Welsh Romani language

"Welsh Romani" redirects here. For the Roma of Wales, see Kale (Welsh Roma).

The Welsh Romani language, or Romnimus, is a dialect of the Romani language spoken by the Kale subgroup of the Romani people, who have been present in Wales since the 16th century. Welsh Romani is one of the many Northern Romani dialects.^[1]

Welsh Romani
Romnimus
Native to	Wales (United Kingdom)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Romani Northern Romani British Romani Welsh Romani
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rmw
Glottolog	wels1246

While most of its vocabulary is of Indo-Aryan origin, there are a significant number of words derived from other languages, such as Persian and Greek. Welsh loanwords include melanō ("yellow", from melyn), grīga ("heather", from grug) and kraŋka ("crab", from cranc). English loanwords include vlija ("village"), spīdra ("spider") and bråmla ("bramble").^[2]

Historically the variants of Welsh Romani and Angloromani (spoken by the Romanichal) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani.^[3] Welsh Romani is closely related to Angloromani, Scandoromani (spoken by Romanisael 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, Romanisael, 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]

Phonology

	Labial		Dental		Alveolar		Post- alveolar		Palatal		Dorsal		Glottal
Nasal		m				n						ŋ
Stop	p pʰ	b			t tʰ	d	tʃ	dʒ			k kʰ	ɡ
Fricative	f	v	θ	ð	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			x	ɣ	h
Trill					r̥	r
Approximant										j	ʍ	w
Lateral					ɬ	l

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open		a