T'avén sasté taj baxtalé!

Romani
the language of the Roma

Daniel Krasa
Berlin, May 2016
 General introduction
 Spoken mainly in Europe, North and South America, Australia
 Between 3 and 5 million speakers worldwide (no reliable estimate)
 Romania (~1 million), Bulgaria (600.000), Russia (~400.000), Serbia
(~400.000), Slovakia (~300.000), Hungary (290.000), Turkey
(280.000), Macedonia (220.000), France (210.000)
 Official minority language in more than 20 countries.
 Recognized language at the Council of Europe.

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 Roma & Romani in Europe

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 What does it sound like?
Me tut užaráv, čhajé (I'm waiting for you, girl)
bo me tut kamáv, čhajé (because I love you, girl)
me tut užaráv, (I'm waiting for you)
kána pálma avehá, (until you will come back)
me tut užaráv (I'm waiting for you)

Me tut čumidáv, (I'm kissing you)

tíre lolé vuštorá, (your red lips)
tíre kalé jakhorá, (your black eyes)
ándre lénde me dikháv, (I'm looking into them)
so me túke te phenél, (what shall I tell you?)
me tut čhajé ígen kamáv, (I love you so much girl)
me tut užaráv (I'm waiting for you)

Jan Bendig

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 History of Romani
A few facts
 Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger (1782)
 Possible departure of the Roma from India: 5th-7th century
 Documents from the Sassanid Empire: 7th century
 Documents from the Byzantine Empire: 11th century
 Documents from the South Balkans: 14th century
 Linguistic evaluation carried out in the 19th century by August
Friedrich Pott (1845) and Franz Miklosich (1882–1888) showed
the Romani language to be a New Indo-Aryan language (NIA)

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 The “diaspora” of the Roma

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 Linguistic influences
Part 1: the origins
 Indo-Aryan origin: amé (we), bakrí (sheep), baró (big), Del (God), jag (fire), kher
(house), pají (water), sumnakáj (gold), thuló (fat)

 Early loanwords:
Persian: angustrí (ring), baxt (luck), korró (blind), mol (wine), veš (forest), zor
(strength)

 Armenian: dudúm (pumpkin), grast (horse), xumér (dough), kotór (piece), mom (wax)
 Byzantine-Greek: amborím (maybe),
drom (way), kurkó (Sunday), papín
(goose), trjandá (30), zumí (soup)

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 Linguistic influences
Part 2: new loanwords
 Slavonic: áli (but), drúštvo (society), kúxnja (kitchen), slobodíja (freedom), stánica
(station)

 Romance: feljástra (window), gíndo (thought), lúmja (world, universe), murmúnto

(tomb)

 Germanic: cájto (time), fárba (colour), fláša (bottle), policájto (policeman), štráfo
(fine)

 Hungarian: bístošo (sure), čaládo (family), emeléto (floor), hírešo (famous), míndig
(always)

 Others: vurdón (cart – Ossetian), cámla (chestnut – Georgian), dúna (world –

Turkish)

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 The old substratum vs.
new loanwords
 But raklé avilé ∣ xurdé ∣ kočakénca taj ∣ krafinénca ánde ∣ krčma le ∣ podóski.
Indian ∣ Persian ∣ Armenian ∣ Greek ∣ Slavonic ∣ Romanian
Many boys came with small buttons and nails to the tavern/pub at the bridge.
 Romani doesn't exist without a contact language.
 Depending on the dialect, up to 50-75% of the vocabulary is of modern origin.
 There are around 700 roots from Indo-Aryan, no more than 100 from Iranian, at least 20
from Armenian and up to 250 from Byzantine-Greek. None of these more than 1000
lexemes are all present in one particular dialect.

