Baltic Romani language
| Baltic Romani | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Albania, Bulgaria |
|
Native speakers
|
30,000 in Poland (no date); 20,000 in other countries (1995–2001) |
|
Indo-European
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either: rml – Baltic Romani rmf – Finnish Kalo |
| Glottolog |
balt1257 (Baltic Romani)kalo1256 (Finnish Kalo)
|
Indo-European, Indo-Iranian, Indo-Aryan Central Zone, Romani, Central Romani
The first speakers of this language settled in southeast Europe during the 10th and 13th centuries in high numbers. From the 14th century onward, the language spread to central and western Europe as well. The immigrants that spoke this language had a darker complexion and many of these speakers were referred to as gypsies. The country of origin for this language turned out to be India after comparisons between other languages showed the similarity.
Baltic Romani is group of dialects of the Romani language spoken in the Baltic states and adjoining regions of Poland and Russia. Half of the speakers live in Poland.
This language is spoken in the following countries;
Official Status
This language is not an official language in any particular country but has other statuses in those which it is spoken.
Dialects/Varieties
Dialects are as follows;
('CL' stands for the main contact language):
Derived Languages
Languages derived from Baltic Romani are as follows ;
There are three simple stop positions in the Romani language. These come from the Indo-Aryan and are maintained in every dialect of this language. The positions are as follows; labial /p/, dental /t/, and velar /k/. Along with these stop positions, there are also palatal positions which are unique to the Romani language. Specific voicing alterations have changed grammatical endings and different dialects have different ways of interpreting vowels. Some have morphed into newer versions of the Romani language and others have implemented other elements like screams.
In the Romani language, the noun changes the endings of sentences to show meaning. It is used to illustrate how that specific word acts in sentence and is similar to Latin. Romani verbs are similar to those in the Italian, Spanish, and Latin languages. Depending on who is committing the action, the verb ending changes. There are many different verb endings in Romani which change the meaning of words. There are also different verb endings according to past and present tense in the language. The language also has grammatical genders as there are both masculine and feminine words. There are definite articles in this language along with, "different articles for masculine and feminine nouns, for subject and non-subject and for singular and plural articles".
Morphology The language began as an Indo-European language morphed into an Indo-Iranian language. From there it morphed into an Indo-Aryan language which eventually led to Romani. After that the Romani language broke down into Balkan Romani and Central Romani. Baltic Romani came from the Central Romani dialect which branches off to the many other dialects listed above.
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