Domari language
Domari is an endangered Indo-Aryan language, spoken by older Dom people scattered across the Middle East and North Africa. The language is reported to be spoken as far north as Azerbaijan and as far south as central Sudan, in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon. Based on the systematicity of sound changes, we know with a fair degree of certainty that the names Domari and Romani derive from the Indo-Aryan word ḍom. The language itself actually derives from an Indo-Aryan language. The Arabs referred to them as nawar as they were a nomadic people that originally immigrated to the Middle East from India.
Domari is also known as "Middle Eastern Romani", "Tsigene", "Luti", or "Mehtar". There is no standard written form. In the Arab world, it is occasionally written using the Arabic script and has many Arabic and Persian loanwords. Descriptive work was done by Yaron Matras, who published a comprehensive grammar of the language along with an historical and dialectological evaluation of secondary sources.
Domari is an endangered language and is currently being shifted away from in younger generations, according to Yaron Matras. In certain areas such as Jerusalem, only about 20% of these Dom people, known as “Middle Eastern Gypsies”, speak the Domari language in everyday interactions. The language is mainly spoken by the elderly in the Jerusalem community. The younger generation are more influenced by Arabic, therefore most only know basic words and phrases. The modern-day community of Doms in Jerusalem was established by the nomadic people deciding to settle inside the Old City from 1940 until it came under Israeli administration in 1967.
Dialects
The best-known variety of Domari is Palestinian Domari, also known as "Syrian Gypsy", the dialect of the Dom community of Jerusalem, which was described by R.A. S. Macalister in the 1910s. Palestinian Domari is an endangered language, with fewer than 200 speakers, the majority of the 1,200 members of the Jerusalem Domari community being native speakers of Palestinian Arabic.Other dialects include:
- Nawari in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Egypt.
- Kurbati in Syria and western Iran
- Helebi in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco
- Halab/Ghajar in Sudan.
- Karachi in northern Turkey, northern Iran and the Caucasus
- Marashi in Turkey
- Barake in Syria
- Churi-Wali in Afghanistan
The small Seb Seliyer language of Iran is distinctive in its core vocabulary.
Status
In the 1940s, the Dom began to abandon their nomadic culture and began settling and working in the local economy. This led to the next phenomenon; the assimilation of Dom children in the primary school system which marked the first generation to grow up in an academic environment alongside Arab children. Consequently, this 1940 generation do not fluently speak the Domari language. Arabic replaced their native Domari, and became the language of cross-generation communication. In Jerusalem, it is estimated there are about 600-900 members of the Dom population in Jerusalem. Less than 10% can effectively communicate in Jerusalem Domari.Comparison with Romani
Domari was once thought to be the "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent, but more recent research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the Central zone group of languages. The Dom and the Rom are most likely to be descendants of 2 different migration waves out of India, separated by several centuries.There remain similarities between the two, aside from their shared Central zone Indic origin, indicating a period of shared history as itinerant populations in the Middle East. These include; shared archaisms, which have been lost in the Central Indo-Aryan languages over the millennia since Dom/Rom emigration, a series of innovations connecting them with the Northwestern zone group, indicating their route of migration out of India, and a number of radical syntactical changes, due to superstrate influence of Middle Eastern languages, including Persian, Arabic and Byzantine Greek.
Orthography
Since Domari is a minority Middle-Eastern language for a specific community of speakers, it did not have a standard orthography for many years; therefore many writers have used differing spelling systems. Most Middle-Easterners used the Arabic script, while scholars made do with a modified Pan-Vlakh Latin-based alphabet.Modified Pan-Vlakh orthography
In 2012, Yaron Matras used such a system in his recent publications on this subject where the Pan-Vlakh orthography served as a basis, with several modifications:- Romani j changed to y
- Romani c use limited to the accented form č for /tʃ/, the /dʒ/ counterpart being denoted by dž
- Doubled vowel letters for long vowels
- Diphthongs denoted with vowel pairs
- Additional letters in use for Semitic-derived words and names
Pan-Domari Alphabet
The Pan-Domari Alphabet, which was invented in 2015, is a Semitic-flavored simplification of the previous Matras notation:
- Y is used for /j/, and w for /w/—like in English
- X is used for the sound /x/—the well-known guttural of Greek, Russian, and Middle Eastern languages
- Q stands for /q/, the uvular plosive sound heard in the Semitic languages
- Circumflexes are used to mark long vowels <â ê î ô û> and certain fricative/affricate consonants <ĉ ĝ ĵ ŝ ẑ>
- Underdots under letters represent pharyngeal consonants <ḍ ḥ ṣ ṭ ẓ>
- Other letters include þ and ð for the interdental fricatives /θ ð/, the characters <ʾ> and <ʿ>, and the letter <ə> for the vowel sound shəwaʾ.