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 Indian roots –
from Sanskrit to Romani
Sanskrit Hindi Romani
hand hasta hāth vast
milk dughda dūdh thud
place sthana sthān than
blood rakta rakt rat
brother bhraṭr bhāī phral
to go yati jānā džav
3 trīṇi tīn trin
100 ṣata sau šel
Romani shares a number of features with Central Indo-Aryan languages. The most significant isoglosses are the shift of Old Indo-Aryan like kṣ-
to kh (Sanskrit akṣi, Romani jakh 'eye').
However, unlike other Central Indo-Aryan languages, Romani preserves many dental clusters (Romani trin 'three', phral 'brother', cf. Hindi tīn,
bhāi). This implies that Romani split from the Central Indo-Aryan languages before the Middle Indo-Aryan period.

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 Romani vs. NIA
(Hindi/Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati etc.)
Can speakers of NIA languages understand Romani?
 Miré bal hin kalé, tiré bal naj kalé!
 Kon hin kheré?
 Kon ajás?
 Mirí barí phen ají.
Many words are similar to the Marwari
(Western Hindi) language spoken in Rajasthan,
India.
Romani also shows some similarity to the Northwest Indo-Aryan languages like Kashmiri: e.
g. enclitic pronouns as person markers on verbs (kerdó “done” + me 'me' → kerdém/kerdjóm
“I did”)

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 Dialects of Romani
Vlax vs. Non-Vlax

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 Comparing the dialects
"Why is there war in the world?"

 Vlax
Sóske sî marimós ánde lúmja? (Kalderaš)
Sóske marimó-j ándi lúma? (Lovara)
Sóske si maripé an e lúmnja/an o svéto? (Gurbet)

 Non-Vlax
Sóske isí maripé an e dúnja/an o svéto? (Arli)
Sóske hin maribén ándro svétos? (East Slovak)
Sóske hi hábori ándo vílago? (Burgenland-Roma)
Hóske hi kurépen/krígo an o vélto? (Sinti)

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 Major dialects in Austria
English Sinti Burgenland Roma Arli Kalderash Lovara

the world o vélto (D) o vílago (H) e dúna (T) e lúmja (R) i lúma (R)

the window e vóxli (GR) o bóklo (H) e péndžera (T) e feljástra (R) i felástra (R)

the cemetery e frídhofa (D) e témetiši (H) o mézari (T) e murmúnci (R) i murmúnci (R)

the mountain e bérga (D) o dómbo (H) o veš (P) o plaj (R) o plaj (R)

the violin e gájga (D) e hégeduva (H) e kemána (T) e lávuta (R) i lávuta (R)

I think me dénkrau (D) me gondolináv (H) me mislináv (S) me gîndív (R) me gindíj (R)

I help me hélfrau (D) me pomožináv (S) me pomožináv (S) me aźutív (R) me žutív (R)

I start me fángrau an (D) me kezdináv (H) me bašladináv (S) me počnív (S) me kezdíj (S)

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 Which dialect should I choose?
 Personal motivation?
 Geographic reasons?
 Contact language?

 If in doubt… go for a Vlax-dialect such

as Kalderash or Lovara

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 Phonetics of Romani
Consonants
Labial Dental Dentoalv. Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Plosive p [p] t [t] k [k]

Plosive aspirated ph [ph] th [th] kh [kh]

Plosive (voiced) b [ḅ] d [ḍ] g [g]

Affricate c [ts] č [tʃ]/
čh [tʃh]

Fricative f [f] s [s] š [ʃ] x [x] h [h]

Fricative (voiced) v [ṿ] z [ẓ] ž [ʒ] j [j]
Nasal m [m] n [n] nj [ɲ] n [ŋ]
Liquide (vibrant) r [rr]/
ř [r]
Liquide (lateral) l [l]

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 Phonetics of Romani
Vowels
Front Central Back
O tiró čhavó džanél mištó i romaní čhib!
(Non-Vlax)
i [i, i:] u [u, u:]
Close

O ćiró šavó žanél mištó e řomaní šib!

