From their original Sanskrit-related tongue, the Rom have spun a linguistic fabric so intricate it defies conventional paradigms. A brief overview cannot hope to capture the richness of the international phenomenon called Romani (Romany, in some texts). Insofar as generalisation is the road to ruin where the Rom are concerned, I will keep to the high road and trust the links to draw intrigued readers into the alleys.
Most experts recognise three non-exclusive Romani dialect groups. In order of fidelity to the mother tongue, they are: a) Sinto-Manush, or the Balkan-Carpathian-Baltic group, spoken mostly in Eastern and Northern Europe; b) the Gurbet-Cerhan group, spoken only in Balkan countries; and c) the Kalderash-Lovar group, or Vlax, spoken by many European and most New World Rom. Each group enfolds countless smaller traditions; individual Rom tribes, called "families," frequently have their own Romani. Speakers are more or less intelligible to other families whose Romani is in the same dialect group, but placing some dialects squarely in a single group is difficult. Linguists alone quarrel over the categories; the Rom seem content to blend competing dialects into new ones and move on.
The Patrin Journal's opening lines, written in two Romani dialects, bear witness to this diversity:
1) Romále! Phralále! The Patrin si katé ando Internet te phenél le gadjénge pe amarí kultúra.
2) Rom! Prale! The Patrin hi-lo káte an u Internet te penél ap u gádje pre i mári kultúra.
Predictably, Greek, Slavic, Germanic and Romance languages all coaxed new dialects from Romani's Indian roots. Note the German influence on the northern European Romani in sentence 2:
1) But baxt aj sastimós tuménge!
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Robert Henderson's World Languages topic, please visit the Discussions page.