LL-L "Etymology" 2003.01.25 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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

Roger Thijs wrote under "Resources" today:

> One paragraph deals with "egyptians".
> Could "gypsies" be meant with this?
> (In my dialect we used "bohemers" (bohemians) for gypsies)

Good guess, Roger!  It is well established that English _gipsy_ or _gypsy_
(earlier _gypcyan_ or _gypsen_) originally meant "Egyptian."  The people
thus named are the "Sinte" ~ "Sinti" (< Indian _Sind(i)_ ~ _Hind(i)_) and
"Rom(a)" (Romany _Rromale_, with a uvular /r/, thus probably originally
*_Ghomale_, plural of *_Ghoma_, a tribal name, not connected with Rome,
Romania or Rum [the European part of Turkey]).  (Romany distinguishes <r>
and <rr>.)  They arrived in the Lowland at the latest in the 15th century.
Their origin was in northwestern India and parts of today's Pakistan.  As
they left Asia for Europe, they were divided up into two main streams: one
went through the Balkans (many of them later enslaved in Romania for
centuries), and the other one went through North Africa and entered Europe
through the Iberian peninsula (French _gitanes_ < Spanish _gitanos_
"gypsies" < _Egipcio_ 'Egyptian').  Western Europe is home to descendants of
both great migrant groups.  "Egyptian" may have been "factual" in some cases
(of North African descendants), but was most likely a fanciful name for
various "exotic" people, hence also German _Zigeuner_, Hungarian _cigány_,
Russian "цыган" (cygan), etc., all meaning "Egyptian."

In Lowlands Saxon (Low German), the original name for these people is
_Tater(s)_ ['t_hQ:t3`] (with several versions in Scandinavian), originally
probably denoting "Tatar," the name of a Turkic-speaking group, once a
catch-all name for "Easterner" or "Asian."  I am not sure if Lowlands Saxon
got the name from Scandinavian or Scandinavian got it from Lowlands Saxon.
My hunch is that it is a Scandinavian loan in Lowlands Saxon.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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