Baltic Romani

Last updated
Baltic Romani
Native to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Ukraine
Native speakers
46,000, including 14,000 in Poland and 10,000 in Finland (2001–2013) [1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3
rml  – Baltic Romani
Glottolog balt1257   Baltic Romani
ELP Baltic Romani

Baltic Romani [a] is a group of dialects of the Romani language spoken in the Baltic states and adjoining regions of Finland, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine. Half of Baltic Romani speakers live in Poland. Romani began as an Indo-European language, which morphed into an Indo-Iranian language, and then into an Indo-Aryan language. After that the Romani language broke down into Balkan Romani and Central Romani. Baltic Romani came from the Central Romani dialect which branches off into other dialects. There are a total of around 31,500 users in all countries. [2]

Contents

Classification

Baltic Romani is classified as a member of the Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan Central Zone, Romani, and Central Romani language families.

History

The first speakers of this language settled in Southeast Europe during the 10th and 13th centuries in large swaths. From the 14th century onward, the language spread to Central and Western Europe as well. Comparisons between other languages later revealed it most likely originated from the Indian subcontinent. [3]

Geographic distribution

This language is spoken in the following countries: [4]

Official status

This language is not an official language in any particular country, though it has other statuses in those which it is spoken. [4]

Dialects and varieties

Phonology

There are three simple stop positions in the Romani language. These come from the Indo-Aryan and are maintained in every dialect of this language. The positions are as follows; labial /p/, dental /t/, and velar /k/. Along with these stop positions, there are also palatal positions which are unique to the Romani language. [8] Specific voicing alterations have changed grammatical endings and different dialects have different ways of interpreting vowels. Some have morphed into newer versions of the Romani language and others have implemented other elements like screams. [9]

Grammar

In the Romani language, nouns and verbs are inflected to illustrate how a word acts in a sentence, similar to in other fusional languages like Sanskrit and Latin. [10] [11] As in other Indo-Aryan languages, as well as in Romance and Slavic languages, Romani also has grammatical gender, as there are both masculine and feminine words. In addition, there are definite articles along with "different articles for masculine and feminine nouns, for subject and non-subject and for singular and plural articles". [12]

Morphology

The Romani language began as an Indo-European language morphed into an Indo-Iranian language. From there it morphed into an Indo-Aryan language which eventually led to Romani. After that the Romani language broke down into Balkan Romani and Central Romani. Baltic Romani came from the Central Romani dialect which branches off to the many other dialects listed above.[ citation needed ]

Syntax

Baltic Romani has a unique rule in that their numerals follow when they are written. Their numerals govern their nominals but not to the degree that Slavic languages do. [13] Baltic genitives mark partial objects and sometimes subjects and also play a prominent role in the syntax of numeral constructions. Baltic languages are similar as both Latvian and Latvian Romani share the same opposition of preverbs and verb particles. [14]

Vocabulary

There is a large Indo-Aryan presence in this language that appears mainly in reference to body parts and functions. [15] Along with bodily parts and functions, the Indo-Aryan presence also resides in words that reference time, nature, landscape, numerals, animals, and plants. [16] There is a pre-European lexicon that is mixed in this language that mainly refers to spiritual and religious ideas, tools, and artefacts. [16] Dwellings and places are not represented the best in the inherited lexicon of this language. [17]

Notes

  1. ↑ Also called Balt Romani, Balt Slavic Romani, Baltic Slavic Romani, and colloquially as Roma.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baltic languages</span> Branch of the Indo-European language family

The Baltic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively or as a second language by a population of about 6.5–7.0 million people mainly in areas extending east and southeast of the Baltic Sea in Europe. Together with the Slavic languages, they form the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indo-Aryan languages</span> Branch of the Indo-Iranian languages

The Indo-Aryan languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated east of the Indus river in Bangladesh, North India, Eastern Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Nepal. Moreover, apart from the Indian subcontinent, large immigrant and expatriate Indo-Aryan–speaking communities live in Northwestern Europe, Western Asia, North America, the Caribbean, Southeast Africa, Polynesia and Australia, along with several million speakers of Romani languages primarily concentrated in Southeastern Europe. There are over 200 known Indo-Aryan languages.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinti</span> Indo-Aryan ethnic group

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The Dom are descendants of the Dom caste with origins in the Indian subcontinent which through ancient migrations are found scattered across the Middle East and North Africa, the Eastern Anatolia Region, and parts of the Balkans and Hungary. The traditional language of the Dom is Domari, an endangered Indo-Aryan language, thereby making the Dom an Indo-Aryan ethnic group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balto-Slavic languages</span> Branch of the Indo-European language family

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vlax Romani language</span> Romani dialect group of southeastern Europe

Vlax Romani varieties are spoken mainly in Southeastern Europe by the Romani people. Vlax Romani can also be referred to as an independent language or as one dialect of the Romani language. Vlax Romani is the second most widely spoken dialect subgroup of the Romani language worldwide, after Balkan Romani.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domari language</span> Indo-Aryan language

Domari is an endangered Indo-Aryan language, spoken by Dom people scattered across the Middle East and North Africa. The language is reported to be spoken as far north as Azerbaijan and as far south as central Sudan, in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon. Based on the systematicity of sound changes, it is known with a fair degree of certainty that the names Domari and Romani derive from the Indo-Aryan word ḍom. Although they are both Central Indo-Aryan languages, Domari and Romani do not derive from the same immediate ancestor. The Arabs referred to them as Nawar as they were a nomadic people that originally immigrated to the Middle East from the Indian subcontinent.

