Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)

From: Comm (tjsrno_at_spampost.com)
Date: 03/19/05 

Date: Sat, 19 Mar 2005 21:02:43 GMT

"Neeraj Mathur" <neemathur@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d1h563$a8a$1@news.ox.ac.uk...
>
> "Comm" <tjsrno@spampost.com> wrote in message
> news:hsT_d.12472$oO4.4226@newsread3.news.pas.earthlink.net...
>> Ahhh, NO NO, not at all, not even close. Not to me. And Gypsy sounds
>> freaking ALIEN - I remember some words I used to hear to a song - and I
>> used to imitate it. It sounded something like "harkoi hafta kee rat mo
>> ha bat karte heh." Phonetic. But the way it souded was like a dog
>> barking, I swear.
>
> Are you sure that was Romany (Gipsy)?

Yes, but what I wrote is phonetic - I used to sing it. I have sung phonetic
Hebrew songs too - tho an Israeli said, when I tried to write it, that every
single word I wrote was wrong, he understood most of it when I sang it. :)
Have no idea what I'm saying tho: Ho tee day ho tee day dama dormee yay, ha
sha na ha sha na haba ar. Then: ha sha na, haba ar, yach sheelu ada-ar
areb, may yu khshutz, ona meema, nashool an. And so forth. Good song :)

What you've written, almost every word
> works in Hindi/Urdu.

Wow. They were Gypsies, they looked like people from India, not like some
other Gypsies I've seen (who look something like me). Lived in a store
front, read tarot, all that.

I know that Romany is closely related to Hindi, but I
> didn't think it would be that close and have the same Perso-Arabic loans
> (hafta, mohabat).

Does it mean "everybody loves Saturday night?" That's what they said the
song meant (they may have lied - gypsies lie a lot to non Gypsies0 :).
>
> har koi - every, each and every
> hafta: - week
> ki - of (goes after the word it goes with, opposite of English)
> ra:t - night
> mohabbat - love
> karte he - they do

Again - WOW.
>
> Seems like it should be trying to say, 'every night of the week they make
> love', but I'm not certain (if that's what they're trying to say, the
> grammar is wrong for Hindi).

OH, heh, then they lied to me about what it meant. That was a case of me
asking them to say the words to the song and me writing it phonetically, not
me trying to hear the sounds from a record (as I did with the Hebrew).
>
> There are tons of Indians in and around New York (and particularly in New
> Jersey) - have you heard much Hindi being spoken?

I've heard very few convos with medical doctors speaking it if they got on a
phone with family. The only Hindus I knew was from old job - they were all
doctors. It did not sound the same as the Gypsies. Then again, Gypsies
used to be there in the 50s. I ran into Hindu doctors in the 70s.

I wonder if that would
> sound as 'alien' to you; perhaps Romany is pronounced with a different
> ring..? It's likely that it's had its phonology affected by the various
> European countries it's passed through.

The Gypsies sounded like they were barking when they talked. The language
was sharp, harsh.
>
>> People hear German and hear it as "harsh." I do not. Not at all.
>
> Neither do I - I think it's a very expressive, beautiful language. I said
> this to the mistress of a Heurige when I was in Vienna last summer; she
> didn't agree at all.
>
> Neeraj Mathur
>

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Related languages (Re: A China-Sumer connection)
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