Angloromany language

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Angloromany (literally "English Romany") or Angloromani is a language combining aspects of English and Romany. It has about 250,000 speakers[citation needed], most of them living in the United Kingdom and the United States. Several thousand speakers of Angloromany live in Australia. It is possible that Angloromany has been spoken since the 16th century.

'Anglo-Romany' is a term used to describe usage of words of Romany origin within English conversation. Romany was spoken in England until the late 19th century; perhaps a generation longer in Wales. It was replaced by English as the everyday and family language of British Romany but this does not mean the language disappeared entirely. Words of Romany origin were still used as part of a family-language. Words which are occasionally inserted into English conversation are referred to in linguistic literature on Romany as 'Para-Romany': the selective retention of some Romany-derived vocabulary following the disappearance of Romany as an everyday language of conversation.

Anglo-Romany is thus more a vocabulary, than a ‘language’ in the strict sense. It is used within the framework of English conversation, English sentences, and English grammar and pronunciation, thus: The mush was jalling down the drom with his gry. means 'The man was walking down the road with his horse.'[1]

Edinburgh slang also contains a large number of Romany-derived words. A few words, like pal (originally ‘brother’), have entered common English slang. [2]


Contents

[edit] Historical Documentation of English Romany

Until relatively recently, Anglo-Romany received very little study from the academic community. However a recent discovery of a documents (Winchester confessions) c.17th century, indicates, British Romany was itself a dialect of the northern branch of Romany sharing a close similarity to Welsh Romany. [3] However the language in a modern context, has deteriorated from the Indic based vocabulary, morpholology, and influences from Greek and other Balkan languages of 17th century. To a Para-Romany dialect typical of modern Anglo-Romany which has sentence endings influenced by English, while Welsh Romany retains the original grammatical system.

Historically the variants of Welsh and English Romany, constituted the same variant of Romany, [4] 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 Romany immigrants into western, northern and southern Europe in the late middle ages. [5] Few documents survive into modern times, the (Winchester confessions) c.1616A.D. highlights the variant of English Romany and contains a high number of words still used in the modern Northern European Romany dialects and until recently Welsh Romany; [6] 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 Romany, with little English loanwords present. [7]

However the Winchester confessions, highlights English grammatical structures, were influencing speakers of English Romany (within a London context where the document was sourced) to an (adjective-noun) configuration rather than the (noun-adjective) configuration of other Romany dialects, including modern Welsh Romany. The document suggests a complete separation between Thieves' Cant, and the variant of English Romany of the time. [8] This has particular implication when dating the origin and development of Anglo-Romany and split from Welsh Romany. One such study [9] believes English Romany speakers gradually lost its distinctive syntax, phonology and morphology. While other leading contemporaries [10] believes Anglo-Romany developed relatively recently to the Romany communities arrival in the 16th century, in a similar development to the Pidgin or Creol languages [11]

Anglo-Romany was already developing in the 17th century, although this change from the original English Romany was unclear. The (Winchester Confession) disproves a sudden morphological change). [12] and favours a strict linguistic separation between a Canting language and English Romany whose speakers used a separate and distinct Romany language when speaking amongst themselves. A situation which existed one hundred years later as testified by James Poulter 1775 as “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. Romany of that time was a language of every day communication, of practical use, and not a secret language.

The original Romany was used exclusively as a family or clan language, during occasional encounters between various Roma 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 still keep the language undecipherable to outsiders, the Romany speakers coined new terms that were a combination or variation of the original English terms. For example, a ‘forester’ is called veshengro, from the Romany word for ‘forest’, vesh; a ‘restaurant’ is a habbinkerr from the words habbin ‘food’ and kerr ‘house’, thus literally ‘foodhouse’; and a ‘mayor’ is a gavmoosh, from the words gav ‘village, town’ and moosh ‘man’, literally ‘town-man’. Gradually, British Roma 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 Angloromany.[13]

Its origins are in India, and the core of the vocabulary and grammar still resemble modern Indian languages like Urdu, Kashmiri, or Punjabi. Linguists have been investigating the dialects of Romany 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 Romany 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 Roma from different regions to understand one another if they have not had any exposure to other dialects before.

[edit] Intertwining

  • Anglo-Romany is an intertwined (mixed) language
  • The base languages are Romany (Romany, Gypsy) and English
  • “Para-Romany” is the general term for the group of mixed languages formed when Roma people moved into various European countries (Germany, Spain, Balkans, Scandinavia)
  • The Roma who moved into the UK blended their language with English to form “Anglo-Romany”
  • Some English lexical items that are archaic or only used in idiomatic expressions in Standard English survive in Anglo-Romany, for example moniker and swaddling

[edit] Dialectal Variation

Within Anglo-Romany we can find four dialects:

  • Irish Traveler Cant (the travelling people of Ireland or Pavee are non-Romany and have incorporated some Romany words. Historically they speak a language called Shelta)
  • Scottish Traveler Cant (The varient of English Romany spoken by English/Welsh Roma people and their Roma decendants in Scotland. Particularly the border area with populations in Edinburgh and Glasgow) Scottish traveller Romany bares no linguistic or cultural resemblence to Beurla-reagaird a language of Gaelic origin spoken by the travelling people of the Scottish Highlands.
  • North Welsh Kalè
  • South Welsh and English

