The name Romani derives from řom, the historical self-designation of speakers of the Romani language group. Romani is sometimes written as Romany (in English), but native speaking people use the word Romani for the language. Historically, Romani people have been known for being nomadic, but today only a small percentage of Romani people are unsettled[5] due to forced assimilation and government interventions.
Sinte Romani is a dialect of Romani and belongs to the Northwestern Romani dialect group, Sinti is the self-designation of a large Romani population that began leaving the Balkans early on in the dispersion of the Romani language group, from the end of the 14th century on, and migrated to German-speaking territory.[6][7]Sinti in France typically also speak Sinte Romani but refer to themselves as Manuš (or Manouche).[7][8] Among French Sinti and Manouche people, its use has been largely superseded by a dialect of French usually known as Voyageur.[9]
Sinte Romani is a non-tonal language with 25 consonants, 6 vowels, and 4 diphthongs.[6]
Vocabulary
Example vocabulary for Sinte Romani is given below, based on samples from Austria, Italy, and Albania collected in the Romani Morpho-Syntax Database (RMS) hosted by the University of Manchester. Words that show the influence of historical German vocabulary are marked with an asterisk (*).
^Peter Bakker, Donald Kenrick et al.: What is the Romani language? Series: Interface Collection. Centre de recherches tsiganes and University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield (Hertfordshire) 2000, p. 58 (ISBN 1-902806-06-9).
^Peter Bakker, Donald Kenrick et al.: What is the Romani language? Series: Interface Collection. Centre de recherches tsiganes and University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield (Hertfordshire) 2000, p. 44 (ISBN 1-902806-06-9).
Daniel Holzinger, Das Romanes. Grammatik und Diskursanalyse der Sprache der Sinte, Innsbruck 1993
Norbert Boretzky/Birgit Igla, Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani, Teil 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004
Further reading
Acton, T. A., & Mundy, G. (1997). Romani culture and Gypsy identity. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire.
Peter Bakker, Donald Kenrick et al.: What is the Romani language? Series: Interface Collection. Centre de recherches tsiganes and University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield (Hertfordshire) 2000, p. 58.
Gilbert, J. (2014). Nomadic peoples and human rights. New York, NY: Routledge.
Guy, W. (2001). Between past and future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
Matras, Y. (1999). "Writing Romani: The pragmatics of codification in a stateless language". Applied Linguistics. 20 (4): 481–502. doi:10.1093/applin/20.4.481.
Matras, Y. (2002). Romani: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Matras, Y. (2010). Romani in Britain: The afterlife of a language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Saul, N., & Tebbutt, S. (2004). The role of the Romanies: Images and counter-images of "Gypsies"/Romanies in European cultures. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Smith, T. (1997). "Recognising Difference: The Romani 'Gypsy' Child Socialisation and Education Process. British". Journal of Sociology of Education. 18 (2): 243–256. doi:10.1080/0142569970180207. JSTOR1393193.
