Nor do the linguistic pickings end with Romani proper. Whenever the Rom become more or less sedentary (bear in mind that these restless people are seldom completely still), complex jargons based on Romani and the local gadje language emerge. Try to identify this familiar tale, retold in the Anglo-Romany of British Rom:
"There was a rich mush with kushti-dicking purple togs. Every divvus his hobben was kushti. By his jigger suttied a poor mush called Lazarus. Lazarus dicked wafedi, riffly as a juk. He was ready to scran anything he could get his vasters on or kur it from the rich mush's table."
(For the key, see Fergus Smith's Romani site.)
Cale, spoken by the Spanish tribe of the same name, blends Romani words and Castillian structure. The following example is also borrowed from Smith:
El Crallis ha nicobado la liri de los Cales.
("The king has taken away the law of the Cale Gypsies.")
Insider jargons such as these are Rom, but not Romani. Unintelligible to gadje and Rom outsider alike, they foster unity and identity within a single family.
Recent political events, coupled with the online revolution, have helped Romani regain some of the ground lost when 500,000 Rom disappeared into the Nazi death camps. Encouraged by the fall of communism, moved to action by the resurgence of race hatred among the gadje, many Rom are seeking unity and renewal in their traditions. Some countries now provide instruction in Romani. Rising literacy is leading to the development of Romani literature, journalism, and Web presence.
Very few Romani words have made it into mainstream English, yet every English-speaking child can count to three in Romani. Don't believe it?
"Hickery, dickery, dock
The mouse ran up the clock..."
Until next time, Opré Rom!
This article available from Suite 101 World Languages: www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/world_languages
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