The mixed Angloromani speech of British Gypsies

Romani 'Gypsies' in England and Wales descend from a population of immigrants that arrived in Britain from around the fifteenth century onwards. Their language was Romani, an Indo-Aryan language still spoken by the majority of Gypsies on the European continent (and now the largest minority language within the extended EU). English and Welsh Romani are documented in a series of texts and wordlist dating back to 1542. A book description of English Romani appeared in 1875, and one of Welsh Romani in 1926. Since the early 1900s, however, use of Romani as a family and community language declined, with English taking over in all contexts of conversation. Nevertheless, a significant amount of Romani vocabulary has been retained by the community. Romani-derived words are used by Gypsies in conversation with one another, embedded into English sentences. It appears, however, that even this mixed speech form is now in decline.

The aim of the project is to document the Romani words used by Gypsies in Britain, and to describe their usage contexts. The project will thus make a contribution toward the preservation and analysis of an important aspect of minority culture heritage in Britain. It will further aim at describing the extraordinary circumstances under which the 'old' language (Romani) was only partly abandoned, and a mixed speech form was created to replace it.