Para-Romani are various

mixed languages A mixed language is a language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole or pidgin language in that, whereas creoles/pidgin ...

of non- Indo-Aryan linguistic classification containing considerable admixture from the

Romani language Romani (; also Romany, Romanes , Roma; rom, rromani ćhib, links=no) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to '' Ethnologue'', seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their ...

. They are spoken as the traditional vernacular of

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

communities, Matras, Y. ''Romani: A Linguistic Introduction''

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

(2002) either in place of, or alongside, varieties of the Romani language. Some Para-Romani languages have no structural features of Romani at all, taking only the vocabulary from Romani. Reflecting the Romani who as a dispersed people reside predominantly throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

over the last thousand years—though with origins in the northern

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, in regions which are today part of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

—the linguistic makeup of most Para-Romani languages are based on

Indo-European The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...

languages, except for

Laiuse Romani Laiuse Romani was a Romani variety spoken in Estonia. It was a mixed language based on Romani and Estonian. The Romani people first appeared in Estonia in the 17th century. According to rumors, they were first part of Swedish King Charles XII's ...

(which is based on Estonian) and

Erromintxela Erromintxela () is the distinctive language of a group of Romani living in the Basque Country, who also go by the name Erromintxela. It is sometimes called ''Basque Caló'' or ''Errumantxela'' Matras, Y. ''A Linguistic Introduction'' Cambridge ...

(which is based on

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

of the Basque region of Spain and France, separate from the Caló Iberian Romani language of Spanish and Portuguese Romani based on the Romance languages of Iberia). The phenomenon of Para-Romani languages is akin to

Jewish languages Jewish languages are the various Language, languages and Dialect, dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the Jewish diaspora, diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following th ...

(other than Hebrew) which are spoken by different communities of the Jewish diaspora and are heavily influenced by

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, such as

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

(Judaeo-German) among

Ashkenazi Jews Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...

Ladino Ladino, derived from Latin, may refer to: * The register of Judaeo-Spanish used in the translation of religious texts, such as the Ferrara Bible *Ladino people, a socio-ethnic category of Mestizo or Hispanicized people in Central America especi ...

(Judaeo-Spanish) among

Sephardic Jews Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

, or

Yevanic Yevanic, also known as Judaeo-Greek, Romaniyot, Romaniote, and Yevanitika, is a Greek dialect formerly used by the Romaniotes and by the Constantinopolitan Karaites (in whose case the language is called Karaitika or Karaeo-Greek). The Romaniotes ...

(Judaeo-Greek), Italkian (Judaeo-Italian), various

Judeo-Arabic languages Judeo-Arabic dialects (, ; ; ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encom ...

, etc.

Varieties

Based on Indo-European languages

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

-based **

Lomavren language Lomavren ( hy, Լոմավրեն ') is a nearly extinct mixed language spoken by the Lom people, that arose from language contact between a language related to Romani and Domari and the Armenian language. Names The language is also known as ''Bos ...

* Germanic-based **

Angloromani Angloromani or Anglo-Romani (literally "English Romani"; also known as Angloromany, Rummaness, or Pogadi Chib) is a mixed language of Indo European origin involving the presence of Romani vocabulary and syntax in the English used by descendants of ...

Scottish Cant Scottish Cant (often called Scots-Romani or Scotch-Romani) is a cant spoken in Scotland by Lowland Scottish Romani Travellers.Kirk, J. & Ó Baoill, D. ''Travellers and their Language'' (2002) Queen's University Belfast Classification It is u ...

Scandoromani Scandoromani is a North Germanic based Para-Romani. It is spoken by the Scandinavian Romanisæl Travellers, a Romani minority community, in Norway (c. 100–150 elderly speakers), and formerly in Sweden. Subforms are referred to as: * Travelle ...

** Sinti-Manouche (moving from a Romani variant to being Para-Romani) *

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

-based ** Romano-Greek *

Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

-based ** Caló * Slavonic-based **†

Bohemian Romani Bohemian Romani or ''Bohemian Romany'' is a dialect of Romani formerly spoken by the Romani people of Bohemia, the western part of today's Czech Republic. It became extinct after World War II, due to extermination of most of its speakers in Na ...

(which was moving towards being a Para-Romani variety prior to extinction) ** Romano-Serbian *

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

-based ** Afghanistan Gorbat **

Persian Romani Ghorbati (or Qorbati), also known as Magadi (Mogadi), Qazulagi and Jogigi, Lafzi Mugat or Arabi/Arabcha in Central Asia, refers to various argots, spoken by the Ghorbati and closely related peoples, often called “Persian Gypsies” or “Centr ...

** Magati

Based on non-Indo European languages

* Finnic-based ** †

( Estonian-based) * Turkic-based ** Romano-Turkish ( Turkish-based) ** Crimean-Romani ( Crimean Tatar-based) **

Kurbetcha Kurbetcha (or Gurbetcha) is a creole language with what appears to be predominantly Domari language vocabulary and Cypriot Turkish grammar, spoken by the ''Gurbeti'' of Cyprus and North Cyprus. The Gurbetler have traditionally also spoken Cypriot ...

(Cypriot Turkish-based) *

-based **

References

Mixed languages {{Romani-stub