| Scandoromani | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Norway, Sweden, Denmark |
Native speakers | c. 100–150 (2014)[1] Speakers mostly elderly. More people speak Swedish with some Roma vocabulary.[1] |
| Official status | |
Official language in | recognised minority language in Norway (1993) Sweden (1999) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Variously:rmg – Traveller Norwegianrmu – Tavringer Romani (Sweden)rmd – Traveller Danish |
| Glottolog | trav1236 Norwegiantavr1235 Swedishtrav1237 Danish |
Scandoromani is a North Germanic based Para-Romani language. It is spoken by the Scandinavian Romanisæl Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Norway (c. 100–150 elderly speakers),[1] and formerly in Sweden.
Subforms are referred to as:
- Traveller Norwegian (tavringens rakripa, lit. 'Traveller's language'),[2][3] Norwegian: romani or norsk romani (Norwegian Romani), in Norway (the Romani language of the Norwegian Roma is referred to as romanes in Norwegian);
- Tavringer Romani,[4] Traveller Swedish or Tattare,[5] Swedish: svensk romani (Swedish Romani), in Sweden;
- Traveller Danish[6] in Denmark.
Like Angloromani in Britain and Caló in Spain, Scandoromani draws upon a (now extinct) vocabulary of inflected Romani. Much of the original Romani grammar, however, has been lost to the users, and they now communicate in Swedish or Norwegian grammar.
There is no standardised form of Scandoromani, so variations exist in vocabulary, pronunciation, and usage, depending on the speaker. In print, Scandoromani words are often written with Swedish (S) or Norwegian (N) letters (ä, æ, ø, å) and letter combinations to represent Romani sounds, e.g., tj- (/ɕ/) or kj- (/ç/ alt. /tʃ/) to represent the Romani č /tʃ/ and čh /tʃʰ/. Some examples of Scandoromani variant spellings are: tjuro[7] (S) / kjuro[2] (N) 'knife'; gräj[7] (S) / grei[2] (N) 'horse'.