Village Life

Contrary to what many would expect from the archetypal “traveller” Romanes is rather sparse in terms of travel and terms concerning nature – especially for plants, animals and so on. On the other hand, the vocabulary for everyday rural and sedentary life is rather extensive. This literally says that it is easier to describe a farm and farming, house and housing with vocabulary from the common trunk than describing nomadic way of life. In the case of semi-nomadic Roma, many of those terms are later acquisitions though some of these terms are older, dating from the Indian exodus.

A tent, cerha (tsera, tsahra, katuna, šatra in various Roma dialects) is not of Indian origins. Neither is the word vurdon (vurden, verdan, vordin, vardo) [a carriage]. It actually stems from an old Persian word. The list of words of Indian origins referring to village life is long: kher [house],  gav [village], giv [wheat], džov [oats], phabaj [apple], drakh [grapes], guruv [ox, bull], bakro [sheep], balo [pig], khajni/kahni [hen] and so on.

Verbs

Perhaps as surprising a fact for many readers, Romanes is a “language of verbs”. It contains proportionally more verbs than many Indo-European languages. Several of these verbs can be substantivised to increase the pool of nouns. Using khelav [to play, to dance], one can construct depending on the dialect khelipe, khelimos or khelipen meaning a game or a dance. 

Evolution and Acquisitions

New words are often created in Romanes, a fact which has a long tradition as it is the source of the dialect creation. Many such words are simply local words to which a greek ending is added. Nowadays, Roma will use vonungo in german speaking lands to denote their apartment (from the German Wohnung) or fernsevo in German speaking countries or its alternative tevevo in latin speaking lands.

Others are the result of a direct translation into Romanes or false interpretations of the meaning of a word in the local language.

The Manouches in France sometimes say šop nakeskro for cinema [lit. it of the six noses from the French shortened version “ciné” which is pronounced as “six nez” – six noses]. The Sinti in Germany sometimes call Nürenberg Bukengero Foro meaning the city of kidneys as in some Southern German dialects Nürenberg is deformed to “Nierenberg” – from the German Niere [Kidney]. In Russia, the district administration is called baluni [hairy] because its Russian name was Volostnoje Upravlenije, close to volosnoje, hairy in Russian. Among the Cale, instead of the first name Agosto, one sometimes uses querosto,  the one who did as the Spanish “hago” means I do [querelo in Calo]. The Carpathian Roma of the Austrian Burgenland use bangore for potatoes, lit. the bent ones, from the local Hungarian krumpli since krum in German means bent. 

Shifts

While the vocabulary, especially the Indian one has remained pretty much unified among various Roma groups, the meaning has sometimes been deformed or some other use and signification has been added.

In the dialect spoken in Prizren (Kosovo) ašunav means both to hear and also to understand and sometimes even to learn. Among Sepetčides of Izmir (originally from Northern Greece) akharav means to carry while in most other dialects it means to call, to invite. 

Synonyms

Synonimics in Romanes sometimes consist of on the one hand the Romano word and on the other the equivalent word in the gadžikano language. That is, in the language of their country of origin, or rather in the country they have previously settled in. For example, for the French Manouche, it means German, for the Latvian Roma  it means Polish, for the Kalderaša outside Romania it means Romanian and so on. The French Manouches use simultaneously zuna [German: Sonne] and kham for sun, erta [German: Erde] and phup for earth etc… The Latvian Roma sometime use simultaneously šmerã [Latvian: šmierś] and meripen for death and the Kalderaša outside Romania use bala [Romanian: boala] and nasvalimos for illness.

Romanes may seem poor for an English speaker as it contains rather few lexems compared to that language. However, the finesse of Romanes lies in both the syntax as well as in the phraseology. This is perhaps the most difficult, although certainly the most  fascinating  part of  Romanes.  Nuances  are sometimes difficult to translate and we hope that the following short presentation will render these usages.

Syntax

Let us start with the morphosyntax. Kalderaša say me dav tuke vast, literally, I give you the hand, but this does not mean shaking hands and means helping out. Shaking hands is indicated by the use of the pronoun tu [you (sing)] in instrumental form:  me dav tusa vast, literally, I give the hand with you. In most Roma dialects, me lav vastestar means I take (something) from the hand while me lav tut vastestar means I catch you by your hand.

Phraseology, especially in the case of lav [to take] and dav [to give] is extensive. In Vlax dialects, dav anglal, lit. I give ahead or give forward, means to answer while dav andre, lit. give inside, means to enter. In Northern dialects, dav godli, lit. give tears, means simply to cry but dav andre (gres) means in those dialects to harness. In all dialects, one finds del brišind, lit. it gives rain that is, it rains. The list is almost infinite. 

The same is true with lav: lav anglal, lit. to give forward means to prevent. In Vlax dialects, lav pe mande, lit. I take on me, means I dress myself. In those same dialects, one encounters lav sama [to observe, to look] while sama means attention, opinion and is used in the context of a share and due. In the case of lav pe murri sama [I take my share or my due]. Pe sama Romani means in simultaneously in the Gypsy way and for the Gypsy well being or prosperity.

Periphrases

When the specific lexems are absent, Romanes uses periphrases. For example the Kalderaša me lem angla mande o foro, lit. I took the city in front of me, which means I passed around the city (avoiding it).  In the same dialect, či len leske opre, lit. they don’t take him up, means they don’t have respect for him.  In Crimean Romanes, lel-pes sar o kham [he (or she) takes himself (herself) as the sun] means he (or she) shines as the sun. Lovara use ande dem andi soba, lit. I gave it inside the room, meaning I entered the room.