Description

This 2002 book is the first overview in English of the structure, history, typology and dialects of Romani. Romani, the language spoken by over 3.5 million Gypsies, has recently attracted increasing interest from both scholars and language policy-makers. This 2002 book is the first overview in English of the structure, history, typology and dialects of Romani. It provides an essential reference for anyone interested in this fascinating language. Romani, the language spoken by over 3.5 million Gypsies, has recently attracted increasing interest from both scholars and language policy-makers. This 2002 book is the first overview in English of the structure, history, typology and dialects of Romani. It provides an essential reference for anyone interested in this fascinating language. Romani is a language of Indo-Aryan origin which is spoken in Europe by the people known as 'Gypsies' (who usually refer to themselves as Rom). There are upwards of 3.5 million speakers, and their language has attracted increasing interest both from scholars and from policy-makers in governments and other organizations during the past ten years. This 2002 book is the first comprehensive overview in English of Romani. It provides a historical linguistic introduction to the structures of Romani and its dialects, as well as surveying the phonology, morphology, syntactic typology and patterns of grammatical borrowing in the language. This book provides an essential reference for anyone interested in this fascinating language. 1. Introduction; 2. Romani dialects: a brief overview; 3. Historical and linguistic origins; 4. Descriptive phonology; 5. Nominal forms and categories; 6. Verb morphology; 7. Syntactic typology; 8. Grammatical borrowing; 9. Dialect classification; 10. Romani sociolinguistics; 11. Language planning and codification. "Matras...has planted on the sands a massive boulder of contribution to knowledge that will not be swept away by any tides." American Journal of Sociology "The book will be of tremendous use to a broad range of scholars -- not only linguists but also social scientists and other students in various humanistic disciplines. There is nothing like it available in any language, and it fills a pressing need." Romani Studies