Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Romani Morphology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics

Abstract

The chapter presents a synchronic overview of the morphological structure of Romani, taking into account its cross-dialectal variation. The chapter covers both inflection and word formation and also contains a section on morphological integration of loanwords. Two types of allomorphy are discussed in separate sections. The chapter also discusses various types of morphological borrowing into Romani and provides a typological profile of Romani morphology. The concluding section highlights the issues of interest for general morphologists and linguistic typologists and outlines the perspectives for further research on the internal structure of Romani words.

This chapter was supported by the Charles University project Progres Q10, Language in the shiftings of time, space, and culture

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ariste, Paul. 1973. Lettische Verbalpräfixe in einer Zigeunermundart. Baltistica 9 (1): 79–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakker, Peter. 1997. Athematic morphology in Romani: The borrowing of a borrowing pattern. In The typology and dialectology of Romani, ed. Yaron Matras, Peter Bakker, and Hristo Kyuchukov, 1–21. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beníšek, Michael. 2009. Middle Indo-Aryan ablative and locative markers in Romani. Indo-Iranian Journal 52 (4): 335–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beníšek, Michael. 2010. The quest for a Proto-Romani infinitive. Romani Studies, 5th ser., 20 (1): 47–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beníšek, Michael. 2013. Central Romani lidža-/ ledž-: A vestige of an Indo-Aryan compound verb and its cross-dialectal variability. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 66: 471–486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloch, Jules. 1932. Le présent du verbe “être” en tsigane. Indian Linguistics 2: 309–316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bodnárová, Zuzana. 2014. Loanword integration: A case study of Kisbajom Romani. Romani Studies, 5th ser., 24 (1): 71–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 1995. Die Entwicklung der Kopula im Romani. Grazer Linguistische Studien 43: 1–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 1996. The “new” infinitive in Romani. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 6: 1–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 1998. Interference in Romani: Functional change in inherited grammatical categories. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 8 (1): 19–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 1999. Grammatical interference in Romani: Loan formations for foreign categories. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 46 (3): 169–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 2000. The definite article in Romani dialects. In Grammatical relations in Romani: The noun phrase, ed. Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras, 31–63. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert. 2013. Gender adaptation in loan layers of Romani. STUF—Language Typology and Universals 66 (4): 404–424.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert, and Birgit Igla. 1991. Morphologische Entlehnung in den Romani-Dialekten. Essen: Universität GH Essen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boretzky, Norbert, and Birgit Igla. 2004. Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Teil 1: Vergleich der Dialekte. Teil 2: Dialektkarten mit einer CD Rom. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cech, Petra. 1996. Inflection/derivation in Sepečides-Romani. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 43: 67–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comrie, Bernard. 2008. Inflectional morphology and language contact, with special reference to mixed languages. In Language contact and contact languages, ed. Peter Siemund and Noemi Kintana, 15–32. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Eloeva, Fatima A., and Aleksandr Ju. Rusakov. 1990. Problemy jazykovoj interferencii (cyganskie dialekty Evropy): Učebnoe posobie. Leningrad: Leningradskij gosudarstvennyj universitet.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elšík, Viktor. 1997. Towards a morphology-based typology of Romani. In The typology and dialectology of Romani, ed. Yaron Matras, Peter Bakker, and Hristo Kyuchukov, 23–59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Elšík, Viktor. 2000a. Romani nominal paradigms: Their structure, diversity and development. In Grammatical relations in Romani: The noun phrase, ed. Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras, 9–30. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Elšík, Viktor. 2000b. Dialect variation in Romani personal pronouns. In Grammatical relations in Romani: The noun phrase, ed. Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras, 65–94. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Elšík, Viktor. 2007. Affix extraction: A case study on Hungarian Romani. PhD thesis. Prague: Charles University.