These dialects are based on where various groups originally settled when moving to the UK. The members of these groups consider not only their dialects to differ, but also that they are of different ethnic groups. 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 [14]

“Go and ask your sister” in various dialects would be:

  • jaw te puches tire phenya
  • jaw ta puch tiripen
  • jaw and puch tiri pen
  • jal and puch tuti’s pen

[edit] Phonology & Syntax

Romany had a phonemic distinction between two /r/s - a flap and a voiced uvular fricative - which in Anglo-romany has been lost and replaced by a single rolled /r/. Anglo-Romany has also lost the phonemic distinction between aspirated and non-aspirated stops. Overall, Anglo-Romany consonants reflect the standard British English consonantal system with these exceptions:

  • Anglo-Romany includes the consonant /x/ in certain dialects.
  • Anglo-Romany is rhotic even in parts of the country that are non-rhotic.

Romany allowed for two word orders - SVO and VSO. Anglo-Romany has only SVO word order. Negation in Romany is achieved through the use of the word kek, i.e.

  • 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, as in:

  • dūvrī - “distant”
  • dūvrī-dūvrī - “very distant”

[edit] Morphology

Up to 1547, the Romany language was an inflected language, employing two genders, plurality and case marking. Anglo-Romany is first referenced in 1566-67. Around 1873, Romany personal pronouns became inconsistently marked, according to Leland, who also notes that case distinction began fading overall, and gender marking also disappeared. Borrow notes that in 1874, some Romany speakers were still employing complete inflection, while some were adapting the English syntax with Romany lexicon. It seems to be around 1876 that gender distinction was no longer seen, however continued use of Romany plural forms was noted, along with English verb conjugation. 1923, when some plural still being used on nouns, but English prepositions are used instead of Romany postpositions. Current usage has lost almost all Romany morphology and instead uses English morphology with Romany lexical items.

[edit] Samples of Angloromany

The Anglo-Romany Project, an initiative of the Romany community of Blackburn and the Lancashire Traveller Education Service, has samples of Anglo-Romany conversation as well as documentation, which it has collected with the aim to document the Anglo-Romany lexicon in its regional and dialectal variation. Samples of conversation and their meaning can be found here. Samples of Anglo-Romani, Audio files

Lord's prayer sample text:

Moro Dad, so see adre mi Duvelesko keri, te wel teero kralisom, too zee be kedo adre chik, jaw see adre mi Duvelesko keri. Del mendi kova divvus moro divvusly mauro, ta fordel mendi moro wafedo-kerimus, pensa mendi fordels yon ta kairs wafedo aposh mendi, ta lel mendi kek adre wafedo-kerimus. Jaw keressa te righer mendi avri wafedo. Jaw see ta jaw see.

[edit] Distribution

Name of dialect: ANGLO-ROMANY

Classification: Northwestern

Country: Great Britain

Major contact language: English

Location: Cheshire

Information source [15]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Romany Project, Manchester
  2. ^ BBC Website ‘Languages of the UK’, 2004.
  3. ^ Kenrick. Donald. S. (1971) The sociolinguistics of the development of British Romany. In current changes of British Gypsies and their place in international patterns of development. Thomas Action, ed.
  4. ^ Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Chlarendon Press.
  5. ^ Bakker (1997) Review of McGowan, The Winchester Confessions. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Fith series, 7. (1): 49-50.
  6. ^ Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Chlarendon Press.
  7. ^ Smart B.C. and H.T. Crofton (1875) The Dialect of the English Gypsies. London: Asher & Co.
  8. ^ Alan McGowan (1996), The Winchester confessions 1615-1616. Romany and Traveller History Society.
  9. ^ Kenrick. Donald. S. (1971) The sociolinguistics of the development of British Romany. In current changes of British Gypsies and their place in international patterns of development. Thomas Action, ed.
  10. ^ Hancock. Ian. F. (1971). Comment on Kenrick. In Proceedings in the research and conference of policy the National Gypsy Council. Thomas action, ed. Oxford national Gypsy education council.
  11. ^ Hancock. Ian. F. (1971). Comment on Kenrick. In Proceedings in the research and conference of policy the National Gypsy Council. Thomas action, ed. Oxford national Gypsy education council.
  12. ^ Baaker (2002) An early vocabulary of British Romany (1616): A linguistic analysis. Romany studies 5. vol 12.
  13. ^ BBC Website ‘Languages of the UK’, 2004.
  14. ^ AngloRomany, The Mixed Language of Romany Peoples, Krislyn McWilliams, Manuela Nelson, & Meghan Oxley
  15. ^ Acton, Thomas, and Kenrick, Donald. eds. 1984. Romani rokkeripen to-divvus. London: Romanestan.

[edit] References

  • Acton, Thomas. 1989. The Value of “Creolized” Dialects of Romanes. In International Symposium Romany Language and Culture. Sarajevo.
  • Acton, Thomas and Gerwyn Davis. 1979. Educational Policy and Language Use Among English Romas 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, eds. 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 Impovershment as Control. In Gypsies: A book of interdisciplinary readings, ed. Diane Tong. New York: Garland Publishers.

[edit] External links

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