Romengo Alavari

A selection of words and phrases from "SRPSKOHRVATSKO-ROMSKO-ENGLESKI RJEChNIK - Romengo alavari" by Rade Uhlik

A few words on pronunciation...
"ch" in my spelling is pronounced like English "ch" in church
"sh" is pronounced like English "sh" in shock
"ph" is not pronouced "f"; rather, it should be an aspirated "p"
"j" is voiceless, like English "y" in yolk
"dz" is pronounced like "j" in jungle or "ge" in sponge
"c" is, more often than not, a palatalised "k" (particularly in front of "i"), but can also be an "s", as far as I can tell. (I didn't realise that there were two different c's until I had finished the word list, and therefore never bothered to distinguish between them. I did look up some words again, and changed the "c" to the slightly more appropriate "kj" in these words)

A little bit of grammar... (from a Macedonian Romani grammar)
"o" is the masculine definite article (equivalent of English the, and French le): o rat - the blood
"e" is the feminine definite article (French la): e jag - the fire
The article and ending both vary according to case. Romani has eight different cases: nominative, genitive, ablative, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental and locative. To give you an idea of how it works, here's an example:

Rom - man, Gypsy man
(singular)
1. nominative - o Rom
2. genitive - e Rom-eskoro
3. ablative - e Rom-estar
4. dative - e Rom-eskje
5. accusative - e Rom-e
6. vocative - Rom-a!
7. instrumental - e Rom-ea, esa
8. locative - e Rom-este

Roma
(plural)
1. nominative - e Roma
2. genitive - e Rom-engoro
3. ablative - e Rom-endar
4. dative - e Rom-engje
5. accusative - e Rom-en
6. vocative - Rom-alen!
7. instrumental - e Rom-enca
8. locative - Rom-ende

Alavari A-G Alavari H-K Alavari L-S Alavari T-Y The days of the week and numerals

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