punch not < panc

[Eduard Selleslagh]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Mc Callister <rmccalli at sunmuw1.MUW.Edu>
Date: Tuesday, June 08, 1999 9:09 AM

[snip]

> Along this line, I've wondered if <guy> --generally said to be
> derived from the dummy of Guy Fawkes-- is from Romany, given that Spanish
> gayo (said to be from Romany gaio "non-Gypsy") has the same meaning.
> Ditto English geeta (which I've only heard in gangster movies from
> the 1940s) and Spanish guita, both meaning "money"

[Ed Selleslagh]

In Spain I always heard non-Gypsies being called 'payos', not 'gayos'. Could
these be two variants derived from a common 'guayos' ?(but in what
language?)  BTW, note that Romaní is a satem language  - actually various
languages - related to Indo-Iranian.

(The Gypsies were 'imported', originally in Eastern Europe, as slaves from
northern India/Pakistan or thereabout, by Turkic (Ottoman) peoples during
their westbound migration from central Asia, that was stopped at the gates
of Vienna, and led to the creation of the Ottoman Empire and the present
state of Turkey.  The Gypsies were abandoned by their masters when these
were defeated in Central Europe. The migration from there through southern
Germany to southern France (Saintes Maries de la Mer) and the Spanish
Mediterranean coast and Andalusia is of a later date. Their English
[E-gypsies] and Spanish [E-gi(p)tanos] name stems from popular belief that
they came from Egypt).

Ed.