Angloromani language
Encyclopedia
Angloromani or Anglo-Romani (literally "English Romani", or Pogadi Chib) is a language combining aspects of English
and Romani
, which is a language spoken by the Romani people; a ethnic group
who trace their origins to the Indian subcontinent
. Angloromani is spoken in the UK, Australia
, the US
and South Africa
.
The language combines a mix of Romani and English. The original Romani language was spoken in England
until the late nineteenth century; perhaps a generation longer in Wales
. It was replaced by English as the everyday and family language of British Romani, but this does not mean the language disappeared entirely. Words of Romani origin were still used as part of a family-language. Words which are occasionally inserted into English conversation are referred to in linguistic literature on Romani as 'Para-Romani
': the selective retention of some Romani-derived vocabulary following the disappearance of Romani as an everyday language of conversation.
Anglo-Romani is thus more a vocabulary, than a ‘language’ in the strict sense. It is used within the framework of English conversation, English sentences, and English grammar and pronunciation, thus:
The mush was jalling down the drom with his gry. means 'The man was walking down the road with his horse.'
Edinburgh
slang
also contains a large number of Romani-derived words. A few words, like pal (originally ‘brother’), chav (originally 'Romanichal boy', cognate with Chavo in Romani proper), lollipop (originally 'candy apple') have entered common English usage.
Historically the variants of Welsh and English Romani, constituted the same variant of Romani, share characteristics and are historically closely related to dialects spoken in France, Germany (Sinti), Scandinavia, Spain, Poland, North Russia and the Baltic states. Such dialects are descended from the first wave of Romani immigrants into western, northern and southern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Few documents survive into modern times, the (Winchester confessions) c.1616 highlight the variant of English Romani and contains a high number of words still used in the modern Northern European Romani dialects and until recently Welsh Romani; Examples include; Balovas (pig meat bacon), Lovina (beer, alcohol), ruk (tree), Smentena (cream), Boba (beans) and Folaso (glove) and all such words occur in all western dialects of Romani, with little English loanwords present.
However the Winchester confessions, highlights English grammatical structures, were influencing speakers of English Romani (within a London context where the document was sourced) to an (adjective-noun) configuration rather than the (noun-adjective) configuration of other Romani dialects, including modern Welsh Romani. The document suggests a complete separation between Thieves' Cant
, and the variant of English Romani of the time. This has particular implication when dating the origin and development of Anglo-Romani and split from Welsh Romani. One such study believes English Romani speakers gradually lost its distinctive syntax, phonology and morphology. While other leading contemporaries believes Anglo-Romani developed relatively recently to the Romani communities arrival in the sixteenth century, in a similar development to the Pidgin or Creol languages.
Anglo-Romani was already developing in the seventeenth century, although this change from the original English Romani was unclear. The (Winchester Confessions) disproves a sudden morphological change). and favours a strict linguistic separation between a Canting language
and English Romani whose speakers used a separate and distinct Romani language when speaking amongst themselves. A situation which existed one hundred years later as testified by James Poulter 1775 as “the English Gypsies spoke a variant of their own language that none other could understand”, indicating the language was distinct from the common “Canting tongue” of England. Romani of that time was a language of every day communication, of practical use, and not a secret language.
The original Romani
was used exclusively as a family or clan
language, during occasional encounters between various Romani clans. It was not a written language, but more a conversational one, used by families to keep conversations amongst themselves in public places such as markets unintelligible to others. It was not used in any official capacity in schools or administrative matters, and so lacked the vocabulary for these terms. Such terms were simply borrowed from English. However, to still keep the language undecipherable to outsiders, the Romani speakers coined new terms that were a combination or variation of the original English terms. For example, a ‘forester’ is called veshengro, from the Romani word for ‘forest’, vesh; a ‘restaurant’ is a habbinkerr from the words habbin ‘food’ and kerr ‘house’, thus literally ‘foodhouse’; and a ‘mayor’ is a gavmoosh, from the words gav ‘village, town’ and moosh ‘man’, literally ‘town-man’. Gradually, British Romani began to give up their language in favour of English, though they retained much of the vocabulary, which they now use occasionally in English conversation – as Angloromani.
