Re: [TIED] Raggle-taggle Gypsies

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 2471
Date: 2000-05-20

 
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2000 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: [TIED] Raggle-taggle Gypsies

 
----- Original Message -----
From: John Croft
Sent: Saturday, May 20, 2000 1:16 PM
Subject: Re: [TIED] Worm in the Roma language
 
I HAVE checked it now. The ancestral word for Rrom and related terms (Lom, Dom) is Indic Dom (with a retroflex [d.]), feminine Domni, plural Domba. It apparently did refer to a collection of castes, and is usually glossed as 'folk, people'. Specialists also use the term Dombari for the Proto-Romani dialect(s) of NW-Central India (Domari is the modern name or Eastern Romani). Cf. the following web sources (fascinating stuff!):

 
Piotr
 

I wrote:
I remember reading somewhere that Romani (Rroma, Doma, Loma) derives ultimately from Sanskrit d.ama (with a Dravidian etymology), used of low-caste musicians. But I haven't checked it yet.