Sinte Romani (also known as Sintitikes, Manuš) is the variety of
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
spoken by the
Sinti people in
Germany,
France,
Austria,
Belgium, the
Netherlands, some parts of
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
and other adjacent regions. Sinte Romani is characterized by significant German influence and is not
mutually intelligible
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an ...
with other forms of Romani.
The language is written in the
Latin script.
Overview
The name Romani derives from ''řom'', the historical self-designation of speakers of the
Romani language group. Romani is sometimes written as Romany (in English), but native speaking people use the word Romani for the language. Historically, Romani people have been known for being nomadic, but today only a small percentage of Romani people are unsettled due to forced assimilation and government interventions.
Sinte Romani is a dialect of
Romani
Romani may refer to:
Ethnicities
* Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia
** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule
* Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...
and belongs to the
Northwestern Romani dialect group, which also includes
Finnish Kalo
Finnish Kalo () is a language of the Romani language family (a subgroup of Indo-European) spoken by Finnish Kale. The language is related to but not mutually intelligible with Scandoromani or Angloromani.
Finnish Kalo has 6,000–10,000 speake ...
.
is the self-designation of a large Romani population that began leaving the
Balkans early on in the dispersion of the Romani language group, from the end of the 14th century on, and migrated to German-speaking territory.
typically also speak Sinte Romani but refer to themselves as Manuš (or Manouche).
Today Sinte is mainly spoken in
Germany,
France,
Northern Italy
Northern Italy ( it, Italia settentrionale, it, Nord Italia, label=none, it, Alta Italia, label=none or just it, Nord, label=none) is a geographical and cultural region in the northern part of Italy. It consists of eight administrative regions ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
,
Serbia, and
Croatia, with smaller numbers of speakers in
Austria,
the Czech Republic, and the
Netherlands.
form the largest sub-group of
Romani people in Germany, and Germany, in turn, is home to the largest number of Sinte Romani speakers.
Nearly all Sinte Romani speakers speak multiple languages, the dominant language of the country they live in being the most common.
Phonology
Sinte Romani is a non-tonal language with 25 consonants, 6 vowels, and 4 diphthongs.
Vocabulary
Example vocabulary for Sinte Romani is given below, based on samples from Austria, Italy, and Albania collected in the Romani Morpho-Syntax Database (RMS) hosted by the
University of Manchester. Words that show the influence of historical German vocabulary are marked with an asterisk (*).
* Words borrowed from historical German
** Words borrowed from the modern dominant languages (i.e., German, Italian, or Albanian)
See also
*
Sinti
*
Romani language
References
Sources
* Daniel Holzinger, Das Romanes. Grammatik und Diskursanalyse der Sprache der Sinte, Innsbruck 1993
* Norbert Boretzky/Birgit Igla, Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani, Teil 1, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004
Further reading
* Acton, T. A., & Mundy, G. (1997). Romani culture and Gypsy identity. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire.
* Peter Bakker, Donald Kenrick et al.: ''What is the Romani language?'' Series: ''Interface Collection''. Centre de recherches tsiganes and University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield (Hertfordshire) 2000, p. 58.
* Gilbert, J. (2014). Nomadic peoples and human rights. New York, NY: Routledge.
* Guy, W. (2001). Between past and future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press.
*
* Matras, Y. (2002). Romani: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Matras, Y. (2010). Romani in Britain: The afterlife of a language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
* Saul, N., & Tebbutt, S. (2004). The role of the Romanies: Images and counter-images of "Gypsies"/Romanies in European cultures. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
*
*
External links
A brief overview (in German)* A 1903 textbook in Sinti by F. N. Finck, (in German), at the
Internet ArchiveBiblical Recording in Sinte RomaniRMS: Romani Morpho-Syntax Database*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinti-Manouche Language
Romani in Austria
Romani in France
Romani in Germany
Romani in Italy
Northern Romani dialects
Sinti
Sinti in Austria
Sinti in Germany
Languages of the Netherlands