everydayanth:

rotasandribbons:

November 5th is International Romani Language Day, so here are 10 facts about the Romani language!

1. Roma call their language Romanes, or Romani chib.
In the Romani language, “Romanes” can loosely be translated to mean “in a Romani way”, while “Romani chib” means “Romani language”. The word, “chib” comes from the Sanskrit word for tongue. 

2. Romani has over 80 dialects.
To date, linguists have documented the existence of over 80 Romani dialects. The diversity of Romani is not at all surprising, considering Romani people have migrated to and settled in numerous countries and even continents. 

3. Romani maintains a fair amount of Indic lexicon. 
Romani people originally migrated from the South Asian continent, so our language began, and is still classified as an Indo-Aryan language. Many dialects still retain a great deal of Indic words, many of which are Sanskrit in origin. In fact, simple Romani phrases are mutually intelligible among speakers of Hindi and Punjabi. 

4. There is no official Romani alphabet.
Because Romani speakers are widespread geographically, and because the language itself has come in contact with numerous other languages, there is no single alphabet used to write Romani. Romani is written in various Cyrillic alphabets, the Greek alphabet, Gaj’s Latin alphabet, the regular Latin alphabet, Hayots aybuben (Armenian) and even in Devanagari. 

5. Many countries have tried to abolish Romani. 
Austria, Hungary, Spain, and various other European nations have, at times, made speaking the Romani language illegal. Under communism, numerous attempts were made to abolish various aspects of Romani culture, which included our language. Even today, many young Roma are strongly discouraged from speaking Romani at home by public institutions, such as schools. This has resulted in the near loss or complete loss of several Romani dialects. 

6. No one knows how many people speak Romani.
Lack of data regarding the worldwide number of ethnic Romani people makes it incredibly difficult for linguists to determine just how many people speak Romani. Estimates can vary quite a bit. The most accurate estimate is that roughly two-thirds of all ethnic Roma speak some form of the Romani language. 

7. Not all Romani people can understand each other. 
The Romani language is unique in that it has been shaped by, and adopted the grammar and lexicon of various European languages in a relatively short span of time. However, because many Roma settled in south and eastern Europe, their dialects never became influenced by the languages of central and western Europe. Furthermore, numerous Roma have migrated to North and South America, so their dialects have been influenced by English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese in a different way than that of French, Spanish, or English Roma. Because of this, many Western European Roma can understand one another, but cannot understand Eastern European Roma. 

8. Romani contains several “mixed languages”.
Para-Romani is the umbrella term that is given to Romani dialects that have adopted the grammar structures of non-Romani languages. For example, Romano-Serbian is a Para-Romani language that primarily uses Romani words, but also uses Serbian grammar. One of the most well-known and best documented Para-Romani languages is Anglo-Romany, which combines Romani lexicon with English grammar. 

9. Romani has two cousins.
The Romani language refers to the many dialects spoken by Roma who migrated into Europe, but it is not the only language that belongs to the “Gypsy” diaspora. Lomavren is spoken by the Lom, a people who were initially part of the Romani diaspora, but settled in the Caucasus Mountain region, mostly in Armenia. Domari is the language spoken by the Dom, who left the South Asian continent several hundred years before the Roma. 

10. Romani is gaining steam as a versatile second language.
Throughout Europe, schools and universities are starting to teach Romani as a second language, which actively encourages the integration of Europe’s Roma without forcing them to abandon their native tongue. Many Roma are writing and publishing Romani dictionaries, which not only helps non-Roma interested in learning Romani, but also aids ethnic Roma who did not grow up speaking Romani, or who wish to learn a dialect different from their own. While Roma themselves have varying opinions on sharing our language, we are also the ones paving the way for integration strategies that involve preserving Romani.

Ohh!