Lithuanian Romani
Anton Tenser
University of Manchester
Lithuanian Romani is a dialect spoken by a small population of Roma (Gypsies) living on the territory of present-day Lithuania, as well as recent migrants from this area to the Western Europe. The dialect was tentatively assigned to the Northeastern group of Romani dialects. It is the only dialect in this group the grammar of which has not been previously described in literature. The primary goal of this work is to provide a grammatical description of the dialect, using as a framework the RMS database developed at the University of Manchester, supported by transcribed recordings of a questionnaire conceived within the RMS project.
The main body of the book is descriptive, presenting Phonology, derivation and inflection of Nominal and Verbal categories. The fourth chapter deals with grammatical relations within the phrases, including cases, subordination, coordination and word order.
Within the main body of the book, there are details concerning borrowing into the dialect, and also comparisons, on specific issues, of Lithuanian Romani to other dialects in the Northeastern group. These two topics form the last two chapters of the book, entitled Borrowing and Dialect Classification. The Dialect Classification chapter also serves as a conclusion and argues the validity of classifying Lithuanian Romani as belonging to the Northeastern group.
ISBN 9783895869594. Languages of the World/Materials 452. 70pp. 2005.
