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Romani dialect

Kalderash

A Vlax Romani variety with a long history in Romania and the Balkans. Traditionally associated with coppersmith trades.

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Frequently asked questions

What language is Kalderash?

Kalderash is a dialect of the Romani language.

Where is Kalderash spoken?

Kalderash is primarily spoken in Romania, Serbia.

Which region is Kalderash associated with?

Kalderash is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.

What are the other dialects of Romani?

Romani also includes Lovari, Arli, 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

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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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Ursari

190 km away

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.

Daco-Romanian

190 km away

The Bucharest-based standard of Romanian, spoken across Romania and Moldova. The largest Eastern Romance language and the basis of the modern literary standard.

Bukovinian

271 km away

The Southwestern Ukrainian variety of the Bukovyna region around Chernivtsi. Shaped by long contact with Romanian, German, and Polish under Habsburg rule.

Gagauz

287 km away

An Oghuz Turkic language spoken by the Christian Gagauz people of southern Moldova. The official language of the autonomous Gagauz region (Gagauz Yeri), distinct from neighbouring Romanian and Bulgarian.

Carpathian Rusyn

359 km away

The East Slavic varieties of the Carpathian highlands across Zakarpattia, eastern Slovakia, and southeastern Poland. Often classified as a separate language; historically grouped with Ukrainian.

Serbian

375 km away

The Belgrade-based standard of Serbian. Part of the Štokavian dialect continuum that underlies all four BCMS national standards (Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Serbian); written in both Cyrillic and Latin scripts.

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External corpora

Sources & corpora

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