Its origins are in India
, and the core of the vocabulary and grammar still resemble modern Indian languages like Urdu
, Kashmiri
, or Punjabi
. Linguists have been investigating the dialect
s of Romani since the second half of the eighteenth century, and although there are no ancient written records of the language, it has been possible to reconstruct the development of Romani from the medieval languages of India to its present forms as spoken in Europe
. Although the language remains similar at its core, it is sometimes quite difficult for Romani people from different regions to understand one another if they have not had any exposure to other dialects before.
, with the base languages being Romani
and English
(something referred to as Para-Romani
in Romani linguistics).
Some English lexical items that are archaic
or only used in idiom
atic expressions in Standard English survive in Anglo-Romani, for example moniker and swaddling.
Every region where Angloromani is spoken is characterised by a distinct colloquial English style; this often leads outsiders to believe that the speech of Romnichals is regional English. The distinct rhotic
pronunciation of some Angloromani varieties also means that many outsiders perceive Romnichals to be from the West Country
because West Country English is also rhotic. Indeed, many Romnichals from the south of England or the Midlands region have a slightly West Country sounding accent; in actual fact it is a southern Romnichal accent.
These dialects are based on where various groups originally settled when moving to the UK. The members of these groups consider not only their dialects to differ, but also that they are of different ethnic groups. At the time of settlement, these divisions were somewhat reflective of
geographic location. They did travel, but until travel became modernized, the migrations were
relatively local
There is a certain amount of post-creole continuum in Anglo-Romani. A (ever-dwindling) small population of Romnichals have knowledge of the purer form of English Romani, which was spoken by the Kale
of Wales until 1923. These people are able to converse fluently in unbroken English Romani, which is the acrolect that informs the vocabulary of all Angloromani variants.
The following table gives an example of Angloromani in all its current stages:
In broken Hindi the equivalent would be ja kar puch tere behn ko or in Gujarati
jau tu puch tari ben ne, and in Potwari the phrase would be jaa puch tari bhen.
- which in Anglo-Romani has been lost and replaced by a single rolled /r/. Anglo-Romani has also lost the phonemic distinction between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. Overall, Anglo-Romani consonants reflect the standard British English consonantal system with these exceptions:
Romani allowed for two word orders - SVO and VSO. Anglo-Romani has only SVO word order. Negation in Anglo-Romani is achieved through the use of the word kek, i.e.
“Be” is optionally deleted
Reduplication is employed for emphasis, as in:
, who also notes that case distinction began fading overall, and gender marking also disappeared. Borrow notes that in 1874, some Romani speakers were still employing complete inflection, while some were adapting the English syntax with Romani lexicon. It seems to be around 1876 that gender distinction was no longer seen, however continued use of Romani plural forms was noted, along with English verb conjugation. 1923, when some plural still being used on nouns, but English prepositions are used instead of Romani postpositions. Current usage has lost almost all Romani morphology and instead uses English morphology with Romani lexical items.
Samples of conversation and their meaning can be found here. Samples of Anglo-Romani, Audio files
Lord's prayer
sample text:
Comparison of Angloromani, European Romani, Indian languages and Slang English
Some examples of Angloromani Words
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
, which is a language spoken by the Romani people; a ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
who trace their origins to the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. Angloromani is spoken in the UK, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
.
The language combines a mix of Romani and English. The original Romani language was spoken in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
until the late nineteenth century; perhaps a generation longer in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It was replaced by English as the everyday and family language of British Romani, but this does not mean the language disappeared entirely. Words of Romani origin were still used as part of a family-language. Words which are occasionally inserted into English conversation are referred to in linguistic literature on Romani as 'Para-Romani
Para-Romani
Para-Romani is a term used in Romani linguistics to refer non-Romani languages adopted by Romani communities but with considerable admixture from Romani. Some Para-Romani have no structural features at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani. The technical term in linguistics for such a...
