1-. Introduction

To understand why the gipsy language in Great Britain has ended up being at the moment two opaque languages is necesary to understand the social situation that the gipsies have supported from their arrival.

The period of transition between the Half Age and the Rebirth was a time of great social change. When the gipsies arrived at the British Islands, they met with a situation of general unemployment, what forced them to fall in many occasions in the delinquency. There was, also, a great quantity of forced beggars to live in the highways due to the breakup of the monasteries (these took charge of helping to the homeless)

It is necesary to add, also that, as consequence of the end of the “War the a hundred years old”, in the XV century, thousands of ex-soldiers arrived at the islands causing the overload of the employment system (Chamberlin, 1965)

gipsy >During this time, the gipsies was able to maintain their intact language; those that maintained a contact with english during a period of considerable time, restructured the language giving place to the current one anglo-romany, which has gone supplanting to the romany language characteristic of this population.

There are two hypothesis on the origin of the anglo-romaní: one that bets for the decline of the romany language, or another that defends the development of the romany like medium of communication, in a wide area and during the XVI century that gradually went supplanting to the language of that same area (english). There are arguments in favor of both hypotheses, and maybe the existence of the anglo-romany it is the result of both.

The main characteristics of the anglo-romany are the grammatical influences coming from english and forms created by themselves also.

 

2-. grammatical characteristics

FONOLOGY

The phonological level of the anglo-romany is identical to that of english. Only sound non english used by the speakers is the fricativ uvular /x /, and even this frequently becomes /h / or /k /.

R: xoben	A: hoben	“food”
R: xoxano	A: hakeno	“deceitful”

The fono-phonological distinction among aspired sound and not aspired, in the consonants, has become voiceless /sonorous.

R: ker-	A: ker	“do”
R: kher	A: ker	“house”
R: tud	A: dud	“brightness”
R: thud	A: thud	“milk”

The anglo-romaní has acquired English's secondary vowels also, as well as the pattern of acentual use typical of this language.

NAME AND PRONOUNS, ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS

The names in anglo-romaní follow the regular pattern of pluralization and formation of possessive of english.

R: dzukel	A: a dzuk	“a dog”
R: dui dzukle	A: dui dzuks	“two dogs”
R: i dzuklesa	A: wï the dzuk	“with the dog”
R: i dzukleskero	A: the dzuk´s	“the dog´s”

It keeps the use common of –ben, at the end of the word, combining with verbs, adjectives, etc., to form names. Less frequent, however, the suffix –mes is used with the same function.

Although the function of the nominal termination of the possessive one has been taken of english (´s), some of these are maintenained as frozen forms from the romany or they have been re-aplied like meanings of expansion of the vocabulary.

Almost all romany grammar, except the lexicon, is english derivation; so alone in the ends of the word stay the romany distinctives. These ends can be particles that mark number or gender historically. Then, they not have possessive function for themselves. Therefore:

Kur	“to fight”
Kuremeskre	“boxing glove”
Kuremengre	“boxer, fighter”
Kuremengri	“tambourine”

All the gender and the case differences have been lost in the romany pronouns, being this reflected in the first person of the singular one:

R: me	A: mandi	“l”
R: man	A: mandi	“me”
R: maya	A: mandi	“me” (emph.)
R: mandi	A: mandi	“me” (prepositional)
R: mani	A: to, for mandi	“to, for me” (dat.)
R: mansa	A: wi mandi	“with me” (instr.)
R: mande	A: from mandi	“from me” (abl.)
R: miro	A: mandi´s	“my” (masc. sing.)
R: miri	A: mandi´s	“my” (fem. sing.)
R: mire	A: mandi´s	“my” (obllique)

Also, while the romany uses as much prepositions as postposicions, only the last type is retained by the anglo-romany. Being added to these losses, are highlighted also those that are taking place in most of the personal pronouns, in plural, and in the possessive forms of these in singular and in plural (his/her own, their own). Those that remain in use are “mandi” (me), “tuti” (you) “yav” or “lesti” (he), “yoi” or “yuwi” (she). The rest of the pronominal personal forms are only known by the older people or for some punctual families.

