The word gitano and the introduction of gitanismos in the history of the Spanish language

Abstract

This research aims at contributing new data which will help to expand our understanding of the word gitano (gypsy) and its presence in the history of the Spanish language. To achieve this objective, we will carry out a syntactic, lexicographical and documentary analysis of the word gitano, situating it in a general and diachronic perspective. The new information we provide seems to suggest that the 18th century constitutes a social and legal point of inflexion in the history of the gypsies in Spain, whose assimilation into Spanish society towards the end of that century fostered the massive introduction of gitanismos, words deriving from the language of Spanish gypsies, into our language from the beginning of 19th onwards. This phenomenon coincided with the massive influx of indigenismos, or words borrowed from Amerindian languages, into the Spanish spoken in America.