': the selective retention of some Romani-derived vocabulary following the disappearance of Romani as an everyday language of conversation.
Anglo-Romani is thus more a vocabulary, than a ‘language’ in the strict sense. It is used within the framework of English conversation, English sentences, and English grammar and pronunciation, thus:
The mush was jalling down the drom with his gry. means 'The man was walking down the road with his horse.'
Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
slang
Slang
Slang is the use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's language or dialect but are considered more acceptable when used socially. Slang is often to be found in areas of the lexicon that refer to things considered taboo...
also contains a large number of Romani-derived words. A few words, like pal (originally ‘brother’), chav (originally 'Romanichal boy', cognate with Chavo in Romani proper), lollipop (originally 'candy apple') have entered common English usage.
Historical documentation of English Romani
Until relatively recently, Anglo-Romani received very little study from the academic community. However a recent discovery of a documents (Winchester confessions) c. seventeenth century, indicates, British Romani was itself a dialect of the northern branch of Romani sharing a close similarity to Welsh Romani. However, the language in a modern context has deteriorated from the Indic based vocabulary, morphology, and influences from Greek and other Balkan languages of seventeenth century to a Para-Romani dialect typical of modern Anglo-Romani with sentence endings influenced by English, while Welsh Romani retains the original grammatical system.Historically the variants of Welsh and English Romani, constituted the same variant of Romani, share characteristics and are historically closely related to dialects spoken in France, Germany (Sinti), Scandinavia, Spain, Poland, North Russia and the Baltic states. Such dialects are descended from the first wave of Romani immigrants into western, northern and southern Europe in the late Middle Ages. Few documents survive into modern times, the (Winchester confessions) c.1616 highlight the variant of English Romani and contains a high number of words still used in the modern Northern European Romani dialects and until recently Welsh Romani; Examples include; Balovas (pig meat bacon), Lovina (beer, alcohol), ruk (tree), Smentena (cream), Boba (beans) and Folaso (glove) and all such words occur in all western dialects of Romani, with little English loanwords present.
However the Winchester confessions, highlights English grammatical structures, were influencing speakers of English Romani (within a London context where the document was sourced) to an (adjective-noun) configuration rather than the (noun-adjective) configuration of other Romani dialects, including modern Welsh Romani. The document suggests a complete separation between Thieves' Cant
Thieves' cant
Thieves' cant or Rogues' cant was a secret language which was formerly used by thieves, beggars and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-speaking countries...
, and the variant of English Romani of the time. This has particular implication when dating the origin and development of Anglo-Romani and split from Welsh Romani. One such study believes English Romani speakers gradually lost its distinctive syntax, phonology and morphology. While other leading contemporaries believes Anglo-Romani developed relatively recently to the Romani communities arrival in the sixteenth century, in a similar development to the Pidgin or Creol languages.
Anglo-Romani was already developing in the seventeenth century, although this change from the original English Romani was unclear. The (Winchester Confessions) disproves a sudden morphological change). and favours a strict linguistic separation between a Canting language
Cant (language)
A Cant is the jargon or argot of a group, often implying its use to exclude or mislead people outside the group.-Derivation in Celtic linguistics:...
and English Romani whose speakers used a separate and distinct Romani language when speaking amongst themselves. A situation which existed one hundred years later as testified by James Poulter 1775 as “the English Gypsies spoke a variant of their own language that none other could understand”, indicating the language was distinct from the common “Canting tongue” of England. Romani of that time was a language of every day communication, of practical use, and not a secret language.
The original Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
was used exclusively as a family or clan
Clan
A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...
language, during occasional encounters between various Romani clans. It was not a written language, but more a conversational one, used by families to keep conversations amongst themselves in public places such as markets unintelligible to others. It was not used in any official capacity in schools or administrative matters, and so lacked the vocabulary for these terms. Such terms were simply borrowed from English. However, to still keep the language undecipherable to outsiders, the Romani speakers coined new terms that were a combination or variation of the original English terms. For example, a ‘forester’ is called veshengro, from the Romani word for ‘forest’, vesh; a ‘restaurant’ is a habbinkerr from the words habbin ‘food’ and kerr ‘house’, thus literally ‘foodhouse’; and a ‘mayor’ is a gavmoosh, from the words gav ‘village, town’ and moosh ‘man’, literally ‘town-man’. Gradually, British Romani began to give up their language in favour of English, though they retained much of the vocabulary, which they now use occasionally in English conversation – as Angloromani.
Its origins are in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and the core of the vocabulary and grammar still resemble modern Indian languages like Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
, Kashmiri
Kashmiri language
Kashmiri is a language from the Dardic sub-group and it is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley, in Jammu and Kashmir. There are approximately 5,554,496 speakers in Jammu and Kashmir, according to the Census of 2001. Most of the 105,000 speakers or so in Pakistan are émigrés from the Kashmir...
, or Punjabi
Punjabi language
Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
. Linguists have been investigating the dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s of Romani since the second half of the eighteenth century, and although there are no ancient written records of the language, it has been possible to reconstruct the development of Romani from the medieval languages of India to its present forms as spoken in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Although the language remains similar at its core, it is sometimes quite difficult for Romani people from different regions to understand one another if they have not had any exposure to other dialects before.
Intertwining
Anglo-Romani is a mixed languageMixed language
A mixed language is a language that arises through the fusion of two source languages, normally in situations of thorough bilingualism, so that it is not possible to classify the resulting language as belonging to either of the language families that were its source...
, with the base languages being Romani
Romani language
Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is any of several languages of the Romani people. They are Indic, sometimes classified in the "Central" or "Northwestern" zone, and sometimes treated as a branch of their own....
and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(something referred to as Para-Romani
Para-Romani
Para-Romani is a term used in Romani linguistics to refer non-Romani languages adopted by Romani communities but with considerable admixture from Romani. Some Para-Romani have no structural features at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani. The technical term in linguistics for such a...
in Romani linguistics).
Some English lexical items that are archaic
Archaism
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...
or only used in idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
atic expressions in Standard English survive in Anglo-Romani, for example moniker and swaddling.
Every region where Angloromani is spoken is characterised by a distinct colloquial English style; this often leads outsiders to believe that the speech of Romnichals is regional English. The distinct rhotic
Rhotic
In linguistics, rhotic can refer to:* Rhotic consonant, such as the sound in red* R-colored vowel, such as the sound in Midwestern American English pronunciation of fur and before a consonant as in hard....
pronunciation of some Angloromani varieties also means that many outsiders perceive Romnichals to be from the West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
because West Country English is also rhotic. Indeed, many Romnichals from the south of England or the Midlands region have a slightly West Country sounding accent; in actual fact it is a southern Romnichal accent.
Dialectal variation
Within Anglo-Romani we can find three dialects:- Scottish Anglo-Romani (the variant spoken by descendants of Anglo-Romani in Scotland, particularly the Scottish BordersScottish BordersThe Scottish Borders is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the non-metropolitan counties of Northumberland...
, EdinburghEdinburghEdinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
). Scottish Anglo-Romani is not to be confused with the ScotsScots languageScots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
-based Scottish CantScottish CantScottish Cant is a cant spoken in Scotland by Lowland Scottish Travellers/Gypsies.-Classification:A certain amount of Romani words have entered Lowland Scottish Cant through intermarriage with British Romani groups, between 25-35% of Scottish Cant originates in a Romani-derived lexicon...
or the Gaelic-based Beurla Reagaird. - North Welsh Romani KalèKale (Welsh Romanies)The Kale are a group of Romani people who reside in Wales. Many claim to be descendant of Abram Wood, who was the first Romani to reside permanently and exclusively in Wales in the early 18th century, though Romanies have appeared in Wales since the 15th century...
