Romani language

Romani ( ROM-ə-nee, ROH-; Romanes ROM-ən-iss; or Romany; Romani: rromani ćhib) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani people. Most Roma speak one of its dialects.Its largest dialects are Balkan Romani (about 600,000 speakers), Vlax Romani (500,000), and Sinte Romani (300,000). Some Romani communities speak mixed languages based on the surrounding language with some Romani-derived vocabulary; these are known as Para-Romani varieties rather than Romani dialects. These dialects typically incorporate loanwords and calques from national languages, especially for terms that Romani lacks. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the Romanichal of Great Britain, and the Romanisael of Sweden and Norway speak the mixed languages Caló, Angloromani and Scandoromani, respectively. Most Romani language-speaking communities there consist of later immigrants. Assuming 3.5 million speakers in Europe, makes Romani the second-largest minority language in Europe, behind Catalan. Romani speakers are bilingual, accustomed to borrowing words or phrases from a second language; this makes it difficult for Roma to communicate across national borders. No tradition or standard guides Romani language use.