Welsh Romani language

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Welsh Romani
Romnimus
Native to Wales (United Kingdom)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rmw
Glottolog wels1246

The Welsh Romani language, or Romnimus, is a dialect of the Romani language spoken by the Kale subgroup of the Romani people, who have been present in Wales since the 16th century. Welsh Romani is one of the many Northern Romani dialects. [1]

Contents

While most of its vocabulary is of Indo-Aryan origin, there are a significant number of words derived from other languages, such as Persian and Greek. Welsh loanwords include melanō ("yellow", from melyn), grīga ("heather", from grug) and kraŋka ("crab", from cranc). English loanwords include vlija ("village"), spīdra ("spider") and bråmla ("bramble"). [2]

Historically the variants of Welsh Romani and Angloromani (spoken by the Romanichal) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani. [3] Welsh Romani is closely related to Angloromani, Scandoromani (spoken by Romanisael in Sweden and Norway), Scottish Cant (spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani in Lowland Scotland) and Kalo (Spoken by Kaale in Finland and Sweden). Kale, Romanichal, Romanisael, Kaale and Scottish Lowland Romani are closely related Romani subgroups which stem from the wave of Romani immigrants who arrived in Northern Europe in the 16th century. [4]

Phonology

Labial Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar 		Palatal Dorsal Glottal
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p
pʰ 		b t
tʰ 		d tʃ dʒ k
kʰ 		ɡ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ x ɣ h
Trill r̥ r
Approximant j ʍ w
Lateral ɬ l
  Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid e ə o
Open a

References

  1. ↑ Norbert Boretzky: Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004 p. 18
  2. ↑ John Sampson (1926) The dialect of the Gypsies of Wales, being the older form of British Romani preserved in the speech of the clan of Abram Wood, Oxford University Press, London.
  3. ↑ Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Clarendon Press.
  4. ↑ Bakker (1997) Review of McGowan, The Winchester Confessions. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Fifth series, 7. (1): 49–50.
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