The linguistic classification of the ancient Thracian language has long been a matter of contention and uncertainty, and there are widely varying hypotheses regarding its position among other Paleo-Balkan languages. It is not contested, however, that the Thracian languages were Indo-European languages which had acquired satem characteristics by the time they are attested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balkan Romani</span> Romani dialect of the Balkans

Balkan Roma, Balkaniko Romanes, or Balkan Gypsy is a specific non-Vlax dialect of the Romani language, spoken by groups within the Balkans, which include countries such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey etc. The Balkan Romani language is typically an oral language.

The Manouches are a subgroup of Roma who have lived in France since at least the eighteenth century. The term Manouche is the self-ascribed name of the French Sinti. The word "manouche" means "man" or "human being" in the Romani language, and is closely cognate to the word for "man" in many modern Indian languages such as Hindi मनुष्य and Bangla মানুষ. Their Romani dialect, cognate to the one used by German Sinti, exhibits strong German influence. They are nowadays primary French-speaking, though the dialect of French they use exhibits many linguistic peculiarities compared to standard French.

Para-Romani are various mixed languages of non-Indo-Aryan linguistic classification containing considerable admixture from the Romani language. They are spoken as the traditional vernacular of Romani communities, either in place of, or alongside, varieties of the Romani language. Some Para-Romani languages have no structural features of Romani at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani.

Sinte Romani is the variety of Romani spoken by the Sinti people in Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, some parts of Northern Italy and other adjacent regions. Sinte Romani is characterized by significant German influence and is not mutually intelligible with other forms of Romani. The language is written in the Latin script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Romani dialects</span> Group of Romani dialects

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpathian Romani</span> Group of dialects of the Romani language

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Early Romani, sometimes referred to as Late Proto-Romani, is the latest common predecessor of all varieties of the Romani language. It was spoken before the Roma people dispersed throughout Europe. It is not directly attested, but rather reconstructed on the basis of shared features of existing Romani varieties. Early Romani is thought to have been spoken in the Byzantine Empire from the 9th to 10th and the 13th to 14th centuries.

References

  1. ↑ Baltic Romani at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. ↑ "Romani, Baltic". Joshua Project. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
  3. ↑ Bakker, Peter; Kiuchukov, Khristo (2000). What is the Romani Language?. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 49.
  4. 1 2 "Romani, Baltic". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  5. ↑ Калинин В. И. (2019). Ученые записки ВГУ имени П.М. Машерова : cборник научных трудов. Витебск. p. 152.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[ permanent dead link ]
  6. ↑ Biblii︠a︡ : Pė Baltíko Romaní chib (Romanės). Valʹdemar Kalinin. Biel. 2014. ISBN   978-2-940059-20-1. OCLC   1062281925.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ↑ Biblii︠a︡ : Pė Baltíko Romaní chib (Romanės). Valʹdemar Kalinin. Biel. 2014. ISBN   978-2-940059-20-1. OCLC   1062281925.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ↑ Matras, Yaron (2002-06-06). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 49. ISBN   9781139433242.
  9. ↑ Matras, Yaron (2002-06-06). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 56. ISBN   9781139433242.
  10. ↑ Bakker, Peter; Kiuchukov, Khristo (2000). What is the Romani Language?. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 33.
  11. ↑ Bakker, Peter; Kiuchukov, Khristo (2000). What is the Romani Language?. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. pp. 33, 34.
  12. ↑ Bakker, Peter; Kiuchukov, Khristo (2000). What is the Romani Language?. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 35.
  13. ↑ Dahl, Östen; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria (2001-12-31). Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 2: Grammar and Typology. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 342, 343. ISBN   9789027297273.
  14. ↑ Dahl, Östen; Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria (2001-12-31). Circum-Baltic Languages: Volume 2: Grammar and Typology. John Benjamins Publishing. p. 437. ISBN   9789027297273.
  15. ↑ Matras, Yaron (2002-06-06). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN   9781139433242.
  16. 1 2 Matras, Yaron (2002-06-06). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. p. 28. ISBN   9781139433242.
  17. ↑ Matras, Yaron (2002-06-06). Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge University Press. pp. 28., 29. ISBN   9781139433242.

Bibliography

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