- South Welsh Romani and English Romani (identical)
These dialects are based on where various groups originally settled when moving to the UK. The members of these groups consider not only their dialects to differ, but also that they are of different ethnic groups. At the time of settlement, these divisions were somewhat reflective of
geographic location. They did travel, but until travel became modernized, the migrations were
relatively local
There is a certain amount of post-creole continuum in Anglo-Romani. A (ever-dwindling) small population of Romnichals have knowledge of the purer form of English Romani, which was spoken by the Kale
Kale (Welsh Romanies)
The Kale are a group of Romani people who reside in Wales. Many claim to be descendant of Abram Wood, who was the first Romani to reside permanently and exclusively in Wales in the early 18th century, though Romanies have appeared in Wales since the 15th century...
of Wales until 1923. These people are able to converse fluently in unbroken English Romani, which is the acrolect that informs the vocabulary of all Angloromani variants.
The following table gives an example of Angloromani in all its current stages:
| English | Acroclectic Angloromani (pure Angloromani) | High Angloromani | Mesolectic Angloromani | Basilectic Angloromani (completely mixed language) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go and ask your sister | jaw te puches tiri phenya | jaw ta puch tiri pen | jaw an' puch tiri pen | joll an' puch tuti's pen |
| Don't speak Romani in the village | kekka rokkeres romanes adrey o gavos | kek rokker romanes adrey o gav | kek rokker romanes adrey the gav | kek rokker romanes in the gav |
| I like dancing at home | Man kommaw te kelaw khene | Man komma te kel khene | Mandi komma to kill adrey the kenna | Mandi koms kellin' in the kenna |
In broken Hindi the equivalent would be ja kar puch tere behn ko or in Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
jau tu puch tari ben ne, and in Potwari the phrase would be jaa puch tari bhen.
Phonology and syntax
Romani had a phonemic distinction between two /r/s - a flap and a voiced uvular fricativeUvular fricative
Uvular fricative can refer to:* Voiced uvular fricative* Voiceless uvular fricative...
- which in Anglo-Romani has been lost and replaced by a single rolled /r/. Anglo-Romani has also lost the phonemic distinction between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. Overall, Anglo-Romani consonants reflect the standard British English consonantal system with these exceptions:
- Anglo-Romani includes the consonant /x/ in certain dialects.
- Anglo-Romani may sometimes be rhoticRhotic and non-rhotic accentsEnglish pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...
even in parts of the country that are non-rhotic. In other cases, it is non-rhotic like English non-rhotic dialects; for example, in Romani terno "young" (passing through the stage tarno) can be rendered as tawno.
Romani allowed for two word orders - SVO and VSO. Anglo-Romani has only SVO word order. Negation in Anglo-Romani is achieved through the use of the word kek, i.e.
- măndī can kek ker lĭs - “I can’t do it”
- there’s kekə pani left in kŭvə kurī - “there’s no water left in this bucket”
“Be” is optionally deleted
- tūte kūšta diken muš - “you (are a) fine looking man”
- tūte rinkna râne - “you (are a) pretty lady”
Reduplication is employed for emphasis, as in:
- dūvrī - “distant”
- dūvrī-dūvrī - “very distant”
Morphology
Up to 1547, the Romani language was an inflected language, employing two genders, plurality and case marking. Anglo-Romani is first referenced in 1566-67. Around 1873, Romani personal pronouns became inconsistently marked, according to LelandCharles Godfrey Leland
Charles Godfrey Leland was an American humorist and folklorist, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was educated at Princeton University and in Europe....
, who also notes that case distinction began fading overall, and gender marking also disappeared. Borrow notes that in 1874, some Romani speakers were still employing complete inflection, while some were adapting the English syntax with Romani lexicon. It seems to be around 1876 that gender distinction was no longer seen, however continued use of Romani plural forms was noted, along with English verb conjugation. 1923, when some plural still being used on nouns, but English prepositions are used instead of Romani postpositions. Current usage has lost almost all Romani morphology and instead uses English morphology with Romani lexical items.
