North Central Romani

North Central Romany or North Central Romany, dated: Carpathian Romany or Romungro (or "Hungarian Roma": "Rom"+"Ungro"), is one of a dozen major dialect groups within Romany, an Indo-Aryan language of Europe. The North Central dialects of Romany are traditionally spoken by some subethnic groups of Roma (Gypsies) in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (with the exception of its southwestern and south-central regions), southeastern Poland, the Transcarpathia province of Ukraine (where they are called "Ungriko Roma"), and parts of Transylvania. There are also established outmigrant communities of North Central Romany speakers in the United States, and recent outmigrant communities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and some other countries of Western Europe. The speakers are called Hungarian Gipsies, Hungarian Roma, Romungro, Modyar or Modgar. Most of them are Roman catholics.

Dialect classification

The North Central dialects of Romany may be divided into three subgroups, each of which consists of several closely related dialects (Boretzky 1999, Elšík et al. 1999, Elšík 2003, Elšík & Matras 2006):

1. Western North Central Romany
   1. Bohemian Romany
   2. Moravian Romany
   3. West Slovak Romany
2. Eastern North Central Romany
   1. Central Slovak Romany
   2. South Polish Romany
   3. East Slovak Romany
   4. Transcarpathian Romany
3. Transylvanian North Central Romany

References

• Boretzky, Norbert. 1999. Die Gliederung der Zentralen Dialekte und die Beziehungen zwischen Südlichen Zentralen Dialekten (Romungro) und Südbalkanischen Romani-Dialekten. In: Halwachs, Dieter W. and Florian Menz (eds.) Die Sprache der Roma. Perspektiven der Romani-Forschung in Österreich im interdisziplinären und internazionalen Kontext. Klagenfurt: Drava. 210–276.

• Elšík, Viktor, Milena Hübschmannová, and Hana Šebková. 1999. The Southern Central (ahi-imperfect) Romani dialects of Slovakia and northern Hungary. In: Halwachs, Dieter W. and Florian Menz (eds.) Die Sprache der Roma. Perspektiven der Romani-Forschung in Österreich im interdisziplinären und internazionalen Kontext. Klagenfurt: Drava. 277–390.

• Elšík, Viktor. 2003. Interdialect contact of Czech (and Slovak) Romani varieties. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 162, 41–62.

• Elšík, Viktor, and Yaron Matras. 2006. Markedness and language change: The Romani sample. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

See also

• Romani language