The adjectives behave following the english pattern in its comparative and superlative forms:

Yoky, yokier, yokiest	“clever”, “cleverer”, “cleverest”
Wafedi, more wafedi, most wafedi	“bad”, “worse”, “worst”

“Than” it is expressed by means of “den” or “en”

kave´s much more silene ´n Reggie´s tan

“this is much colder than Reggie´s place”

The derived adverbs of the adjectives have the same adjectival form. Some articles contain the adverbial termination –is.

She gilies right suke	“she sings very prettily”	(suke ´nice, sweet, quiet´)
Stol actin´lubenis	“stop acting wantonly”	(lubni ´whore, whorish´)
He rides rammnis	“he dresses Gypsy-fashion”	(ramni ´Romani´)

FORMAS VERBALES

The verbs in anglo-romany usually correspond to the singular imperative or to the third person of the singular in romany. There are non analyzable forms that follow the english pattern.

R: dav	A: mandi dels	“I give”
R: del	A: he dels; lesti dels	“he gives”
R: les	A: tuti lels	“you take”
R: cinasa	A: we cins	“we cut”

Other similar verbal constructions to the english pattern:

R: sundom len	A: mandi´s suned´em	“I´ve hear”
R: dikhan les tu?	A: did tuti dik it?	“did you se”
R: avena marde	A: ledi´ll get mored	“they´ll get killed”
R: xoxado sas o Luther	A: Luther had been cived	“Luther had been Cheated”
R: cinesas	A: tuti was cinin”	“you were cutting”

The verb "to be" is usually English, although some families maintain the native form of the present of the singular. The sentence in past is the regular form of the third person of the singular, in past, characteristic of the romany. Sometimes, the verb "to be" is omitted in the copulative constructions.

Ekai tuti´s paterens	“here are your pages” (lit. “leaves”)
Tuti rinkeni roni	“you are a beautiful lady”
Tuti kusti dikin´ mus	“you´re a fine looking man”

The negation is indicated by the word “kek” or “keka”. The imperative negation is “mo” (no)

LEXICON

It is in the vocabulary generated internally where the anglo-romany shows their better inventive. The speakers show a good ability when they want to stay to english's margin. Even for the denomination of objects for those that there was not term in the romany (as “aeroplane” or “television”), they are formed new words tossing hand of the “stock” existent in the base of the same romany to expand the anglo-romany lexicon. Some of these expansion processes are already characterized by the formation of new words starting from the union of morphemes existent in different combinations, not having any external pattern for it (in english or in romany).

Dikin´mukte	“televisión”	(lit. “looking box”)
Dur-dikemengre	“telescope”	(lit. “far-see” + -mengre)
Lola-cam	“copper”	(lit. “red tin”)
Lon-cik	“sand”	(lit. “salt dirt”)
Nasin´pani	“waterfall”	(lit. “running water”)
Prasterin´saste	“bicycle”	(lit. “running iron”)
Rokesunengri	“Telephone”	(lit. “speak listen”+ -gri)
Ramni-rokerin´-cerikle	“parrot”	(lit.“Romani-speaking-bird”)
Sasti-cedrikle	“aeroplane”	(lit. “iron bird”)
Sasti-groi	“locomotive”	(lit. “iron horse”)

Other resources of expansion of the lexicon use words characteristic of english enlarging their semantic value and granting them secondary interpretations (homonyms). it is necessary, therefore, to have english's intimate knowledge to be able to use and to understand these enlarged interpretations. Some of these techniques are applied in a spontaneous way, as a type of linguistic exercise or game, giving place to creations that are not heard again. However, some in these created ways in a spontaneous way are extended through the speakers in England. The social function of these abilities for the lexical differenciation in the anglo-romany language, as well as the discussion about other socio-linguistic aspects of the british gipsy population is described in Kenrick (1979).

Information taken of Hancock, I.: "Romani and Angloromani"