Balkan Romani

Balkan Romani
Balkan Romani
(Official language in Romania)
Native to	Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Russia, Serbia, Turkey
Ethnicity	Romani, Jerlídes (Macedonia, southern Serbia). Muslim.
Native speakers	709,570
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Zone Romani Balkan Romani; ; ; ; ;
Dialects	Arli, Dzambazi, East Bulgarian Romani, Greek Romani, Ironworker Romani, Paspatian, Tinners Romani, Ursári (Erli, Usari);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rmn
Glottolog	balk1252
ELP	Balkan Romani

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Balkan Romani is a group of dialects of the Romani language spoken in various Roma groups in the Balkans. This language is at risk with only 709,570 native speakers worldwide.The dialect is spoken by all generations of speakers and the transmission to children is normal. In addition, the dialect is used by all speakers in the private domain (basilectal function) and by the older generation and the female speakers in the semi-public domain (mesolectal function).

Classification

Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Intermediate Divisions, Western, Romani, Balkan

History

The word "Rom" is derived from the Romani language and it means "human being", "someone who belongs to the Roma ethnic group" and "man, husband". Major speakers of Balkan Romani language are mostly Romani. August Friedrich Pott: the first who scientifically examined the Romani language and based on linguistic findings found out that India is the original homeland of the Roma people.

Dialects

Balkan dialects, also known as Balkan I, are spoken in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Iran, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. This group includes inter alia Arli Romani (Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia), Sepečides-Romani (Greece, Turkey), Ursari Romani (Moldavia, Romania) and Crimean Romani (Ukraine).

Zis dialects, also called Balkan II, are a distinct subdivision within the Balkan group. Bugurdži, Drindari and Kalajdži Romani are spoken in Macedonia, Kosovo and in northern and central Bulgaria.

Elšík uses this classification and dialect examples (geographical information from Matras ):

Geographical distribution

Sub-group	Dialect	Place
Southern Balkan	Prizren	Kosovo
	Arli	Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo
	Prilep	Macedonia
	Kyrymitika	Ukraine ^[2]
	Sofia Erli	Sofia
	Zargari	Iran
	Romano	northeastern Iran
	Sepeči	northern Greece, Turkey
	Rumelian	European part of today's Turkey, historically called Rumelia ^[3]
Northern Balkan	Bugurdži	Macedonia, Kosovo ^[4]
	Razgrad Drindari	northeastern Bulgaria
	Pazardžik Kalajdži	Bulgaria and immigrants in Macedonia and Kosovo

Phonology

The sound inventory of Romani does not differ significantly from that of other European languages, most of which belong to the Indo-European family.

The consonant system of Balkan Romani differs in one significant aspect from those of other European languages: it has the aspirated plosives (aspirated stops) characteristic of Indian languages. In the case of Romani, these are the voiceless aspirated plosives /ph, th, kh/, which in the majority of Romani variants, at least at the beginning of a word, have a semantically distinct function.

Sample

Romani (Bugurdži, Macedonia)	Romani (Arli, Macedonia)	English
Lačho [to] saba[h]i.	Lačho [o] sabalje.	Good morning.
Lačho [to] zi[e]s.	Lačho [o] dive.	Good day.
Lačhi [ti] rat.	Lačhi [i] rat.	Good night.
Sar isi to anav?	Sar si tiro anav?	What's your name?
Mo anav isi Elvis.	Mo anav si Elvis.	My name is Elvis.
Isinom lošalo kaj avdom tut!	Šukar te dikhav tut!	Pleased to meet you!
Isinan prandime?	Sijan li romnjakoro?	Are you married?
Va, me isinom prandime.	Va, me sijum romnjakoro.	Yes, I'm married.
Na, me isinom biprandime.	Na, me sijum biromnjakoro.	No, I'm unmarried.
Me isi man raklija.	Me si ma raklija.	I have a girlfriend.

Number	Reading	Meaning
1	jekh	1
2	duj	2
3	trin	3
4	štar	4
5	panc	5
6	šov	6
7	eftá	7
8	oxtó	8
9	enjá	9
10	deš	10
11	dešujekh	10 + 1
12	dešuduj	10 + 2
13	dešutrín	10 + 3
14	dešuštár	10 + 4
15	dešupánc	10 + 5
16	dešušóv	10 + 6
17	dešueftá	10 + 7
18	dešuoxtó	10 + 8
19	dešuenjá	10 + 9
20	biš	20
21	biš-te-jekh	20 + 1
22	biš-te-duj	20 + 2
23	biš-te-trin	20 + 3
24	biš-te-štar	20 + 4
25	biš-te-panc	20 + 5

Vocabulary/Lexis

Turkish lexical influence is a defining and extremely important part of the Romani dialect in the Balkans. Most of the words however, originate from Persian origin. Loans from Persian, Armenian, and Byzantine Greek make up the pre-European lexicon. Ultimately, it is hard to trace the definite origin of all the words because the words of Balkan Romani originate from many sources and the sources of those languages creates a complex puzzle [1].

Grammar

Turkish grammar plays a large role in Balkan Romani. The use of Turkish conjugations is widely embedded within Balkan Romani and oftentimes, it is difficult to tell the difference between the grammar of the two languages depending on geography. Balkan Romani has compartmentalized grammar originating from Turkish verbal paradigms along with some Greek influence.[2] Much of the morphology of the language has Greece and Turkish origins, which is why the language is viewed by many professionals as a "mixed" language and thus it is hard to see where one language ends and the other begins. All Romani dialects use Greek derived nominal endings, masculine nouns and loan nouns.[3]

Writing Systems

Balkan Romani has traditionally been an oral language, but recently, there is a growing amount of effort to decode and standardize the language.

Balkan Romani written with Cyrillic script.

Alphabet:

А а	Б б	В в	Г г		Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Кх кх
Л л	М м	Н н	О о	П п	Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш
Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

Romani Alphabet:

Used in most Romani communities.

A a	Ä ä	B b	C c	Ć ć	Č č	D d	E e	Ê ê	F f	G g	Ğ ğ	H h	I i	Î î
J j	K k	K k	L l	L l	M m	N n	N n	O o	Ö ö	P p	Ṗ ṗ	Q q	R r	R r
R r	S s	S s	S s	T t	T t	U u	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z	Z z	Z z

Examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1etN7bXLIEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yZ-Hh3pL58&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beV-MU4nK9s&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rNozI_538c&nohtml5=False

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrI4nwFeOw0

References

^ Balkan Romani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ Ventcel’, Tat’jana V. & Lev N. Čerenkov. 1976. “Dialekty cyganskogo jazyka”. Jazyki Azii i Afriki I, 283-332. Moskva: Nauka.
^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512682/Rumelia
^ "Romani Dialects". ROMLEX. Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. http://romani.uni-graz.at/romlex/dialects.xml.

External links

[e18-1] Balkan Romani at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] Ventcel’, Tat’jana V. & Lev N. Čerenkov. 1976. “Dialekty cyganskogo jazyka”. Jazyki Azii i Afriki I, 283-332. Moskva: Nauka.

[3] ttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/512682/Rumelia

[romlex-4] "Romani Dialects". ROMLEX. Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz. http://romani.uni-graz.at/romlex/dialects.xml.

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