammar and even their vocabulary is very scanty, and, 

 in talking of any but the commonest occurrences of daily 

 life, has to be eked out with English words. Of course 

 the lidlo Ramanis (black Romanies) know much more of 

 it than the Didikai (half breeds) and they pride them- 

 selves on their "deep" knowledge of the language. 

 They retain some inflexions and a much larger vocabulary, 

 including many "deep" {i. e., nearly forgotten) syno- 

 nyms for the words in common use. 



The Romany noun has two genders, masculine and 

 feminine, and the adjective ought to agree with it. I 

 say "ought to" advisedly, for many Romanies have now 

 practically forgotten even this and unite, for instance, a 

 masculine adjective with a feminine noun. Still I think 

 the Tcdlo Ramanis generally make the distinction prop- 

 erly. is the adjective masculine ending and i the 

 feminine. Thus : TcusMo mush, a good man, but TcusTiU 

 juml, a good woman. The plural of nouns is formed by 

 adding or or ior to the singular. Thus : grai, horse ; 

 graioT, horses. This inflexion too is fast vanishing and 

 the English termination s is taking its place. You hear 

 grais used more often than graior. Beyond this I am 

 not aware that the American Romany noun and adjective 

 can be declined. The old Romany genitive ended in 

 esTcoro. Thus: raJclo, a boy ; gen., ralclesJcoTo. But 

 Borrow says the genitive is entirely wanting in English 

 Romany. The American Gypsies form a possessive after 

 the English model with s : e. g., o mus'K s dume, the 

 man's back ; a raV s cTiai, a gentleman's daughter. 



More declension is naturally preserved to the pro- 

 nouns, but here too, of course, the datives and duals of 

 the puro Roma jib (old Gypsy language) are forgotten. 



57 



