Editing Romani language (section)

== Classification ==
In the 18th century, it was shown by comparative studies that Romani belongs to the Indo-European language family.<ref name="mluvnice">Šebková, Hana; Žlnayová, Edita (1998). [http://rss.archives.ceu.hu/archive/00001112/01/118.pdf ''Nástin mluvnice slovenské romštiny (pro pedagogické účely)''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024041/http://rss.archives.ceu.hu/archive/00001112/01/118.pdf |date=2016-03-04 }}. Ústí nad Labem: Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem: p. 4. {{ISBN|80-7044-205-0}}. "V 18. století bylo na základě komparatistických výzkumů jednoznačně prokázáno, že romština patří do indoevropské jazykové rodiny a že je jazykem novoindickým" ["In the 18th century, it was conclusively proved on the basis of comparative studie that Romani belongs to the Indo-European language family and is a New-Indian language"]</ref> In 1763 Vályi István, a [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] pastor from [[Satu Mare]] in [[Transylvania]], was the first to notice the similarity between Romani and [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] by comparing the Romani dialect of [[Győr]] with the language (perhaps [[Sinhala language|Sinhala]]) spoken by three [[Sri Lanka]]n students he met in the Netherlands.<ref>Marcel Courthiade, “Appendix Two. Kannauʒ on the Ganges, cradle of the Rromani people”, in Donald Kenrick, ''Gypsies: from the Ganges to the Thames'' (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2004), 105.</ref> This was followed by the linguist Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger (1751–1822) whose book ''{{lang|de|Von der Sprache und Herkunft der Zigeuner aus Indien}}'' (1782) posited Romani was descended from [[Sanskrit]]. This prompted the philosopher [[Christian Jakob Kraus]] to collect linguistic evidence by systematically interviewing the Roma in [[Königsberg]] prison. Kraus's findings were never published, but they may have influenced or laid the groundwork for later linguists, especially [[August Pott]] and his pioneering ''{{lang|de|Darstellung der Zigeuner in Europa und Asien}}'' (1844–45). By the mid-nineteenth century the linguist and author [[George Borrow]] was able to state categorically his findings that it was a language with its origins in India, and he later published a glossary, ''Romano Lavo-lil''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Borrow |first1=George |title=Romano Lavo-Lil: Word Book of the Romany; Or, English Gypsy Language |date=1873 |publisher=John Murray |location=London |pages=3–10 |quote=The Gypsy language, then, or what with some qualification I may call such, may consist of some three thousand words, the greater part of which are decidedly of Indian origin, being connected with the Sanscrit or some other Indian dialect; the rest consist of words picked up by the Gypsies from various languages in their wanderings from the East.}}</ref> Research into the way the Romani dialects branched out was started in 1872 by the [[Slavic studies|Slavicist]] [[Franz Miklosich]] in a series of essays. However, it was the philologist [[Ralph Lilley Turner|Ralph Turner]]'s 1927 article “The Position of Romani in Indo-Aryan” that served as the basis for the integration of Romani into the history of Indian languages.

Romani is an [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan language]] that is part of the [[Balkan sprachbund]]. It is the only [[Indo-Aryan languages#New Indo-Aryan|New Indo-Aryan]] spoken exclusively outside the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref name = "intro">Schrammel, Barbara; Halwachs, Dieter W. (2005). "Introduction". ''General and Applied Romani Linguistics - Proceeding from the 6th International Conference on Romani Linguistics'' (München: LINCOM): p. 1. {{ISBN|3-89586-741-1}}.</ref>

Romani is sometimes classified in the [[Central Zone (Hindi)|Central Zone]] or [[Indo-Aryan languages#Northwestern Zone|Northwestern Zone]] Indo-Aryan languages, and sometimes treated as a group of its own.<ref>{{cite web |title=Central Indo-Aryan Languages |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095558613 |website=Oxford Reference |access-date=23 March 2023 |language=en }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Turner |first1=R L |title='THE POSITION OF ROMANI IN INDO-ARYAN': A REPLY TO DR. J. SAMPSON |journal=Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society |volume=6 |date=1927 |pages=129–138 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000105045235&view=1up&seq=153 }}</ref>
Romani shares a number of features with the Central Zone languages.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} The most significant [[isogloss]]es are the shift of Old Indo-Aryan ''r̥'' to ''u'' or ''i'' ([[Sanskrit]] ''{{lang|sa|śr̥ṇ-}}'', Romani ''{{lang|rom|šun-}}'' 'to hear') and ''kṣ-'' to ''kh'' (Sanskrit ''{{lang|sa|akṣi}}'', Romani ''{{lang|rom|j-akh}}'' 'eye').{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} However, unlike other Central Zone languages, Romani preserves many dental clusters (Romani ''{{lang|rom|trin}}'' 'three', ''{{lang|rom|phral}}'' 'brother', compare [[Hindi]] ''{{lang|hi-Latn|tīn}}'', ''{{lang|hi-Latn|bhāi}}'').{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} This implies that Romani split from the Central Zone languages before the [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|Middle Indo-Aryan period]].{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} However, Romani shows some features of New Indo-Aryan, such as erosion of the original nominal case system towards a nominative/oblique dichotomy, with new grammaticalized case suffixes added on.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} This means that the Romani exodus from India could not have happened until late in the first millennium.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

Many words are similar to the [[Marwari language|Marwari]] and [[Lambadi]] languages spoken in large parts of India. Romani also shows some similarity to the Northwestern Zone languages.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} In particular, the grammaticalization of enclitic pronouns as person markers on verbs (''{{lang|rom|kerdo}}'' 'done' + ''{{lang|rom|me}}'' 'me' → ''{{lang|rom|kerdjom}}'' 'I did') is also found in languages such as [[Kashmiri language|Kashmiri]] and [[Shina language|Shina]].{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} This evidences a northwest migration during the split from the Central Zone languages consistent with a later migration to Europe.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

Based on these data, [[Yaron Matras]]{{sfn|Matras|2006}} views Romani as "kind of Indian hybrid: a central Indic dialect that had undergone partial convergence with northern Indic languages."{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

In terms of its grammatical structures, Romani is conservative in maintaining almost intact the Middle Indo-Aryan present-tense person concord markers, and in maintaining consonantal endings for nominal case – both features that have been eroded in most other modern Indo-Aryan languages.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

Romani shows a number of phonetic changes that distinguish it from other Indo-Aryan languages – in particular, the devoicing of voiced aspirates (''bh dh gh'' > ''ph th kh''), shift of medial ''t d'' to ''l'', of short ''a'' to ''e'', initial ''kh'' to ''x'', rhoticization of retroflex ''ḍ, ṭ, ḍḍ, ṭṭ, ḍh'' etc. to ''r'' and ''ř'', and shift of inflectional ''-a'' to ''-o''.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

After leaving the Indian subcontinent, Romani was heavily affected by contact with European languages.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} The most significant of these was [[Medieval Greek]], which contributed lexically, phonemically, and grammatically to Early Romani (10th–13th centuries).{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} This includes inflectional affixes for nouns, and verbs that are still productive with borrowed vocabulary, the shift to [[VO language|VO word order]], and the adoption of a preposed definite article.{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}} Early Romani also borrowed from [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Persian language|Persian]].{{sfn|Matras|2006|loc=History}}

Romani and [[Domari language|Domari]] share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second layer (or case marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative.<ref>{{harvp|Matras|2002|p=48}}. "Striking nonetheless are the grammatical similarities between Romani and Domari: the synthetisation of Layer ii affixes, the emergence of new concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative."</ref><ref>{{harvp|Matras|2006|p=760}}. "The morphology of the two languages is similar in other respects: Both retain the old present conjugation in the verb (Domari kar-ami 'I do'), and consonantal endings of the oblique nominal case (Domari ''{{lang|rmt|mans-as}}'' 'man.OBL', ''{{lang|rmt|mans-an}}'' 'men.OBL'), and both show agglutination of secondary (Layer II) case endings (Domari ''{{lang|rmt|mans-as-ka}}'' 'for the man'). It had therefore been assumed that Romani and Domari derived form the same ancestor idiom, and split only after leaving the Indian subcontinent."</ref> This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari was once thought to be the "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent, but more recent research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the Central Zone ([[Hindustani language|Hindustani]]) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom therefore likely descend from two different migration waves out of India, separated by several centuries.<ref name="What_is_Domari">{{cite web |title=What is Domari? |publisher=[[University of Manchester]] |url=http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/files/21_domari.shtml |website=Romani Project  |access-date=2008-07-23 |archive-date=2010-11-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101120230316/http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/files/21_domari.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="ROMANI_ORIGINS">{{cite web |title=On romani origins and identity |url=http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=en&articles=true |first1=Ian |last1=Hancock |website=RADOC|access-date=2008-07-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717140132/http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_b_history_origins&lang=en&articles=true |archive-date=2011-07-17}}</ref>

{{Rom-Dom numerals}}