Welsh Romani | |
---|---|
Kalá | |
Romnimus | |
Native to | Wales (United Kingdom) |
Indo-European
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | rmw |
Glottolog | wels1246 |
Kalá or the Welsh Romani language is a variety of the Romani language spoken by the Kalé subgroup of the Romani people, who have been present in Wales since the 16th century. Kalá is one of the many Northern Romani dialects.[1]
The majority of the vocabulary is of Romani origin but there are a number of loanwords from other languages. Welsh loanwords include melanō ("yellow", from melyn), grīga ("heather", from grug) and kraŋka ("crab", from cranc). There are also English loanwords such as vlija ("village"), spīdra ("spider") and bråmla ("bramble").[2]
Historically the variants of Kalá and Angloromani (spoken by the Romanichal) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani.[3] Kalá is closely related to Angloromani, Scandoromani (spoken by Romanisæl in Sweden and Norway), Scottish Cant (spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani in Lowland Scotland) and Kalo (Spoken by Kaale in Finland and Sweden). Kale, Romanichal, Romanisæl, Kaale and Scottish Lowland Romani are closely related Romani subgroups which stem from the wave of Romani immigrants who arrived in Northern Europe in the 16th century.[4]