George Borrow

Romano Lavo-lil George Borrow

George Henry Borrow was a 19th century writer who wrote novels and travelogues based on his travels around Europe. Through his travels Borrow developed a close relationship with the Romani people, which play a prominent role in his books The Bible in Spain and Lavengro. Besides being a dictionary of the Romani language Borrow has included gypsy verse and songs, scripture and the Lords Prayer, gypsy names, fortune telling, and basic information about gypsies. The book begins, "The Gypsies of England call their language, as the Gypsies of many other countries call theirs, Romany or Romanes, a word either derived from the Indian Ram or Rama, which signifies a husband, or from the town Rome, which took its name either from the Indian Ram, or from the Gaulic word, Rom, which is nearly tantamount to husband or man, for as the Indian Ram means a husband or man, so does the Gaulic Pom signify that which constitutes a man and enables him to become a husband."