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Romani dialect

Baltic Romani

Also known as: Polska Roma, Xaladitka Roma

A northern Romani variety historically rooted in Poland and the Baltic region, shaped by long contact with Slavic and Baltic languages.

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Frequently asked questions

What language is Baltic Romani?

Baltic Romani is a dialect of the Romani language.

Where is Baltic Romani spoken?

Baltic Romani is primarily spoken in Poland, Lithuania.

Which region is Baltic Romani associated with?

Baltic Romani is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.

Is Baltic Romani known by other names?

Yes — Baltic Romani is also referred to as Polska Roma, Xaladitka Roma.

What are the other dialects of Romani?

Romani also includes Lovari, Kalderash, Arli, Gurbeti, Sinte Manouche, 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 Polish

30 km away

The Warsaw-based standard of Polish. The official language of Poland and the largest Slavic language by speakers within the European Union.

Old Prussian

247 km away

The only substantially attested West Baltic language, spoken in historical Prussia around the Sambia peninsula — today's Kaliningrad Oblast and north-eastern Poland. Extinct since the early 18th century, after the 1709–1711 plague; attested in three 16th-century catechisms and the Elbing vocabulary, with a modern reconstruction movement.

Silesian

283 km away

The Slavic variety of Upper Silesia, often classified as a separate language from Polish. Carries strong contact features from German and Czech.

Wymysorys

314 km away

A West Germanic language spoken only in the town of Wilamowice in southern Poland, descended from medieval German-Flemish settlement. Around 20 elderly native speakers remain, but a youth revitalisation movement has produced a new cohort of fluent younger speakers.

Western Ukrainian

363 km away

The Ukrainian of Galicia and the western regions around Lviv. Carries contact features from Polish and Slovak and was historically the prestige variety in Habsburg-era Galicia.

Yiddish

372 km away

A High German language with substantial Hebrew, Aramaic, and Slavic vocabulary, written in the Hebrew alphabet. The historical vernacular of Ashkenazi Jewry; now spoken mainly by Hasidic communities in the United States, Israel, and Western Europe.

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External corpora

Sources & corpora

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

Baltic Romani — Romani dialect — Dialect Atlas