Samples of Angloromani
The Anglo-Romani Project, an initiative of the Romani community of Blackburn and the Lancashire Traveller Education Service, has samples of Anglo-Romani conversation as well as documentation, which it has collected with the aim to document the Anglo-Romani lexicon in its regional and dialectal variation.Samples of conversation and their meaning can be found here. Samples of Anglo-Romani, Audio files
Lord's prayer
Lord's Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is a central prayer in Christianity. In the New Testament of the Christian Bible, it appears in two forms: in the Gospel of Matthew as part of the discourse on ostentation in the Sermon on the Mount, and in the Gospel of Luke, which records Jesus being approached by "one of his...
sample text:
- Moro Dad, so see adre mi Duvelesko keri, te wel teero kralisom, too zee be kedo adre chik, jaw see adre mi Duvelesko keri. Del mendi kova divvus moro divvusly mauro, ta fordel mendi moro wafedo-kerimus, pensa mendi fordels yon ta kairs wafedo aposh mendi, ta lel mendi kek adre wafedo-kerimus. Jaw keressa te righer mendi avri wafedo. Jaw see ta jaw see.
Comparison of Angloromani, European Romani, Indian languages and Slang English
| Angloromani | European Romani | English | Indian languages | Slang English |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chav | Chavo | Child, Son, Boy (all specifically used for Gypsies and not non-Gypsies) | Bacha | Chav (meaning a rough youth deriving from a derogatory usage of the word chav to refer to a Gypsy Boy) |
| Lollipobbul | Laliphabai | Candy Apple (or 'red apple') | Lal Seb ("seb" is a fairly recent Persian borrowing into Northern Indian languages) | Lollipop |
| Gavver | Gavengro | Policeman (or Villager) | Graavala (Pakistani Punjabi & Pothwari) | Gaffer |
| Dad | Dad | Father | Daadaa | Dad |
| Jib | Chib | Language/Tongue | Jeeb | Gibber (to speak nonsense, originally a slur against Gypsies who were perceived to be speaking nonsense when conversing in Romani) |
Some examples of Angloromani Words
| Angloromani | English | Northern Indian languages |
|---|---|---|
| Dikkin | Looking | Dekhna (Hindi-Urdu) |
| Tan | Place | Thaan (Punjabi & Pothwari) |
| Adrey | In | Andar (Hindi-Urdu) |
| Kooshti | Happy, Good | Khushi (Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Pothwari) |
| Rawni | Lady | Raani (Hindi) |
| Rai | Gentleman | Rai (Punjabi, meaning landlord) |
| Duvvel | God | Deva (Hindi) |
| Beng | Devil | Bangaa (Hindi, Punjabi, Pothwari, meaning bent or twisted) |
| Tachibens | Truth | Sachpan (Hindi) |
| Yog | Fire | Aag (Hindi, Punjabi) |
| Panni | Water | Paani (Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi, Pothwari) |
Further reading
- Acton, Thomas. 1989. The Value of “Creolized” Dialects of Romanes. In International Symposium Romani Language and Culture. Sarajevo.
- Acton, Thomas and Gerwyn Davis. 1979. Educational Policy and Language Use Among English Romanies and Irish Travellers (Tinkers) in England and Wales. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 19-22: 91-110.
- Acton, Thomas, Vangelis Marselos, and Laszlo Szego. 2000. The Development of Literary Dialects of Romanes, and the Prospects for an International Standard Dialect. In Language, Blacks, and Gypsies, eds. Thomas Acton and Morgan Dalphinis. London: Whiting and Birch.
- Borrow, George. 1923. Romano Lavo-Lil. London: Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld.
- Deterding, David. 1997. The formants of monophthong vowels in Standard Southern British English pronunciation. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 27: 47-55.
- Hancock, Ian. 1996. Duty and Beauty, Possession and Truth: The Claim of Lexical Impovershment as Control. In Gypsies: A book of interdisciplinary readings, ed. Diane Tong. New York: Garland Publishers.
- "Anglo-Romani" University of WashingtonUniversity of WashingtonUniversity of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
USA. - Manchester University Romani Project http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/