Vlax Romani varieties are spoken mainly in Southeastern Europe by the Romani people.Norbert Boretzky and Birgit Igla. Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag 2004. Teil 1: Vergleich der Dialekte. Vlax Romani can also be referred to as an independent language or as one dialect of the Romani language. Vlax Romani is the second most widely spoken dialect subgroup of the Romani language worldwide, after Balkan Romani.
Name The language's name Vlax Romani was coined by British scholar Bernard Gilliat-Smith in his 1915 study on Bulgarian Romani, in which he first divided Romani dialects into Vlach and non-Vlach.Bernard Gilliath-Smith as „Petulengro“: Report on the Gypsy Tribes of North-East Bulgaria. In: Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. New series, volume 9, 1915/1916, p. 1 ff. and 65 ff., especially p. 65: „In making a comprehensive survey of the Gypsy dialects of the whole Balkan Peninsula one would probably begin by distinguishing two great divisions — (1) the non-Vlach Dialects; (2) the Vlach Dialects.“ The Vlax Roma, a subgroup of the Romani people that speak the Vlax Romani language, originate from the former Roma slaves in the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (with the name "Vlax", which comes from "Vlach", coming from the latter), now Romania.
The words Romani and Romania are false cognates, the former deriving from Romani rom – ultimately from Sanskrit word ḍoma/डोम, and the latter deriving from Romanian român – ultimately from Latin.
Classification Vlax Romani is classified in two groups: Vlax I, or Northern Vlax (including Kalderash and Lovari), and Vlax II, or Southern Vlax.
Elšík uses this classification and dialect examples (geographical information from Matras):
Sub-group Dialect PlaceUkrainian Vlax- UkraineNorthern VlaxCerhari HungaryHungarian Lovari Slovakia Austrian Lovari Austria Polish Lovari Poland Norwegian Lovari Norway Serbian Kalderaš Serbia Italian Kalderaš Italy Russian Kalderaš Russia Taikon Kalderaš SwedenHansen, Björn; de Haan, Ferdinand (2009). Modals in the Languages of Europe. Walter de Gruyter: p. 307 . American Vlax USASouthern Vlax Vallachian Romania Ihtiman Bulgaria (named after the city) Gurbet Serbia and Bosnia Gurbeti Korça Albania (named after the city) Italian Xoraxane Italy (Xoraxane translates as "Muslims" in the dialect) Ajia Varvara Greece (named after a suburb of Athens)
Writing systems
Vlax Romani is written using the Romani orthography, predominantly using the Latin alphabet with several additional characters. In the area of the former Soviet Union, however, it can also be written in the Cyrillic script.
References