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Dialect comparison

Caló vs Ruska Roma

Compare two dialects of Romani side by side — where they're spoken, what they're called, and how they relate.

Caló

Iberian Romani · Zincaló · Caló Romani

The Iberian para-Romani variety spoken by the Calé (Gitanos) of Spain and, in related forms, Portugal and southern France. A Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in a Castilian (or Catalan/Portuguese) grammatical frame; the older inflected Iberian Romani is no longer spoken. Caló vocabulary has left a marked imprint on Andalusian Spanish and flamenco.

Approximate centre
37.39°, -5.99°
Ruska Roma

Russian Romani · North Russian Romani · Xaladitka Roma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Ruska Roma across Russia and Ukraine, shaped by long and intensive contact with Russian. It was the basis of a short-lived literary standard developed in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s and remains one of the more vital Northern Romani dialects.

Spoken in
Approximate centre
55.75°, 37.62°

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