Researching Romani language and dialects

I’ve just heard from IDEA Associate Editor Rena Cook, who has a fascinating gig. She’s dialect-coaching a film with Romani (or Roma) characters, not to be confused with Romanians. (You may know the Romani by the pejorative term “gypsies.”) I realized I knew next to nothing about the Roma. I knew we had no samples on IDEA for this dispersed people, who originated in northern India.

I would like to put that right. Does anyone have a Roma friend to contribute an IDEA sample? That would be great!

And Rena needs a native Roma speaker from Europe who can translate simple English lines into Romani. You may contact her directly at renacook@cox.net. (And you will enjoy my podcast with Rena a few months back.)

— Paul Meier