Abstract

Thirteen unpublished lines of a Latin-Romani vocabulary in a manuscript in Munich represent the earliest document recording efforts to put words of Romani, 'primarily an oral language' (Matras 2002: 238), into writing. The Benedictine compiler and scribe of the list was familiar with important contemporary German scholars, a fact that may enhance the authenticity of his numerous excerpts and explain the almost scholarly approach to such exotic languages as Romani. It can be assumed that the 'interviewer' got his information in Vienna around 1515, preceding the often adduced vocabularies of Borde (1542), Ewsum (before 1570), Vulcanius (1597), Çelebi (1668), and Marsden (1785). He organized the results of his questioning neatly in groups, heavenly bodies, humans and animals, food, and cardinal numerals.

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