Angloromani language

Last updated
Angloromani
Pogadi Chib
Native to United Kingdom, Australia, United States, South Africa
Mixed British RomaniEnglish
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rme
Glottolog angl1239

Angloromani or Anglo-Romani (literally "English Romani"; also known as Angloromany, Rummaness, or Pogadi Chib) is a mixed language of Indo-European origin involving the presence of Romani vocabulary and syntax in the English used by descendants of Romanichal Travellers in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States, and South Africa. [1]

Contents

Romanichal used the Romani language from their arrival in the 16th century up until the late 19th century, when it was, for the most part, replaced by English as their everyday and family language. This resulted in the formation of what is known as "Para-Romani" or the presence of Romani language and features in the English used by the Romani. Today, only a small minority of Romanichal are believed to speak the traditional Romani language. [2]

An example of a phrase in Angloromani is: The mush was jalling down the drom with his gry ('The man was walking down the road with his horse') [3]

This differs from the presence of loanwords (such as that used locally in Edinburgh and Northumberland) from the Romani language, such as lollipop (originally a toffee apple), pal (originally Romani phral 'brother'), and chav (originally ćhavo 'boy'). [4]

Historical documentation of English Romani

A document from about the seventeenth century titled the Winchester Confessions indicates that British Romani was itself a dialect of the northern branch of Romani sharing a close similarity to Welsh Romani. [5] However, the language in a modern context has changed from the Indic-based vocabulary, morphology, and influences from Greek and other Balkan languages of the 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, [6] 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. [7] Few documents survive into modern times, the Winchester Confessions document c.1616 highlights the variant of English Romani and contains a high number of words still used in the modern Northern European Romani dialects and until recently also Welsh Romani; [6] 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 few English loanwords present. [8]

However, the Winchester Confessions document indicates that English grammatical structures were influencing speakers of English Romani (within a London context where the document was sourced) to adopt 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 early seventeenth century. [9] This has particular implications when dating the origin and development of Anglo-Romani and its split from Welsh Romani. The author of one such study [5] believes English Romani gradually lost its distinctive syntax, phonology and morphology while other scholars [10] believe Anglo-Romani developed relatively quickly after the Romanis' arrival in England in the sixteenth century, in a development similar to the Pidgin or Creole languages. [10]

Anglo-Romani was already developing in the seventeenth century although the change from the original English Romani is unclear. The Winchester Confessions document disproves a sudden morphological change, [11] and lends support to 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: "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 everyday 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 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 "food-house"; and a mayor is a gavmoosh, from the words gav, village, town, and moosh, man, literally "town-man". Gradually, the 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. [4]

The origins of the Romani language are in India, and the core of the vocabulary and grammar still resemble modern Indic languages like Hindi, Kashmiri, and Punjabi. Linguists have been investigating the dialects 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.

Intertwining

Anglo-Romani is a creole language, with the base languages being Romani and English (something referred to as Para-Romani in Romani linguistics). [12]

Some English lexical items that are archaic or only used in idiomatic 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 Romanichals is regional English. The distinct rhotic pronunciation of the Southern Angloromani variety also means that many outsiders perceive Southern Romanichal Travellers to be from the West Country because West Country English is also rhotic. Indeed, many Romanichal Travellers from the South of England or the Midlands region have a slightly West Country sounding accent; in fact it is a Southern Romanichal Traveller accent.

Dialectal variation

Among Anglo-Romani speakers, there is variation depending on where groups originally settled before learning English:

The members of these groups consider that not only do their dialects/accents differ, but also that they are of different regional groups. The speakers of Southern Angloromani took the regional identity of Southern Romanichal Travellers and the speakers of Northern Angloromani took the regional identity of Northern Romanichal Travellers. 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. [13]

Phonology and syntax

Overall, Anglo-Romani consonants reflect the standard British English consonantal system with the exception that the rhotic is trilled [r] and /x/ appears in certain dialects. Anglo-Romani may sometimes be rhotic and in other cases is non-rhotic like English non-rhotic dialects; for example, in Romani terno "young" (passing through the stage tarno) can be rendered as tawno. [14] [15]

Romani allowed for two word orders – Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) and Verb-Subject-Object (VSO).

Negation in Anglo-Romani is achieved through the use of the word kek:

"Be" is optionally deleted:

Reduplication is employed for emphasis:

Morphology

In the sixteenth century, the Romani language was an inflected language, employing two genders, plurality and case marking.

Anglo-Romani is first referenced in 1566–1567.

In the late nineteenth century, Romani personal pronouns became inconsistently marked, according to Leland, who also notes that case distinction began fading overall, and gender marking also disappeared. George Borrow notes that in 1874, some Romani speakers were still employing complete inflection, while some were adopting the English syntax with a Romani lexicon. It seems to be around 1876 that gender distinction was no longer seen; however, the continued use of Romani plural forms was noted, along with English verb conjugation. By 1923, some plural endings were still being used on nouns, but English prepositions were 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 of documenting the Anglo-Romani lexicon in its regional and dialectal variation. Samples of conversation and their meaning can be found on their website. [16] A dictionary of Anglo-Romani words and their etymology can be found on the Romani Project website. [17]

Some common phrases

Kushti divvusHello (literally 'Good day')
Sashin?How are you?
Mandi adusta kushtiI am very well.
Owli, mandi kushtiYes, I'm fine, too.
Tutti rokker Rummaness?Do you speak Romani?
Katar kai tutti jells?Where are you from?
Mandi poshratI'm half Romani.
Mandi tatchi rummaniI'm full Romani.
Adusta salla jan tuttiPleased to meet you.
Dik tutti kullika divvusSee you tomorrow.
So tutti's nav?What's your name?
Mandi's nav MariaMy name is Maria.
OwliYes.
KekNo.

