LL-L "Morphology" 2003.04.20 (02) [E]

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Morphology

Sandy Fleming wrote (under "Etymology" today), replying to me:

> > > (= "boy" etc.; see also "chavvy")
> >
> > That seems to go back to Romany _chavi_ '(Roma) girl' or _chavo_ '(Roma)
> > boy' (as opposed to _rakli_ and _raklo_ in reference to non-Roma girls
> and
> > boys respectively).
>
> One person said that it originally meant "gypsy" when
> it was used in English, but the meaning changed, some
> sort of transference from the large gold earrings associated
> with the Romas (at this point I copy Ron's word down and
> hopefully pluralise it correctly in an effort to sound
> politically correct!) to the chunky gold jewellery of the
> pikey.

Sandy, the most accepted pluralization forms of "Rom" and "Roma" (both
politically correct of "Gypsy") is "Rom" and "Roma" respectively.  Plural
_-s_ is hardly ever used.  Some people use the Romany plural by saying
"Romale," but this seems to be (wannabe) insider jargon (similar to "Inuq" >
"Inuit," as well as nominal "Ashkenazi" > "Ashkenazim" and "Sephardi" >
"Sephardim," the latter of which I have been guilty myself, the excuse being
that the Hebrew plural is semi-accepted, as in "kibbutz" > "kibbutzim").

I assume that the use of a zero plural morpheme is consistent with
pluralization of more recently encountered "tribal" names, such as "one
Dani" > "half a million Dani," "one Tutsi" > "two million Tutsi," "that
Saami" > "those Saami" (replacing "that Lapp" > "those Lapps").

Actually, having just returned from a large American Indian powwow, I just
realize that these "tribal" names do not have to be newly encountered to be
pluralized that way; e.g., "Lakota" > "Lakota," "Nez Perce" > "Nez Perce,"
"Oneida" > "Oneida," "Na-Dene" > "Na-Dene," "Makah" > "Makah" or
"Kwakwa'kawakw" > "Kwakwa'kawakw" (replacing older "Kwakiutl" > "Kwakiutl").

Come to think of it, this seems to be a case of nominalized adjectives,
similar to plural "the poor," "the great," or the _-ese_ morpheme as in "one
Japanese" > "fifteen Japanese."  Note that you can say both "one Navaho" >
"two Navaho" and "one Navaho" > "two Navahos" or "one Hopi" > "two Hopi" and
"one Hopi" > "two Hopis."  Where plural _-s_ is not used, perhaps "persons"
is implied (e.g., "two Navaho (persons)").

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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