Romani and Irish Travellers Language

The Romani language is a member of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Its basis is the old Indian cult language Sanskrit, from which also Hindi, Urdu, Marathi etc. have evolved.

Romani and Hindi are sister languages though Romani separated from the Indo-Aryan branch for over two thousand years ago. In many ways it is older fashioned than modern day Hindi. Romani is an internationally spoken language. According to official sources, there are 8 million speakers of Romani in Europe and according to unofficial sources the number of the speakers of Romani is 12 million.

Over the course of time the Romani language has evolved into various dialects that have been influenced by local languages. The researchers say that the basic vocabulary has stayed almost the same in various dialects. This is mainly due to close connections between the Roma communities of different countries.

In England the dialect is known as Romanes. English Gypsies’ mother tongue is English. Due to the history of persecution, many older Gypsy/ Roma think that the less the outsiders know of their customs and language, the less they are able to hurt them. That is the reason for the unwillingness to teach the language to the outsiders. Earlier the language was adopted in natural settings. The diminished use of Romani has led to the discovery in the 1960s and 70s that the young knew even less of the language.

The Irish Traveller language has a completely different root from Romani and is not related in anyway, neither is it related to Gaelic. The language is known as Shelta (also known as Cant and Gammen). It is still regarded as quite a secret language. The years of contact and intermarriage between some families have meant that some words have crossed over from one group to another.

About this section.

Part of the text in this culture and history section comes from "Guidebook for Health and Other Professionals" from Waltham Forest Traveller Education Service, itself modified from the Finnish model “The Roma and health services” - Guide for health professionals, 2nd renewed edition 2000, produced and created by the National Board of Education, Finland.

Our thanks go to London Borough of Waltham Forest and Janette Gronfors in particularly for allowing us to use this information in support of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month.