Scandoromani

Scandoromani
Native to	Norway, Sweden, Denmark
Native speakers	c. 100–150 (2014) Speakers mostly elderly. More people speak Swedish with some Roma vocabulary.
Language family	Para-Romani, mixed Romani–Scandinavian
Official status
Official language in	recognised minority language in Norway (1993) Sweden (1999)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: rmg – Traveller Norwegian rmu – Tavringer Romani (Sweden) rmd – Traveller Danish
Glottolog	trav1236  Norwegian tavr1235  Swedish trav1237  Danish

Scandoromani is a North Germanic based Para-Romani. It is spoken by the Scandinavian Romanisæl Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Norway (c. 100–150 elderly speakers), and formerly in Sweden.

Subforms are referred to as:

• Traveller Norwegian (tavringens rakripa, lit. 'Traveller's language'), Norwegian: romani or norsk romani (Norwegian Romani), in Norway (the Romani language of the Norwegian Roma is referred to as romanes in Norwegian);
• Tavringer Romani, Traveller Swedish or Tattare, Swedish: svensk romani (Swedish Romani), in Sweden;
• Traveller Danish in Denmark.

Like Angloromani in Britain and Caló in Spain, Scandoromani draws upon a (now extinct) vocabulary of inflected Romani. Much of the original Romani grammar, however, has been lost to the users, and they now communicate in Swedish or Norwegian grammar.

There is no standardised form of Scandoromani, so variations exist in vocabulary, pronunciation, and usage, depending on the speaker. In print, Scandoromani words are often written with Swedish (S) or Norwegian (N) letters (ä, æ, ø, å) and letter combinations to represent Romani sounds, e.g., tj- (/ɕ/) or kj- (/ç/ alt. /tʃ/) to represent the Romani č /tʃ/ and čh /tʃʰ/. Some examples of Scandoromani variant spellings are: tjuro (S) / kjuro (N) 'knife'; gräj (S) / grei (N) 'horse'.

See also

• Finnish Kalo language
• Para-Romani

References

• Carling, Gerd; Lindell, Lenny; Ambrazaitis, Gilbert (2014), Scandoromani: Remnants of a Mixed Language, Leiden: Brill, ISBN 9789004266445
• Resande Folkets Riksorganisation (2006), Ordlista i resandespråket romani (in Swedish and Traveller Norwegian) (2nd ed.), Malmö: Föreningen Resande Folkets Riksorganisation, ISBN 91-631-9668-9

Suggested further reading

• Baardsen, Gjest (1948). Vandrings- eller skøiersprog; med tillegg av F. L. Hartman og N. Olsen. Ord og sed (in Norwegian). Oslo: Noregs boklag Helge Refsum.
• Baardsen, Gjest. "Samling af de mest forrekommende Ord i det saakaldte Vandrings eller Skøiersprog". Digital Archives. Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
• Hancock, Ian (1992). "The social and linguistic development of Scandoromani". In Håkon Jahr, Ernst (ed.). Language Contact: Theoretical and Empirical Studies. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 37–52. ISBN 3-11-012802-0.
• Iversen, Ragnvald (1945). The Rodi (Rotwelsch) in Norway. Secret languages in Norway. Oslo: I Kommisjon Hos Jacob Dybwad.
• Karlsen, Ludvig (1993). Romani-folkets ordbok : [tavringens rakripa : de reisendes språk : romani-norsk-engelsk] (in Traveller Norwegian, Norwegian, and English). Oslo. ISBN 8299236312.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Lindell, Lenny [in Swedish]; Thorbjörnsson-Djerf, Kenth (2008). Carling, Gerd (ed.). Ordbok över svensk romani: Resandefolkets språk och sånger (in Swedish). Stockholm: Podium. ISBN 978-91-89196-43-8. (A lexicon and grammatical overview of Tavringer Romani; includes several Traveller song texts in extenso)
• Miskow, Johan; Brøndal, Viggo (1923). "Sigøjnersprog i Danmark" (PDF). Danske Studier (in Danish): 97–145.
• Dyneley Prince, J. (1925). "The Gypsy Language of Denmark" (PDF). Journal of the American Oriental Society. 45: 97–105. doi:10.2307/593478. JSTOR 593478.

External links

• Tavringens Rakripa: Romanifolkets Ordbok at the Wayback Machine (archived May 17, 2008) (in Norwegian)
• Norwegian Romani Dictionary (in Bokmål and English)
• Examples of Tavringer Romani text from the websites of the Swedish Parliament and the Swedish Language Council (in Swedish)