Angloromani language

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.

Angloromani
Pogadi Chib
Native to	United Kingdom, Australia, United States, South Africa
Language family	Mixed British Romani–English
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rme
Glottolog	angl1239

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.

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')

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').

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. 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, 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. 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; 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.

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. 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 believes English Romani gradually lost its distinctive syntax, phonology and morphology while other scholars 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.

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, 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.

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).

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:

• Southern Angloromani (Spoken across the Southwest, Southeast, East Anglia, West Midlands, East Midlands and South Wales).
• Northern Angloramani (Spoken across the Northwest, Northeast, Yorkshire, Northeast Wales and Scottish Borders).

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.

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.

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:

• măndī can kek ker lĭs ('I can't do it')
• there's kekə pani left in kŭvə kurī ('there's no water left in this bucket')

"Be" is optionally deleted:

• tūte kūšta diken muš ('you are a fine-looking man')
• tūte rinkna râne ('you are a pretty lady')

Reduplication is employed for emphasis:

• dūvrī ('distant')
• dūvrī-dūvrī ('very distant')

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. A dictionary of Anglo-Romani words and their etymology can be found on the Romani Project website.

Some common phrases

Kushti divvus	Hello (literally 'Good day')
Sashin?	How are you?
Mandi adusta kushti	I am very well.
Owli, mandi kushti	Yes, I'm fine, too.
Tutti rokker Rummaness?	Do you speak Romani?
Katar kai tutti jells?	Where are you from?
Mandi poshrat	I'm half Romani.
Mandi tatchi rummani	I'm full Romani.
Adusta salla jan tutti	Pleased to meet you.
Dik tutti kullika divvus	See you tomorrow.
So tutti's nav?	What's your name?
Mandi's nav Maria	My name is Maria.
Owli	Yes.
Kek	No.

Comparison of Angloromani, European Romani, Indic languages and English

Angloromani	European Romani	English	Indic languages	Slang English
chav	ćhavo	child, 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)
lollipobbul	laliphabai	toffee apple (or 'red apple')	lal seb (seb is a fairly recent Persian borrowing into Indic languages)	lollipop
gavver	gavengro	policeman (or villager)	gavāṇḍhī (Punjabi)
jib	ćhib	language, tongue	jībh (Punjabi)

Swadesh list

See also: Swadesh list

No.	English	Angloromani Romanes
1	I	me
2	you (singular)	tu
3	he	of
4	we	amen
5	you (plural)	tumen
6	they	on
7	this	ada
8	that	oda
9	here	ade
10	there	ode
11	who	ko
12	what	so
13	where	kaj
14	when	kana
15	how	sar
16	not	na/nane
17	all	sa
18	many	keci
19	some	varesave
20	few	cikra
21	other
22	one	jek
23	two	duj
24	three	trin
25	four	star
26	five	panj
27	big	baro/bare
28	long
29	wide
30	thick
31	heavy
32	small	cikno
33	short	cikno
34	narrow
35	thin
36	woman	romni
37	man (adult male)	murs
38	man (human being)	rom/romni
39	child	cave
40	wife
41	husband
42	mother	mama
43	father	oco
44	animal
45	fish
46	bird	chirikle
47	dog
48	louse
49	snake
50	worm
51	tree
52	forest
53	stick
54	fruit
55	seed
56	leaf
57	root
58	bark (of a tree)
59	flower
60	grass
61	rope
62	skin
63	meat	mas
64	blood	rat
65	bone
66	fat (noun)
67	egg
68	horn
69	tail
70	feather
71	hair	shero/bala
72	head	shero
73	ear	kana
74	eye	yaka
75	nose	nak
76	mouth	muj
77	tooth
78	tongue (organ)	cib
79	fingernail
80	foot
81	leg
82	knee
83	hand	vasta
84	wing
85	belly
86	guts
87	neck
88	back	dumo
89	breast
90	heart
91	liver
92	to drink
93	to eat
94	to bite
95	to suck
96	to spit
97	to vomit
98	to blow
99	to breathe
100	to laugh	te asal
101	to see	te dikel
102	to hear	te sunel
103	to know	te dzanel
104	to think	te mislinel
105	to smell
106	to fear
107	to sleep	te sovel
108	to live	te dzivel
109	to die	te merel
110	to kill	te murdarel
111	to fight	te marel
112	to hunt
113	to hit
114	to cut
115	to split
116	to stab
117	to scratch
118	to dig
119	to swim
120	to fly
121	to walk
122	to come	te dzal
123	to lie (as in a bed)
124	to sit	te besel tele
125	to stand
126	to turn (intransitive)
127	to fall
128	to give	te del
129	to hold
130	to squeeze
131	to rub
132	to wash	te tovel
133	to wipe
134	to pull
135	to push
136	to throw
137	to tie
138	to sew
139	to count
140	to say	te penel
141	to sing	te dzijavel
142	to play	te bajinel
143	to float
144	to flow
145	to freeze
146	to swell
147	sun
148	moon
149	star
150	water
151	rain
152	river
153	lake
154	sea
155	salt	lon
156	stone	bar
157	sand
158	dust
159	earth
160	cloud
161	fog
162	sky
163	wind
164	snow
165	ice
166	smoke
167	fire
168	ash
169	to burn
170	road	drom
171	mountain
172	red	lolo/cerveno
173	green
174	yellow
175	white	parno
176	black	kalo
177	night	raci
178	day	dives
179	year	besh
180	warm	tato
181	cold	shil
182	full	calo
183	new	nevo
184	old	puro
185	good	laco
186	bad	nalaco
187	rotten
188	dirty
189	straight
190	round
191	sharp (as a knife)
192	dull (as a knife)
193	smooth
194	wet	panalo
195	dry
196	correct	pravo/caco
197	near	pase
198	far	dur
199	right	pravo
200	left	levo
201	at
202	in	andro/andre
203	with
204	and	a
205	if
206	because	lebo
207	name	lav/nav

See also

• Polari

Further reading

• Acton, Thomas. 1989. The Value of “Creolized” Dialects of Romanes. In International Symposium Romani Language and Culture. Sarajevo.
• Acton, Thomas and Gerwyn Davis. 1979. Educational Policy and Language Use Among English Romanies and Irish Travellers (Tinkers) in England and Wales. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 19-22: 91-110.
• Acton, Thomas, Vangelis Marselos, and Laszlo Szego. 2000. The Development of Literary Dialects of Romanes, and the Prospects for an International Standard Dialect. In Language, Blacks, and Gypsies, ed. Thomas Acton and Morgan Dalphinis. London: Whiting and Birch.
• Borrow, George. 1923. Romano Lavo-Lil. London: Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Ld.
• Deterding, David. 1997. The formants of monophthong vowels in Standard Southern British English pronunciation. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 27: 47-55.
• Hancock, Ian. 1996. Duty and Beauty, Possession and Truth: The Claim of Lexical Impoverishment as Control. In Gypsies: A book of interdisciplinary readings, ed. Diane Tong. New York: Garland Publishers.
• "Anglo-Romani" University of Washington US
• Manchester University Romani Project ROMANI Project - Manchester

External links

• Speakromany.com a project from English Gypsies reviving their language
• Distribution of Romani dialect by region
• AngloRomani Linguistic Information