Para-Romani

Para-Romani are various mixed languages of non-Indo-Aryan linguistic classification containing considerable admixture from the Romani language. They are spoken as the traditional vernacular of Romani communities,[1] either in place of, or alongside, varieties of the Romani language. Some Para-Romani languages have no structural features of Romani at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani.[2]

Reflecting the Romani who as a dispersed people reside predominantly throughout Europe over the last thousand years—though with origins in the northern Indian Subcontinent, in regions which are today part of India and Pakistan—the linguistic makeup of most Para-Romani languages are based on Indo-European languages, except for Laiuse Romani (which is based on Estonian) and Erromintxela (which is based on Basque of the Basque region of Spain and France, separate from the Caló Iberian Romani language of Spanish and Portuguese Romani based on the Romance languages of Iberia).

The phenomenon of Para-Romani languages is entirely different from Jewish languages (other than Hebrew) which are spoken by different communities of the Jewish diaspora and are heavily influence by Hebrew, such as Yiddish (Judaeo-German) among Ashkenazi Jews, Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) among Sephardic Jews, or Yevanic (Judaeo-Greek), Italkian (Judaeo-Italian), various Judeo-Arabic languages, etc.

Varieties

Based on Indo-European languages

• Armenian-based
  • Lomavren language
• Germanic-based
  • Angloromani
  • Scottish Cant
  • Scandoromani
  • Sinti-Manouche (moving from a Romani variant to being Para-Romani)[3]
• Greek-based
  • Romano-Greek
• Romance-based
  • Caló
• Slavonic-based
  • †Bohemian Romani (which was moving towards being a Para-Romani variety prior to extinction)
  • Romano-Serbian
• Persian-based[4]
  • Afghanistan Gorbat
  • Persian Romani
  • Magati

Based on non-Indo European languages

• Finnic-based
  • †Laiuse Romani (Estonian-based)
• Turkic-based
  • Crimean-Romani (Crimean Tatar-based)[5]
  • Kurbetcha (Turkish-based)
• Basque-based
  • Erromintxela

References

1. Matras, Y. Romani: A Linguistic Introduction Cambridge University Press (2002) ISBN 0-521-63165-3
2. Matras, Yaron (5 October 2010). "Romani in Britain". Edinburgh University Press – via Google Books.
3. Hubschmannova, Milena; Kalinin, Valdemar; Kenrick, Donald (28 April 2018). "What is the Romani Language?". Univ of Hertfordshire Press – via Google Books.
4. Persian-Romani (Mixed Language)
5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2004-01-24. Retrieved 2010-10-20.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)