ROMANI LINGUISTICS AT MANCHESTER- HOME

Research Projects

MigRom Project RomIdent Roma in Gorton Past projects Staff

Studying Romani in Manchester

Undergraduate Course textbooks Postgraduate PhD projects

The Anglo-Romani project

Samples of Angloromani

(also known as: ‘English Romanes’, ’Romani English’, ‘English Para-Romani’)

The following samples were recorded from users/speakers of Angloromani, as a demonstration of how they use the speech variety. The speakers are from different families; they all live in the north of England (Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Yorkshire, County Durham). Each transcription is accompanied by an audio file, and followed by a short glossary explaining the Romani-derived words.

Excerpt 1:

Or if I was in a place with me dad years ago, and he’d say to me/ before we went in this place he’d say to me: må rokker, let mandi rokker, til ya chib.
And I could never say nothing until I went outside.
Let mandi rokker.
And he used to say: mo/ muk’ us jå, you know.

Angloromani	Romani	Translation
må	ma	‘do not’
rokker	(v)raker-	‘to speak’
mandi	mande	‘me’
til	thil-/ther-	‘to hold’
chib	čhib	‘language/tongue’
muk	mukh-	‘to let’
jå	dža-	‘to go’

Excerpt 2:

If one was young boys, if w’was roguish, we’d say like/ if w’was amongst a load of gåja people, whatever, we’d say:
Jel cause mandi’s gonna del dobba.
Mandi’s gonna mår dobba akái.
It’s like broke down to a slang: ‘give me’ – del, d’you’kno’a mean, del.

Angloromani	Romani	Translation
gåja	gadže	‘non-Roma people’
jel	džal	‘goes’ > ‘to go’
mandi	mande	‘me’
del	del	‘gives’ > ‘to give’ > ‘to hit’
dobba	odova	‘this one’ > ‘him’
mår	mar‑	‘to hit’
akái	akaj	‘here’

Excerpt 3:

I’ll put this in a scenario for ya:
It’s like, me chingerin’ him, m/ sorry, m/ me/ me telling you off, right, and me saying to you:
Mandi’s pukkered dobba, or mandi’s pukkered lesti.
I’ve told him.
    [I’ve chingered him]
    [I’ve chingered lesti, that’s what I’d say]
I’ve chingered lesti,
I’ve chingered dobba akái.
‘Chinger’ that’s a word for/
    [I’d say ‘I’ve chingered lesti’]
Like, ‘pukkered’ means like past tense, ‘I told him’.
But chinger means to scold.
I’d say ‘I’ve chingered lesti’.
I’ve chingered him.
    [Yeh, chingered him]

Angloromani	Romani	Translation
chinger	činger-	‘to shout, to argue’
mandi	mande	‘me’
dobba	odova	‘this’ > ‘him’
pukker	poker‑	‘to have a conversation’
lesti	leste	‘at/to him’ > ‘him’

Excerpt 4:

Bish ta pansh besha, twenty-five years I’ve never really rokkered in Romani chib.
I just aj here kokkero, stay here alone, right.
So other than when I go away lenna, in the summer, meet a few people an’
‘sar-shen’, you know, an’ {ex}change one or two words.

Angloromani	Romani	Translation
bish ta pansh	biš-ta-pandž	twenty five
besha	berša	years
rokker	(v)raker‑	speak
Romani chib	romani čhib	Romani language
aj	ačh‑	stay
kokkero	korkoro	alone
lenna	nilaj	in the summer
sar-shen?	sar šan?	how are you?