THE ROMANI TONGUE

The Romani language has been called ‘Egypt-speech’, ‘jibberish’ and ‘the language of thieves’, but it is in fact an Indian language originating in roughly the area of present-day Rajasthan.

Romani was brought to Europe by the ancestors of today’s Romany Gypsies, who left India around 1000 AD, picking up words from Persian, Greek, Slavic, Romance and Germanic languages on their long westward journey.

There are at least 1.5 million native Romani speakers today, with the largest numbers in Central and Eastern Europe. Most British Gypsies speak ‘Poggadi Jib’ – the Broken Tongue – a mixture of Romani and English that uses mostly English grammar. English words of Romani origin include pal (the Romani word for brother) and lollipop, from the Romani ‘loli pobbel’ or red apple. The slang words cushty, chav, wonga and cosh are all Romani.