# Romani language

| Romani |
| --- |
| *romani čhib* |
| Native speakers | c. 1.5 million (SIL Ethnologue) (2015) |
| Language family | Indo-European
* Indo-Iranian
	+ Indo-Aryan
		- Hellenic
			* **Romani**
 |
| Official status |
| Recognised minority language in | * Albania
* Austria
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Colombia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Hungary
* Kosovo
* Macedonia
* Netherlands
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Slovakia
* Serbia
* Sweden
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
 |
| Language codes |
| ISO 639-2 | `rom` |
| ISO 639-3 | `rom` – inclusive code Individual codes: `rmn` – Balkan Romani `rmn` – Rumelian Romani `rml` – Baltic Romani `rmc` – Carpathian Romani `rmf` – Finnish Kalo `rmo` – Sinte Romani `rmy` – Vlax Romani `rmw` – Welsh-Romani |
| *Glottolog* | `roma1329` |
|

**Romani** or **Romany** (native name: **romani ćhib**) is the language of the Roma. The Indo-Aryan Romani language should not be confused with either Romanian (spoken by Romanians), or Romansh (spoken in parts of southeastern Switzerland), both of which are Romance languages.

The language developed outside from India, in Roman province Egypt, by Indian traders from different areas of India, who settled at the red sea coast in Egypt. It is based by Sanskrit and Prakrit, but strongly influenced by Ancient Greek, and Persian language, Old Church Slavonic, some words from the Coptic language, like rōmi *man*.Loanwords from other languages in Romani make it possible to trace the pattern of their migration westwards. There are many different dialects.

## Distribution

The following table shows the distribution of Romani speakers in Europe according to Bakker et al. (2000) . The last column shows the percentage of Romani speakers in the Roma population in each country.

| Country | Speakers | % |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Albania | 90,000 | 95% |
| Austria | 20,000 | 80% |
| Belarus | 27,000 | 95% |
| Belgium | 10,000 | 80% |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 40,000 | 90% |
| Bulgaria | 350,000 | 80% |
| Croatia | 28,000 | 80% |
| Czech Republic | 140,000 | 50% |
| Denmark | 1,500 | 90% |
| Estonia | 1,100 | 90% |
| Finland | 3,000 | 90% |
| France | 215,000 | 70% |
| Germany | 85,000 | 70% |
| Greece | 160,000 | 90% |
| Hungary | 260,000 | 50% |
| Italy | 42,000 | 90% |
| Latvia | 18,500 | 90% |
| Lithuania | 4,000 | 90% |
| Macedonia | 215,000 | 90% |
| Moldova | 56,000 | 90% |
| Netherlands | 3,000 | 90% |
| Poland | 4,000 | 90% |
| Romania | 433,000 | 80% |
| Russia | 405,000 | 80% |
| Serbia and Montenegro | 380,000 | 90% |
| Slovakia | 300,000 | 60% |
| Slovenia | 8,000 | 90% |
| Spain | 1,000 | 1% |
| Sweden | 9,500 | 90% |
| Turkey | 280,000 | 10% |
| Ukraine | 113,000 | 90% |
| United Kingdom | 1,000 | 0.5% |

## Notes and references

* Bakker Peter et al. 2000. *What is the Romani language?* Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
* Hancock, Ian. 2001. *Ame sam e rromane džene / We are the Romani People.* The Open Society Institute, New York.
* Lee, Ronald. 2005. *Learn Romani Das-dúma Rromanes* Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press
* Masica, Colin. 1991. *The Indo-Aryan Languages.* Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Matras, Yaron. 2002. *Romani: A linguistic introduction.* Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Sarău, Gheorghe. 1997. *Rromii, India şi limba rromani.* Bucureşti.
* Sarău, Gheorghe. 2000. *Dicţionar rrom-român / Dikcionaro rromano-rumunikano.* Dacia, Cluj-Napoca. ISBN 973-35-0987-6.

## Other websites

* Detailed discussion of the language
* Outline of Romani Grammar (Victor A. Friedman)
* Romani Origins - Veda encyclopedia Archived 2008-09-14 at the Wayback Machine