- The diphthongs are now denoted by vowel + approximant digraphs
.
| Letter | Alternate§ | IPA | Letter Name | In IPA | Example |
| ʾ | ’ | /ʔ/ | ʾalefu | /ʔɑ·lɛ·fʊ/ | ʾalefu-bêþah alphabet |
| A a | /ɑ/ | a | /ɑ/ | arat night | |
| Â â | Ā ā | /aː/ | â | /aː/ | âxir last, final |
| B b | /b/ | be | /bɛ/ | bâsbort passport | |
| C c | * | * | ce | * | Coke |
| Ĉ ĉ | CH ch | /tʃ/ | ĉe | /tʃɛ/ | ĉôna boy |
| D d | /d̪/ | de | /d̪ɛ/ | dînar dinar | |
| Ḍ ḍ | /d̪ˤ/ | ḍe | /d̪ˤɛ/ | ḍanḍ tooth; ḍêf guest | |
| Ð ð | DH dh | /ð/ | ðe | /ðɛ/ | ðawḥâʾ dhow |
| E e | /ɛ/ | e | /ɛ/ | eras this | |
| Ê ê | Ē ē | /eː/ | ê | /eː/ | ĵêb pocket |
| F f | /f/~/ɸ/1 | fe | /fɛ/ | finĵân cup | |
| G g | /ɡ/ | ge | /ɡɛ/ | gêsu wheat | |
| Ĝ ĝ | GH gh | /ɣ/~/ʁ/2 | ĝe | /ɣɛ/ | ĝassâle washing machine, washer |
| H h | /h/ | he | /hɛ/ | Hnûd Indus | |
| Ḥ ḥ | /ħ/ | ḥe | /ħɛ/ | ḥaqq right | |
| I i | /ɪ/ | i | /ɪ/ | Isrâʾîl Israel | |
| Î î | Ī ī | /iː/ | î | /iː/ | nhîr blood |
| J j | * | * | je | * | Jeep |
| Ĵ ĵ | J j | /dʒ/ | ĵe | /dʒɛ/ | ĵâr neighbor |
| K k | /k/ | ke | /k/ | kâz gas, petrol | |
| L l | /l̪/ | le | /l̪ɛ/ | Libnân Lebanon | |
| M m | /m/ | me | /mɛ/ | mâsûra tube | |
| N n | /n̪/~/ŋ/~/ɲ/3 | ne | /n̪ɛ/ | nohri tomato | |
| ʿ | ‘ | /ʕ/ | ʿayenu | /ʕɑ·jɛ·n̪ʊ/ | ʿIbrânî Hebrew |
| O o | /ɔ/ | o | /ɔ/ | oŝt lip | |
| Ô ô | Ō ō | /oː/ | ô | /oː/ | Dômarî Domari |
| P p | /p/ | pe | /pɛ/ | ple money, cash, moolah, funds | |
| Q q | /q/ | qe | /qɛ/ | qayîŝ food | |
| R r | /r/~/ɾ/4 | re | /rɛ/ | rxîṣ cheap | |
| S s | /s/ | se | /sɛ/ | sûq market | |
| Ṣ ṣ | /sˤ/ | ṣe | /sˤɛ/ | ṣaḥafi journalist, reporter | |
| Ŝ ŝ | SH sh | /ʃ/ | ŝe | /ʃɛ/ | ŝmâriya chicken, poultry |
| T t | /t̪/ | te | /t̪ɛ/ | turĵman translator, interpreter | |
| Ṭ ṭ | /t̪ˤ/ | ṭe | /t̪ˤɛ/ | ṭarmabil car, motor vehicle, auto | |
| Þ þ | TH th | /θ/ | þe | /θɛ/ | Þawrâ Thor |
| U u | /ʊ/ | u | /ʊ/ | ustâz teacher, instructor, proctor | |
| Û û | Ū ū | /uː/ | û | /uː/ | ûyar town, city, vicinity; Til-Ûyar Jerusalem |
| V v | /v/~/β/5 | ve | /vɛ/ | vîsa visa, affidavit; qravat cravat | |
| W w | /w/ | we | /wɛ/ | waqt time | |
| X x | KH kh | /x/~/χ/6 | xe | /xɛ/ | xarbûŝ tent; xârfân sheep, lambs |
| Y y | /j/ | ye | /jɛ/ | Yasûʿ Jesus | |
| Z z | /z/ | ze | /zɛ/ | zard gold; zarf envelope | |
| Ẓ ẓ | /zˤ/ | ẓe | /zˤɛ/ | ẓâbiṭ officer | |
| Ẑ ẑ | ZH zh | /ʒ/ | ẑe | /ʒɛ/ | ẑbin forehead |
| Ǝ ǝ | Ė ė | /ə/~/ʌ/7 | ŝǝwaʾ | /ʃə·wɑʔ/ | ŝǝwaʾ shǝwaʾ, schwa |
NOTES
§ Spelling alternates are shown for certain of these sounds ; these alternates are also used on the KURI's Learn Domari article series.
