A Vlax Romani variety with strong Hungarian and Slavic influence. Spoken across Central Europe.
Caló
Also known as: 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.
Want a Caló app?
Vote and we'll prioritise it. Top-voted dialects move up the roadmap. One vote per email.
Frequently asked questions
What language is Caló?
Caló is a dialect of the Romani language.
Where is Caló spoken?
Caló is primarily spoken in Spain, Portugal, France.
Which region is Caló associated with?
Caló is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.
Is Caló known by other names?
Yes — Caló is also referred to as Iberian Romani, Zincaló, Caló Romani.
Is Caló endangered?
Caló is severely endangered. It is largely spoken by older generations; parents may understand it but typically do not pass it on to their children.
What are the other dialects of Romani?
Romani also includes Lovari, Kalderash, Arli, Gurbeti, Sinte Manouche, Baltic Romani, Central European Romani, Zargari, Romanichal, Welsh Romani, Finnish Kalo, Scandoromani, Ruska Roma, Ursari, Crimean Romani. Each variety has its own vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural context.
Other Romani dialects
See on the atlas →A Vlax Romani variety with a long history in Romania and the Balkans. Traditionally associated with coppersmith trades.
A Balkan Romani variety spoken widely across North Macedonia, Kosovo, southern Serbia, and Bulgaria.
A Balkan Romani variety with communities across Bosnia, Serbia, and surrounding countries.
Sinti · Manush · Sinté
A northwestern Romanes variety spoken by Sinti and Manouche communities across Germany, France, the Benelux, and northern Italy. Shaped by long contact with Germanic and Romance languages.
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.
Central Slovak Romani · Servika Roma
A Central European Romanes variety spoken by Romanes communities in Slovakia, with strong contact-influenced vocabulary from Slovak, Hungarian, and neighbouring languages.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.