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Elšík, Viktor, Michael Beníšek, and Zuzana Bodnárová. In preparation. The linguistic atlas of Central Romani. Manuscript. Prague: Charles University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Victor A. 1991. Case in Romani: Old grammar in new affixes. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 1: 85–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Victor A. 2013. Compartmentalized grammar: The variable (non-) integration of Turkish verbal conjugation in Romani dialects. Romani Studies, 5th ser., 23 (1): 107–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Granqvist, Kimmo. 2012. Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi. Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holzinger, Daniel. 1996. Verbal aspect and thematic organisation of Sinte narrative discourse. Grazer Linguistische Studien 46: 111–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hübschmannová, Milena. 1984. Nominalization in Slovak Romani. Quaderni Del Siculorum Gymnasium, Rassegna Della Facoltà Di Lettere E Filosofia Dell’Università Di Catania 14: 27–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hübschmannová, Milena, and Vít Bubeník. 1997. Causatives in Slovak and Hungarian Romani. In The typology and dialectology of Romani, ed. Yaron Matras, Peter Bakker, and Hristo Kyuchukov, 133–145. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2000. Romani genitives in cross-linguistic perspective. In Grammatical relations in Romani: The noun phrase, ed. Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras, 123–149. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lípa, Jiří. 1967. Ke skloňování v cikánštině. Slovo a Slovesnost 28 (4): 406–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 1995. Verb evidentials and their discourse function in Vlax Romani narratives. In Romani in contact: The history, structure, and sociology of a language, ed. Yaron Matras, 95–123. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 1997. The typology of case relations and case layer distribution in Romani. In The typology and dialectology of Romani, ed. Yaron Matras, Peter Bakker, and Hristo Kyuchukov, 61–93. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 2000. The structural and functional composition of Romani demonstratives. In Grammatical relations in Romani: The noun phrase, ed. Viktor Elšík and Yaron Matras, 95–122. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 2001. Tense, aspect, and modality categories in Romani. Sprachtypologie Und Universalienforschung 53 (4): 162–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Matras, Yaron. 2002. Romani: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Miltner, Vladimír. 1965. The morphologic structure of a new Indo-Aryan language of Czechoslovakia: A key to the Gypsy morphology. Indian Linguistics 26: 106–131.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirttisaari, Helena. 2005. A functional approach to the distribution of participle suffixes in Romani. In General and applied Romani linguistics. Proceedings from the 6th international conference on Romani linguistics, ed. Barbara Schrammel, Dieter W. Halwachs, and Gerd Ambrosch, 114–127. Munich: Lincom Europa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Plank, Frans. 1995. (Re-)Introducing Suffixaufnahme. In Double case: Agreement by Suffixaufnahme, ed. Frans Plank, 3–110. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rusakov, Alexandr Ju. 2001. Imperative in North Russian Romani. In Typology of imperative constructions, ed. Victor S. Xrakovskij, 268–299. München: Lincom.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rusakov, Alexandr Ju., and Olga Abramenko. 1998. North Russian Romani dialect: Interference in case system. Grazer Linguistische Studien 50: 109–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmid, Wolfgang P. 1963. Das Zigeunerische Abstraktsuffix –ben/–pen. Indogermanische Forschungen 68: 276–283.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schrammel, Barbara. 2005. Borrowed verbal particles and prefixes in Romani: A comparative approach. In General and applied Romani linguistics. Proceedings from the 6th international conference on Romani linguistics, ed. Barbara Schrammel, Dieter W. Halwachs, and Gerd Ambrosch, 99–113. Munich: Lincom Europa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stump, Gregory. 1993. On rules of referral. Language 69: 449–479.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wohlgemuth, Jan. 2009. A typology of verbal borrowings. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woolner, Alfred C. 1924. Studies in Romani philology III: The verb substantive. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, 5th ser., 3: 180–184.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

    Viktor Elšík

Authors
  1. Viktor Elšík
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Viktor Elšík .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Yaron Matras

  2. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Anton Tenser

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Elšík, V. (2020). Romani Morphology. In: Matras, Y., Tenser, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28105-2_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28105-2_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-28104-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-28105-2

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation