Featuring Love, Simon (chgph. Zach Woodlee), And Then We Danced (chgph. Natia Chikvaidze), A Fantastic Woman, Frida, The Way He Looks, In & Out (chgph. Jerry Mitchell),
Black Mirror: San Junipero (chgph. Dale Mercer),
Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
(chgph. Vijay Ganguly), Pride (chgph. Lizzi Gee) Downton Abbey (chgph. Diana Scrivener), The Favourite (chgph. Constanza Macras), Happy Together (chgph. Juan Carlos Copes) and Paris is Burning
[Image description: a map showing the Roma populations around the world. From darkest to lightest, colors represent populations of >1,000,000; >100,000; and >10,000. The areas with the most concentrated Roma populations are North America, Europe, Brazil, and Argentina. Image posted by Allice Hunter to wikipedia. / END ID]
What is the language called in English and the language itself?
– The language is called Romani in English and either Rromani ćhib or Rromanes in the language itself. Alternate spellings are Romany, Řomani Čhib, and Řomanes. – Widespread diaspora of the Roma people has led to many highly contrasting dialects, with many of them not being mutually intelligible. That’s understandable considering they can differ in both phonology and vocabulary. These many dialects are often catogrized geographically into North, Central, Balkan, and Vlax (think of Vlax as Southeast). Note that there are other proposed classifications. Due to exposure from other dominant languages as a result of diaspora, many mixed languages based on Romani have also developed. ** Simply put, the Romani language and dialects are highly intricate and closely tied to the Roma people’s history. Moreso than others. Rather than thinking of this language as a cohesive unit, I consider it like a color palette: although there are distinct variations, there also many other separate but related variations that can be made by mixing two or more elements!
Where is the language spoken?
– The language is spoken all throughout Europe, with the most concentrated number of speakers being in Romania. It’s also spoken in locations with high immigrant populations like the United States.
How many people speak the language?
– According to Ethnologue, there were roughly 3,500,000 Romani speakers in 2015.
Which language family does it belong to? What are some of its relative languages? – Romani is classified as Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Western > Romani. Some of its related languages are Gujarati languages, Rajasthani languages, Bili languages, Khandeshi, and Lambadi, among others.
What writing system does the language use?
– Romani is a majorly spoken language, and although written accounts of it date back to the 1500s, a written form only started to gain traction only about fifty years ago. There is no uniform alphabet. Rather, Roma’s tend to adopt the script of the dominant language in that region. Latin, Cyrillic, and Arabic are all used decently frequently.
What kind of grammatical features does the language have? – Romani is an OV language with 2 numbers, 2 genders, 5 tenses (present, future, imperfect, preterite, pluperfect), 4 moods (ind, imp, sub, and cond), 2 aspects (pfv and ipfv) 3 verb classes, and 2 noun classes which are determined by the historical etymology of the word. It also presents voice with its multiple valency markers (showing volition like causative and passive). – Word stress is not uniform between dialects, but there are typical patterns within singular dialects.
How to identify the language? – Romani is a minority language (granted, with many speakers comparitavely), and I know the Roma people have faced severe descrimination for decades. Therefore, I don’t feel I have the right to attempt to define this. – The following is an excerpt from the Romani Language wikipedia page in Romani: Sar von telyarden? Vi kathe si sira janglimata. Yek Rajputikano Jâtî, e banjara, mothoden sar but lendar gelen ko oksidento ando kodo vaxt. Vi si janglo ke but hindustanurya sas phandavde le xorxanendar tay tradine ando akanutno Afganistan tay Mashkarutni Asiya. Kodola xoraxaya phenden but chibya, ama e prinjardi sas i farsikani. I romani si la but Farsikane lava tay 80% lendar si vi andi urdu chib.
What does the language sound like? – It distinguishes voice and consonant aspiration. Some dialects also show vowel length distinction. – The photos below notes the base sounds of Romani. Pease note that many sounds found throughout distinct dialects are not represented. Most notably, variants of [r] such as uvular, trills, and retroflexes are unrepresented.
What do you personally find interesting about the language? – I didn’t know so many levels of valency existed before noticing the number of Romani valency markers. That was a fun linguistic discovery. On a more personal note, I love how widespread the language is and how that has impacted its numerous dialects. I do genuinely have a bit of a fascination with Romani :)
Do not use the G slur in tags or reblogs of this post!
Just a quick update on why I’ve been gone so long. I’ve been dealing with a lot of medical issues over the past few years, and it culminated with me being in a coma due to the extreme number of psych meds I was on (10!!!). I’m feeling a lot better now and am excited to be back and to work on my Romani in the Arts blog and Writing with Color again :D
