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Romani dialect

Arli

A Balkan Romani variety spoken widely across North Macedonia, Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Bulgaria.

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Frequently asked questions

What language is Arli?

Arli is a dialect of the Romani language.

Where is Arli spoken?

Arli is primarily spoken in North Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria.

Which region is Arli associated with?

Arli is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.

What are the other dialects of Romani?

Romani also includes Lovari, Kalderash, Gurbeti, Sinte Manouche, Baltic Romani, Central European Romani, Zargari, Romanichal, Welsh Romani, Finnish Kalo, Scandoromani, Caló, Ruska Roma, Ursari, Crimean Romani. Each variety has its own vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural context.

Other Romani dialects

See on the atlas →
Zargari

Zargari Romani · Zargari Romanes · Zargar Romani

A highly endangered Romani variety spoken in and around the village of Zargar in Qazvin province of north-western Iran, west of Tehran. The community is traditionally said to have been settled in the Safavid period and is one of the easternmost Romani-speaking populations on record; the dialect retains a Romani lexical core but shows heavy contact influence from Persian and Azerbaijani Turkish in phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Speaker numbers are small and intergenerational transmission has weakened sharply.

Romanichal

Angloromani · British Romani · Pogadi Chib

The Romani variety of the Romanichal Travellers of England and the wider British Isles. The older inflected dialect is no longer spoken; it survives as Angloromani, a para-Romani register in which a substantial Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in an English grammatical frame. Diaspora communities exist in North America and Australia.

Welsh Romani

Kååle · Welsh Kale

The inflected Northern Romani variety historically spoken by the Kååle of Wales. It was extensively documented by John Sampson in the early twentieth century and is now extinct as a first language, the last fluent speakers having died in the mid-twentieth century. It is notable as the last conservatively inflected Romani dialect attested in Britain.

Finnish Kalo

Kaale · Finnish Kaale · Fíntiko Rómma

A Northern Romani variety spoken by the Finnish Kale in Finland and, through twentieth-century migration, in Sweden. It shows heavy structural and phonological influence from Finnish, including consonant gradation, and is one of the most distinctive Northern Romani dialects. Intergenerational transmission has weakened markedly.

Scandoromani

Tavringer Romani · Traveller Romani · Rommani

A para-Romani variety spoken by Traveller communities in Sweden and Norway, combining a Romani-derived lexicon with a Scandinavian grammatical frame. It descends from the speech of Romani groups present in the region since the sixteenth century and survives today largely as an in-group vocabulary register.

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.

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.

Ursari

Ursaritska · Rićhinari

A Balkan Romani variety spoken in Romania and Moldova, traditionally associated with the Ursari, the Roma groups historically known as bear-leaders. It is grouped with the Balkan dialects rather than the surrounding Vlax varieties and shows substantial Romanian contact influence.

Crimean Romani

Krymitika Roma · Crimean Roma

A Balkan Romani variety spoken by Roma communities of the Crimean peninsula and the northern Black Sea coast, marked by heavy contact influence from Crimean Tatar and other Turkic languages in both lexicon and phonology.

Nearby dialects

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Standard Macedonian

1 km away

The Skopje-based standard of Macedonian, codified after the Second World War. Closely related to Bulgarian; written in Cyrillic with several letters unique to Macedonian.

Gheg Albanian

77 km away

The northern Albanian dialect group, spoken across northern Albania, Kosovo, and parts of North Macedonia and Montenegro. Distinguished by nasal vowels and the retention of older Albanian features.

Ohrid Macedonian

111 km away

The Western Macedonian dialect group around Lake Ohrid and Prespa. Provided much of the structural basis for the modern literary standard, especially in stress placement and verb morphology.

Tosk Albanian

153 km away

The southern Albanian dialect group, centred on Tirana and the south. The basis of the modern Albanian literary standard codified in 1972.

Balkan Turkish

174 km away

The Turkish varieties of the Balkans, surviving from Ottoman-era settlement. Spoken across pockets of Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and northern Greece.

Standard Bulgarian

174 km away

The Sofia-based standard of Bulgarian. A South Slavic language with one of the most analytical grammars in the family, having lost most case marking in favour of articles and prepositions.

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External corpora

Sources & corpora

Data on Arli from open scholarly databases. Each link opens the source in a new tab.