Comparison of Angloromani, European Romani, Indic languages and English

AngloromaniEuropean RomaniEnglishIndic languagesSlang English
chavćhavochild, son, boy (all specifically used for Romani and not non-Romani)bacha (relatively recent Persian borrowing) chav 'a rough youth' (deriving from a derogatory usage of the word chav to refer to a Romani boy)
lollipobbullaliphabaitoffee apple (or 'red apple')lal seb (seb is a fairly recent Persian borrowing into Indic languages)lollipop
gavvergavengropoliceman (or villager) gavāṇḍhī (Punjabi)
jibćhiblanguage, tongue jībh (Punjabi)

Swadesh list

No.English Angloromani [ citation needed ]
Romanes
1Ime
2you (singular)tu
3heof
4weamen
5you (plural)tumen
6theyon
7thisada
8thatoda
9hereade
10thereode
11whoko
12whatso
13wherekaj
14whenkana
15howsar
16notna/nane
17allsa
18manykeci
19somevaresave
20fewcikra
21other
22onejek
23twoduj
24threetrin
25fourstar
26fivepanj
27bigbaro/bare
28long
29wide
30thick
31heavy
32smallcikno
33shortcikno
34narrow
35thin
36womanromni
37man (adult male)murs
38man (human being)rom/romni
39childcave
40wife
41husband
42mothermama
43fatheroco
44animal
45fish
46birdchirikle
47dog
48louse
49snake
50worm
51tree
52forest
53stick
54fruit
55seed
56leaf
57root
58bark (of a tree)
59flower
60grass
61rope
62skin
63meatmas
64bloodrat
65bone
66fat (noun)
67egg
68horn
69tail
70feather
71hairshero/bala
72headshero
73earkana
74eyeyaka
75nosenak
76mouthmuj
77tooth
78tongue (organ)cib
79fingernail
80foot
81leg
82knee
83handvasta
84wing
85belly
86guts
87neck
88backdumo
89breast
90heart
91liver
92to drink
93to eat
94to bite
95to suck
96to spit
97to vomit
98to blow
99to breathe
100to laughte asal
101to seete dikel
102to hearte sunel
103to knowte dzanel
104to thinkte mislinel
105to smell
106to fear
107to sleepte sovel
108to livete dzivel
109to diete merel
110to killte murdarel
111to fightte marel
112to hunt
113to hit
114to cut
115to split
116to stab
117to scratch
118to dig
119to swim
120to fly
121to walk
122to comete dzal
123to lie (as in a bed)
124to sitte besel tele
125to stand
126to turn (intransitive)
127to fall
128to givete del
129to hold
130to squeeze
131to rub
132to washte tovel
133to wipe
134to pull
135to push
136to throw
137to tie
138to sew
139to count
140to sayte penel
141to singte dzijavel
142to playte bajinel
143to float
144to flow
145to freeze
146to swell
147sun
148moon
149star
150water
151rain
152river
153lake
154sea
155saltlon
156stonebar
157sand
158dust
159earth
160cloud
161fog
162sky
163wind
164snow
165ice
166smoke
167fire
168ash
169to burn
170roaddrom
171mountain
172redlolo/cerveno
173green
174yellow
175whiteparno
176blackkalo
177nightraci
178daydives
179yearbesh
180warmtato
181coldshil
182fullcalo
183newnevo
184oldpuro
185goodlaco
186badnalaco
187rotten
188dirty
189straight
190round
191sharp (as a knife)
192dull (as a knife)
193smooth
194wetpanalo
195dry
196correctpravo/caco
197nearpase
198fardur
199rightpravo
200leftlevo
201at
202inandro/andre
203with
204anda
205if
206becauselebo
207namelav/nav

See also

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References

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  2. "BBC - Voices - Multilingual Nation". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
  3. "School of Arts, Languages and Cultures - The University of Manchester". www.alc.manchester.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2007-02-18. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
  4. 1 2 "Languages of the UK" (PDF). 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-14.
  5. 1 2 Kenrick, Donald. S. (1971). "The sociolinguistics of the development of British Romani". In Acton, T. A. (ed.). Current changes amongst British Gypsies and their place in international patterns of development: proceedings of the Research and Policy Conference of the National Gypsy Education Council, held at ... Oxford.
  6. 1 2 Sampson, John (1926). The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  7. Bakker (1997). Review of McGowan, "The Winchester Confessions". Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. 5th ser., 7(1): 49-50.
  8. Smart B. C.; Crofton, H. T. (1875). The Dialect of the English Gypsies (2nd ed.). London: Asher & Co.
  9. McGowan, Alan (1996). The Winchester Confessions 1615–1616: depositions of travellers, gypsies, fraudsters and makers of counterfeit documents, including a vocabulary of the Romany language. Romany and Traveller Family History Society. ISBN   9781900660013.
  10. 1 2 Hancock, Ian. F. (1971). Comment on Kenrick, q.v., above.
  11. Bakker, Peter (2002), "An early vocabulary of British Romani (1616): A linguistic analysis", Romani Studies, 5, vol. 12
  12. Romani Sociolinguistics. p. 93.
  13. McWilliams, Krislyn; Nelson, Manuela; Oxley, Meghan. "AngloRomani: The Mixed Language of Romani Peoples" (PDF). Seattle: University of Washington. Retrieved 2015-12-23.
  14. Hancock, Ian (2010). "George Borrow's Romani". In Karanth, Dileep (ed.). Danger! Educated Gypsy: Selected Essays. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press. p. 173. ISBN   9781902806983.
  15. "Angloromani". romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2010-12-26.
  16. Samples of Anglo-Romani, Audio files
  17. Dictionary - Angloromani

Further reading