Learn Romani

Das-duma Rromanes

Ronald Lee

• Publisher: University Of Hertfordshire Press
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN: 9781902806440
• eBook ISBN: 9781907396427
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Lingue e linguistica
• Subtopic: Linguistica

Following 18 carefully structured lessons, this Romani language primer explores the vocabulary and grammar of the Kalderash Roma in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Designed for beginner students, this course reference begins with the basic verbs and nouns and builds through to the subtler grammatical necessities of reading and speaking the language. Quotations from native speakers, poems, songs, proverbs, and folktales add to the cultural and historical understanding of the language.

Lesson one

The present tense

Read the following table aloud and look carefully at the endings. The personal pronouns (words in brackets before the verb) do not need to be used but often are employed for emphasis or clarity, for example, Mangav xabe ‘I want (some) food’ is a simple statement of fact as compared to Me mangav xabe! ‘I want food!’ or ‘It’s me who wants food!’ with a greater emphasis. The verb conjugations (i.e. verb endings) are in italics in the table to clarify them and show who is doing the action. Romani has no infinitive like ‘to want’ in English, therefore the verb stem or root of a Romani verb will either be conjugated to one of its forms in the present tense, for example, mangav ‘I want’, or given as the verb stem mang- to which the appropriate conjugation must be added as shown below:

mang- (the verb stem or root)

(me)	mangav	I want
(tu)	manges	you want (singular)
(wo)	mangel	he wants
(woi)	mangel	she wants
o Rrôm	mangel	the Rom wants
(ame)	mangas	we want
(tume)	mangen	you want (plural)
(won)	mangen	they want

You will notice the ending < en > has two meanings and usually the sense will be clear from the situation but, if not, use the personal pronoun tume or won.

There is also a long form of the verb i.e. mangáva, mangésa, mangéla, etc. This can be ignored for now as there is no change in meaning using the shorter form given in this lesson.

Test whether you have understood

If beshav means ‘I sit, I am sitting’ and comes from the verb stem besh-, what is the English for:

1.	beshas
2.	beshes
3.	beshel
4.	beshen (give two meanings)

If ‘he drinks’ is piyel, what is the Romani for:

5.	I drink
6.	they drink
7.	we drink
8.	you drink (singular)

Check your answers on the last page of this lesson and, if you made any mistakes, look carefully at the table above again.

The definite article: the word ‘the’

There are only two genders in Romani: masculine and feminine. Nouns denoting inanimate objects (like table and chair) will either be masculine and take < o > or feminine and take < e >. For example:

o grast	the horse
e grasni	the mare
o lil	the letter
e ryat	the night

Most nouns ending in a stressed < o > like balo ‘male pig’ use < o > and most words ending in a stressed < i > like bali ‘sow’ use < e >. For other nouns ending in consonants you will have to consult the word lists in each lesson and eventually a dictionary.

Learn these words with < o > or < e > in front of them. Learn ‘letter’ as o lil ‘the letter’ and e yag as ‘the fire’.

Test

Test whether you have understood and again, check your answers on the last page of this lesson. If manrro is ‘bread’ and bali is ‘sow’, what is the Romani for:

9.	the bread
10.	the sow

The indefinite article: the words ‘a’ and ‘an’

The English words ‘a’ and ‘an’ (indefinite articles) have no equivalent in Romani. For example, lil ‘letter’ or ‘a letter’ and grast ‘horse’ or ‘a horse’. You will see that sometimes < o > and < e > are used where ‘the’ is not used in English. This happens in front of and with people’s names:

E Mára avel	Mary is coming
O Stévo avel	Steve is coming
Kon avel?	Who is coming?

Here are a few more examples of statements in Romani:

(Wo) avel	He is coming
(Wo) lasharel o wudar	He repairs the door
E shey phutrel o lil	The girl opens (is opening) the letter

Questions are usually asked by raising the voice, as in English, or by turning part of the sentence round: O shávo avel? (with the voice rising) or Avel o shávo? ‘Is the Romani boy coming?’

In Romani, the present tense translates the following English forms: I come, I am coming, I do come and, as in English, the present tense can be used to express the future as in ‘I am coming tomorrow’ or ‘When I come tomorrow, I’ll see you.’

Avav ages	I am coming today
Avav tehára	I am coming tomorrow

Word lists

These word lists give the words, including verbs, used in each lesson and may sometimes include words not used in the lesson when relevant. For example, if the word ‘today’ is used in the lesson the words for ‘yesterday’ a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Notes
• Contents
• Foreword by Ian Hancock
• Introduction
• Pronunciation (phonetic system)
• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2
• Lesson 3
• Lesson 4
• Lesson 5
• Lesson 6
• Lesson 7
• Lesson 8
• Lesson 9
• Lesson 10
• Lesson 11
• Lesson 12
• Lesson 13
• Lesson 14
• Lesson 15
• Lesson 16
• Lesson 17
• Lesson 18
• Glossary of Romani words
• Recommended reading
• Materials for further study by Edward Proctor