In the consonant-system, the chief innovation is the change of the voiced aspirates already mentioned. Of the surd aspirates, ph appears to remain from Skt. phalah); ch loses its aspiration in west European gypsy (W. Eur. to S. E. Eur. 1'in- from Skt. chinnd-); kh perhaps becomes a spirant x (xanro, from Skt. khandakah). Intervocalic consonants, as in all other descendants of Sanskrit, are weakened. The gutturals and palatals disappear altogether; the cerebrals remain as r (S. E. Eur. r), the labials partly as v, the dentals as 1 in the European and Armenian dialects and as r in the Asiatic.
Sanskrit Gypsy Sanskrit Gypsy yuka "louse" juv id. agatah "came" alo id.
yuvatih "young woman" juvel id. ly:dayam "heart" yilo id.
_fit& (Syr.) 6ri (Syr.) Assimilation of consonant-groups has occurred generally, with the exception of r preceded by a stop and of sibilants followed by dental or cerebral stops (except in the Armenian dialect). Thus Sanskrit Gypsy dzigdkdm "milk" t'ud (from duddhath), Arm. lur.
bhrata "brother" p'ra/ id., Arm. p'al, Syr. bar.
hdstah "hand" vast, Syr. Mast, Arm. at'.
Grammar.—In grammar, too, the main structure of the better preserved dialects rests upon its Sanskrit original. The declension of the noun is based on two direct (descended from the Sanskrit nominative and accusative) and an oblique (descended from the Sanskrit genitive) to which various postpositions can be added.
Sanskrit Prakrit Gypsy Sing. nom. cordh (-6) coro} tor acc. cordm corara gen. cordsya corassa (-asa) cores Plur. nom. cOrdh cord tor gen. cordnam cOrtinara Boren The verb is built up of the old present stem, of which the in. dicative, the imperative and the participle still survive, and of the past participle, which alone or combined with auxiliaries forms past tenses.
Sanskrit Gypsy Present indicative: Sing. rdkfami rak'av raksasi rakes rdk.sati rak`elPlur. rdksamasi rak`as rdk.sathana rak`en rdk.santi rak`enThe opposition between present stem and past participle, though in most cases the latter has been remodelled on the former, still survives in a few verbs: Skt. mdrate "dies" : mrtai "dead" =Gy. merel : mulo.
'tali "goes" : gatd4 "gone" = „ ,dal : gelo.
Gypsy has preserved the Sanskrit numerals i to 6, io, 20, roc. But 7, 8, 9 and higher numbers are Asiatic gen erally from Persian, by European from are formed by various methods of addition or multiplication from existing numerals.
The borrowing of vocabulary has been extensive. The first examples can be dated back to the time when, leaving the central group of dialects in India, the gypsies sojourned among the speakers of the north-western group. Indeed, the borrowed words of a gypsy dialect disclose the itinerary of its migrations. When in the dialect of the gypsies of Wales we find borrowed words from Persian, Armenian, Greek, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Czech, German, French and English, we may assume that at some time or other the ancestors of this particular group passed through the countries where these languages were spoken. The form in which the words appear may give some clue as to the date when they were borrowed. The most numerous source for the European dialects is Greek, a fact which accords with the long stay the gypsies appear to have made in the Eastern empire.