Mid e [e, ɛ] o [o, ɔ] (Vlax)

Open a [a, a:]

Stress = loanwords vs. origin

čh vs. š
dž vs. ž
r/rr vs. ř
t vs. tj/ć
î vs. i

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 Structure & morphology
 Two genders (m. & f.) – o rakló / e raklí, o kher / e phen
 Singular & Plural – e raklé / e raklijá, kher / phenjá
 Adjectives agree in gender and number:
o baró rakló / e baré raklé, e barí raklí / e baré rakljá

 Two cases – direct & oblique (= accusative):

raklés / rakljá, raklén / raklján
Genitive: i rakléski phen (the boy's sister)
Dative: raklésko (to the boy)
Ablative: rakléstar (from the boy)
Locative: rakléste (in the boy)
Instrumental: rakléssa (with the boy)

 Verbs have present and past roots:

me ker-áv (I do), me kerd-ém/kerdj-óm (I did), including some irregularities: me džav (I
go), me dželem/gelem (I went)

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 How it actually works
 Kaj si o phuró Rom?
where is the[m.] old[m.] Rom

 I phurí Romní si an o kher.

the[f.] old[f.] Romni is in the[m.] house[m.]

 Mothó mánge váreso pa tumaró trájo kathé!

say-! to-me something about your(m) life(m) here

 Kamáv te vorbíj tje dadésa. Núma sígo taj akaná!*

I-want that I-speak your[obl.] father[-obl.]-with. but fast[adv.] and now

*Ába sígo taj akaník!

Romani shows some features of New Indo-Aryan, such as erosion of the original nominal case system towards a
nominative/oblique dichotomy, with new grammati-calized case suffixes added on. This means that the Romani exodus
from India could not have happened until late in the first millennium CE.

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 Numbers & days of the week
 jek (1), duj (2), trin (3), štar (4), panž (5), šov (6) eftá (7), oxtó (8), injá (9),
deš (10)

 deš-u-jék (11), deš-u-dúj (12), deš-u-trín (13) … biš (20), biš-taj-jék (21), biš-taj-dúj
(22), trjandá (30), štár-var-deš (40), panž-var-deš (50) …

 kurkó (Sunday G), lúja / ponedelníko (Monday R/SL), márci / utorníko (Tuesday
R/SL), tetrádži (Wednesday G), žója / četvorníko (Thursday R/SL), paraštují
(Friday G),
sávato
(Saturday G)

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 Romani in action!
 T’avés sastó / sastí taj baxtaló / baxtalí!
 Sar san?

 Mištó sim! Aj tu?

 Xav tjo iló, phén-ta mánge … !

 Čumidáv tjo iló, sar bušós?

 Me bušuváv …, taj tu?

 Síjas, te trajín but berš!

 Ačh Devlésa! / Ža Devlésa!

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 And say some more …
 Rom / Romní san?

 Va – Na, gadžó / gadží sim.

 Najís ! (Ov sastó / sastí!)

 Žanés romanés?

 Žanáv férdi jek círa romanés.

 Sitjuváv romanés.

 Či žanáv mištó romanés.

 Rom, Romní, Romá; Sínto, Síntica, Sínti, Sintitíkes

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 Want to learn more?

 The Rroma, Lev Cherenkov & Stéphane

Laederich, Schwabe Verlag Basel 2004
 Learn Romani, Ronald Lee,
University of Hertfordshire Press 2005
 Lovari, Mozes F. Heinschink & Daniel Krasa,
Buske Verlag Hamburg, 2015
 Romani – Wort für Wort, Mozes F. Heinschink
& Daniel Krasa, Reise Know-How Verlag
Bielefeld, 2010
 Guide de conversation rromani, Mozes F.
Heinschink & Daniel Krasa, Assimil
Chennevière s/Marne, 2010
 Bilingual literature, www.drava.at
 http://romaniprojekt.uni-graz.at/
 http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/

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 Najís tuménge!
In memory of Lev Cherenkov
Thank you all for your attention and don't forget…

Monolingualism is a disease. Good to know it's curable.

Te trajín but taj mištó tumaré čhavénca taj sa nepotónca!

Shutka Roma Rap

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