1 The letter fe may be sounded either as a labiodental /f/ or a bilabial fricative, depending on the context, or origin of a given word/name.
2 The letter ĝe usually represents a voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, but may be sounded as a velarolaryngeal in words/names derived from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.
3 The letter ne usually represents a voiced dental nasal /n̪/; however, it manifests as a velar before the letters g ĝ k q x, but as a palatal before the letters ĉ ĵ y.
4 The letter re represents a flapped or a trilled rhotative resonant continuant, depending on the position within a word/name, and whether it appears singly or doubly.
5 The letter ve shows up mainly in words and names derived from foreign loans, and may represent either a voiced labiodental /v/ or a voiced bilabial fricative.
6 The letter xe usually represents a voiceless velar fricative /x/, but usually is sounded as a velarolaryngeal /χ/ one in scores of loan words/loan names which are derived from Arabic, Persian, and Urdu.
7 The vowel letter called ŝǝwaʾ represents the mean-mid central spread neutral vowel as it exists in the English words about, taken, pencil, lemon, and circus. While its normal manifestation is indeed , it may vary in the direction of either a higher-mid or a fronted lower-mid one, depending on the dialect spoken.
- SPECIAL NOTE
Phonology
Vowels
There are five main vowel sounds, however this inventory shows the variation and quantity of short vowels. Most are interchangeable with a vowel sound next to it, however all of the sounds produced above are identical to the local Palestinian Arabic.| Front | Central | Back | |
| High | ɪ iː | ʊ uː | |
| Mid | ɛ eː | ə ~ ~ | ɔ oː |
| Low | ɑ aː |
Consonants
Most of these consonants are influenced by Palestinian Arabic such as gemination; however, consonants such as , , and are not found in the local dialect. There is speculation among linguists that these sounds are considered a part of the pre-Arabic component. Alveopalatal affricates such as and are also consonants that differ in sound from Arabic.Stress
The biggest difference in expression of language between Arabic and Domari is where the stress is placed. Arabic has phoneme-level stress while Domari is a language of word-level stress. The Domari language emphasizes stress on the final syllable, as well as grammatical markers for gender and number. Most nouns, besides proper nouns, adopted from Arabic sound distinct because of the unique stresses in Domari. Domari is thought to have borrowed a lot of words and grammatical structure from Arabic; however, this is not entirely true. Complex verbs and most core prepositions did not transfer into the realms of grammar of the Domari language. The syntactic typology remains independent of Arabic influence. It also important to note that the numerals used by the Doms were inherited from Kurdish. Even though Domari was influenced by local Arabic, the language also felt the impacts of Kurdish and certain dialects of Iranian in the grammar of the language.Numerals
Here is a table of the numerals in Hindi, Romani, Domari, Lomavren, and Persian for comparison.| Numeral | Hindi | Romani | Domari | Lomavren | Persian |
| 1 | ek | ekh, jekh | yek, yika | yak, yek | yak, yek |
| 2 | do | duj | dî | luy | du, do |
| 3 | tīn | trin | tirin | tərin | se |
| 4 | cār | štar | ŝtar | iŝdör | čahār/čār |
| 5 | pāñc | pandž | panĵ | penĵ | panǰ |
| 6 | chay | šov | ŝaŝ | ŝeŝ | ʃaʃ, ʃeʃ |
| 7 | sāt | ifta | hawt, hoft | haft | haft |
| 8 | āt̥h | oxto | hayŝt, haytek | haŝt | hašt |
| 9 | nau | inja | nu | nu | nuh, noh |
| 10 | das | deš | dez | las | dah |
| 20 | bīs | biš | wîs | vist | bist |
| 100 | sau | šel | say | say | sad |
Keyboard Layout
A Pan-Domari Alphabet ASDF keyboard layout is to be made available for MS-Windows users, which is based on the United States English layout, albeit with C, J, and some punctuation signs being reassigned to| Key | Pan-Domari ASDF | United States English | Notes |
| C | Ĉ ĉ | C c | The plain form only occurs in certain loans. |
| J | Ĵ ĵ | J J | The unaccented C and J only appear in unassimilated foreign loans. |
| , | ?, | <, | The less than sign is reassigned to the |
| ! | >. | ||