brokenFiddle wrote:in Melbourne we have many people from the Balkans, but they have been quite heavily oppressed, and so many Rom represent themselves as "regular" Macedonian, Greek or Turkish)
Alejo wrote:Lesson 2
The Article and Gender
Much like Spanish and the much closer related Hindi, Romani has only two genders.
For masculine nouns, the article o is used. For feminine, e.
O manrro the bread
O lil the letter
E ryat the night
E shib the language, tongue
A general rule is that nouns ending in o are masculine, such as balo (pig); nouns in i are generally feminine, such as bali (sow). Thus:
O balo tha e bali
The big and the sow
Nouns ending in consonants are trickier. They have to be memorized as you come across them. Examples are e yag and o grast, the fire and the horse.
Romani lacks an indefinate article. Grast may mean a horse or simply, horse. Ekh may be used for a or an sometimes, although it more literally means one.
Also, you will come to see that the definite article is used in places English speakers wouldn't be accustomed to. One spot is in front of names.
E Joan avel. Joan is coming.
O Steven avel. Steven is coming.
Kon avel? Who is coming?
Questions
Questions can be formed with a rising intonation, such as in Spanish, or reforming the sentence, like in English.
O shavó avel? Is the boy coming?
or
Avel o shavó? Is the boy coming?
Vocabulary
ages today
ánde into, in
avel he, she, it comes
beshel he, she, it sits
chi not, do not(negative particle, such as chi zhav, I am not going)
doháno tobacco
Gazhi Non Rom woman
Gazho Non Rom man
grasni mare
grast horse
kerel he, she, it makes, does
kon? who?
lasharel he, she, it fixes, repairs
lil(m) letter
mangel he, she, it wants
manrro bread
na no(to a question)
phagel he, she, it breaks
phandel he, she, it closes, ties
phutrel he, she, it opens
piyel he, she, it drinks( or piyav doháno, I smoke tobacco, notice the similar cultural comparison to drinking and smoking as in Hindi 'phūṅkanā' and Turkish 'içmek')
rakli non Romani girl
raklo non Romani boy
ryat(f) night
Rrôm Romani man, husband if Roma
Rrômní Romani woman, wife if Roma
shávo Romani boy
shey Romani girl
so? what?
sóba room, not a noodle
tehára tomorrow
wudar(m) door
ya yes(to a question)
Translate:
O grasni avel.
Me chi piyav doháno.
Ya, wo phutrel o wudar.
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