North Central Romani is one of a dozen of major dialect groups within Romani, an Indo-Aryan language of Europe. The North Central dialects of Romani are traditionally spoken by some subethnic groups of the Romani people (Gypsies) in the Czech Republic, Slovakia (with the exception of its southwestern and south-central regions), southeastern Poland, the Transcarpathia province of Ukraine, and parts of Romania's Transylvania. There are also established outmigrant communities of North Central Romani speakers in the United States, and recent outmigrant communities in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and some other countries of Western Europe.

[edit] Dialect classification

The North Central dialects of Romani may be divided into three subgroups, each of which consists of several closely related dialects (Boretzky 1999, Elšík et al. 1999, Elšík 2003, Elšík & Matras 2006):

1. Western North Central Romani
   1. Bohemian Romani
   2. Moravian Romani
   3. West Slovak Romani
2. Eastern North Central Romani
   1. Central Slovak Romani
   2. South Polish Romani
   3. East Slovak Romani
   4. Ruthenian Romani
3. Transylvanian North Central Romani

[edit] References

• Boretzky, Norbert. 1999. Die Gliederung der Zentralen Dialekte und die Beziehungen zwischen Südlichen Zentralen Dialekten (Romungro) und Südbalkanischen Romani-Dialekten. In: Halwachs, Dieter W. and Florian Menz (eds.) Die Sprache der Roma. Perspektiven der Romani-Forschung in Österreich im interdisziplinären und internazionalen Kontext. Klagenfurt: Drava. 210–276.

• Elšík, Viktor, Milena Hübschmannová, and Hana Šebková. 1999. The Southern Central (ahi-imperfect) Romani dialects of Slovakia and northern Hungary. In: Halwachs, Dieter W. and Florian Menz (eds.) Die Sprache der Roma. Perspektiven der Romani-Forschung in Österreich im interdisziplinären und internazionalen Kontext. Klagenfurt: Drava. 277–390.

• Elšík, Viktor. 2003. Interdialect contact of Czech (and Slovak) Romani varieties. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 162, 41–62.

• Elšík, Viktor, and Yaron Matras. 2006. Markedness and language change: The Romani sample. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

[edit] See also

• Romani language
• Carpathian Romani language

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