Romani language
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
Romani or Romany (native name: romani ćhib) is the language of the Roma and Sinti. The Indo-Aryan Romani language should not be confused with either Romanian (spoken by Romanians), or Romansh (spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland), both of which are Romance languages.
Analysis of the Romani language has shown that it is closely related to those spoken in central and northern India, Pothwari in particular. This linguistic relationship is believed to indicate the Roma's and Sinti's geographical origin. Loanwords in Romani make it possible to trace the pattern of their migration westwards.
[change] Distribution
The following table shows the distribution of Romani speakers in Europe according to Bakker et al. (2000) [1]. The last column shows the percentage of Romani speakers in the Roma population in each country.
Country | Speakers | % |
---|---|---|
Albania | 90,000 | 95% |
Austria | 20,000 | 80% |
Belarus | 27,000 | 95% |
Belgium | 10,000 | 80% |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 40,000 | 90% |
Bulgaria | 350,000 | 80% |
Croatia | 28,000 | 80% |
Czech Republic | 140,000 | 50% |
Denmark | 1,500 | 90% |
Estonia | 1,100 | 90% |
Finland | 3,000 | 90% |
France | 215,000 | 70% |
Germany | 85,000 | 70% |
Greece | 160,000 | 90% |
Hungary | 260,000 | 50% |
Italy | 42,000 | 90% |
Latvia | 18,500 | 90% |
Lithuania | 4,000 | 90% |
Macedonia | 215,000 | 90% |
Moldova | 56,000 | 90% |
Netherlands | 3,000 | 90% |
Poland | 4,000 | 90% |
Romania | 433,000 | 80% |
Russia | 405,000 | 80% |
Serbia and Montenegro | 380,000 | 90% |
Slovakia | 300,000 | 60% |
Slovenia | 8,000 | 90% |
Spain | 1,000 | 1% |
Sweden | 9,500 | 90% |
Turkey | 280,000 | 70% |
Ukraine | 113,000 | 90% |
United Kingdom | 1,000 | 0.5% |
[change] Notes and references
- Bakker Peter et al. 2000. What is the Romani language? Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
- Hancock, Ian. 2001. Ame sam e rromane džene / We are the Romani People. The Open Society Institute, New York.
- Lee, Ronald. 2005. Learn Romani Das-dúma Rromanes Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press
- Masica, Colin. 1991. The Indo-Aryan Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Matras, Yaron. 2002. Romani: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Sarău, Gheorghe. 1997. Rromii, India şi limba rromani. Bucureşti.
- Sarău, Gheorghe. 2000. Dicţionar rrom-român / Dikcionaro rromano-rumunikano. Dacia, Cluj-Napoca. ISBN 973-35-0987-6.
[change] Other websites
(Note: For links to a variety of Romani media, chatroom and history and culture sites, see in particular the links pages of the Manchester University Romani project.)
- A discussion about standardization
- Detailed discussion of the language
- Gelem gelem - International Roma anthem: text, translation and sound recordings
- Lord's Prayer in Vlach Romani
- Outline of Romani Grammar (Victor A. Friedman)
- Partial Romani/English Dictionary (Compiled by Angela Ba'Tal Libal and Will Strain)
- Roma / Gypsies: Language (The World Wide Web Virtual Library)
- Romacilikanes - The Romani dialect of Parakalamos (Y. Matras)
- Romani (Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics article, by Y. Matras)
- Romani Archive and Documentation Center
- Romani in Europe
- Romani language tree
- Romani Lila - online catalogue of about 15,000 books, articles etc. on Roma and Romani
- Romani Origins - Veda encyclopedia
- Romani page by Fergus Smith
- Romani project at Karl-Franzens-University in Graz
- Romani project at Manchester University
- Romano-Kalo grammar (parts, in Spanish) by Juan de Dios Ramírez Heredia: A Propósito de Nuestro Idioma / Gramática Gitano (4) / Gramática Gitano (5)
- The classification of Romani dialects: A geographic-historical perspective (Y. Matras)
- The future of Romani: Toward a policy of linguistic pluralism (also here) (Y. Matras)
- Learn Romani
- The Rroma - contains language information
- The status of Romani in Europe - Report submitted to the Council of Europe’s Language Policy Division, October 2005 (Yaron Matras)
- Vikipidiya - Romani language Wikipedia
- University of Hertfordshire Press– Publisher of a large range of Romani Studies books