A Vlax Romani variety with strong Hungarian and Slavic influence. Spoken across Central Europe.
Romanichal
Also known as: 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.
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Frequently asked questions
What language is Romanichal?
Romanichal is a dialect of the Romani language.
Where is Romanichal spoken?
Romanichal is primarily spoken in United Kingdom.
Which region is Romanichal associated with?
Romanichal is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.
Is Romanichal known by other names?
Yes — Romanichal is also referred to as Angloromani, British Romani, Pogadi Chib.
Is Romanichal endangered?
Romanichal 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, 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 →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.
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.
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.
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.
Nearby dialects
See on the atlas →134 km away
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.
142 km away
A Brittonic Celtic language and the most-spoken Celtic language. Co-official in Wales, with around 900,000 speakers and a strong contemporary literary and broadcast presence.
162 km away
The traditional prestige accent of southern England. Long carried by national broadcasting and higher education, but no longer dominant in everyday British speech.
253 km away
A Goidelic Celtic language of the Isle of Man. Functionally extinct in 1974 with the death of its last native speaker; revived through education and now spoken as a second language by hundreds.
279 km away
The dialect of Newcastle and the Tyneside region. Retains a number of Old English and Norse-derived features lost elsewhere in England.
308 km away
The English of Ireland, shaped by long contact with Irish Gaelic. Distinctive grammar, intonation, and vocabulary set it apart from British and American varieties.
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Sources & corpora
Data on Romanichal from open scholarly databases. Each link opens the source in a new tab.