I have dwelt at some length on the deficiencies and shattered
condition of the English Gypsy tongue; justice, however, compels me
to say that it is far purer and less deficient than several of the
continental Gypsy dialects. It preserves far more of original Gypsy
peculiarities than the French, Italian, and Spanish dialects, and its
words retain more of the original Gypsy form than the words of those
three; moreover, however scanty it may be, it is far more copious
than the French or the Italian Gypsy, though it must be owned that in
respect to copiousness it is inferior to the Spanish Gypsy, which is
probably the richest in words of all the Gypsy dialects in the world,
having names for very many of the various beasts, birds, and creeping
things, for most of the plants and fruits, for all the days of the
week, and all the months in the year; whereas most other Gypsy
dialects, the English amongst them, have names for only a few common
animals and insects, for a few common fruits and natural productions,
none for the months, and only a name for a single day--the Sabbath--
which name is a modification of the Modern Greek [Greek text: ].

Though the English Gypsy is generally spoken with a considerable
alloy of English words and English grammatical forms, enough of its
proper words and features remain to form genuine Gypsy sentences,
which shall be understood not only by the Gypsies of England, but by
those of Russia, Hungary, Wallachia, and even of Turkey; for
example:-


Kek man camov te jib bolli-mengreskoenaes,
Man camov te jib weshenjugalogonaes.

I do not wish to live like a baptized person. {1}