Lingualia LingualiaEurope’s regional and minority languages

Languages · Indo-Iranian languages

Romani

01. Data about the language

Language group

Indo-European / Indo-Iranian

Area

The Rom minority is spread all through Europe. The available information about Romany concerns the situation of Romany in Finland and in Austria.
Finland :
Throughout the country Austria :
The primary traditional area of settlement is Burgenland, as well as Vienna and Lower Austria. Sinti and Lovara, which make up the remaining part of the ethnic group, live almost exclusively in urban centres.

Updated, sourced data, checked on 14 October 2026 · scope : Situation européenne et mondiale ; détails pour la Finlande, l'Autriche et la Suède

Numerical strength

Europe and worldwide: on the most conservative estimate, Romani has upwards of 3.5 million speakers in Europe and upwards of 500,000 in the rest of the world; the actual number is probably much higher4. The University of Helsinki puts it more likely between 10 and 20 million5. The largest speaker populations live in south-eastern Europe, notably in Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro4.

Finland: about half of Finnish Roma have satisfactory skills in Romani (Kale), and only a third speak it fluently5.

Austria: The last census to record the language of everyday use ("Umgangssprache") was in 2001: 4,348 Austrian citizens then declared Romani (Romanes)2. Register-based censuses, since 2011, no longer collect this information2.

Sweden: in 2023–24, 2,323 compulsory-school pupils were entitled to mother-tongue tuition in Romani Chib3.

Status

Finland: The Finnish Constitution (Section 17) guarantees the Sámi, as an indigenous people, as well as the Roma and "other groups" the right to maintain and develop their own language and culture1.

Austria: Romani is protected by Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages2. Federal support for the ethnic groups was doubled from 2021 and reached €7.6 million in 2023 for the Federal Chancellery alone2.

Education

Austria: in Vienna, first-language teaching in Romani reached 171 pupils in 6 schools in 2023–24, against 308 pupils in 10 schools in 2020–212.

Sweden: in 2023–24, 539 of the 2,323 pupils entitled to mother-tongue tuition in Romani Chib took it (23%)3.

Media

Austria: Since September 2022 the ORF has produced the fortnightly TV magazine "WIR | Češi, Hrvati, Magyarok, Roma, Slováci, Slovenci", broadcast on ORF 2 and ORF III in the ethnic-group languages with German subtitles; in 2024, ORF Burgenland and ORF Carinthia produced about 100 hours of television and over 4,000 hours of radio in these languages2. Since 2021 one "lead medium" per ethnic group has received specific federal funding2. For the Roma, this lead medium is the daily one-hour programme "Romani Ora" on Radio Mora (€183,400 for 2024–25); the ORF also broadcasts the magazine Romano Dikipe2.

02. Poem

The poem in its original script
The poem in its original script
Original Translation
O trajo çhinel o berno
Life breaks the circle
An vaka˘ripe o tràjo çhinel o berno Ezor maÊkar-o peripe Thaj biuêipe Sar plainaqo nakh Kalipe 3i manuÊesÉ∆e Angada çaxrainenqo çhavrorro Cïrdel po serben And-e kanàva o vaxt Biandol Thaj p-e çara o mandaj Resel P-e patrin palmaqe e baxt Balvalaqe Buvlol o boldipe de˘sesqo Muj del o grast çhonutesqo Inklen e ra˘ta˘qe çirikla˘ O vaka˘ripe phakhavol Ta xasarel o gïndo p-o drom O gind çuçilo Xurdavol o dud an kerkipe Trìto vaxt An vaka˘ripe Jekh kamipe Nakhel o sundal an nevi fòrma MaÊkar-e jag thaj drom O manus Lino daraça Mangel te iril pes And-o kòkalo e maçhesqo An jakh pajesqe te nakhel K-o maÊkaripen.
In language life breaks The circle Between ruin and blemish Power Like a mountainous peak Darkness all the way to Man Angada son of the stars Draws his bow In the hemp time Is born And on the grasses reason Alights On the leaf of the palm fortune From the wind Extends the rhythm of day The horse of the moon gives voice It is the hour when nightbirds appear Language takes flight And loses its thought on the way Number is emptied Light breaks up in bitterness Third time In language A desire Crosses the world in new form Between fire and path Man Terror-stricken Asks to return To the spine of the fish To the hollow of the spring Or to pass Between the two.
Rajko Duriç

03. Linguistic description

Romani is an Indo-Aryan language, related to Hindi or Bengali1. This Indian origin was demonstrated as early as 1782 by Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger1. The word rom means 'man, husband' (not 'human being'), and Roma is its plural1. The vocabulary bears traces of history: Slavs are called das, from an Indic word meaning 'slave', inspired by the likeness of Greek sklavos ('slave') and slavos ('Slav')1.

Sources

The 2003 CD had no description of this language: this text was written for the site from the sources below.

  1. D. W. Halwachs, « Romani – An Indo-Aryan Language of Europe », Factsheets on Romani Language 1.0, Conseil de l’Europe / Romani-Projekt Graz.

04. Cartoon

Z Lumom se učimo romsko – Romska Risanka za Otroke | Romani Chib | Lumo Cartoon
Cartoon · 4 min 23 s · channel: Rom e Lab cartoon · YouTube

Video hosted on YouTube and published by the channel shown; its author may remove it at any time.