:Welsh Romani language

{{short description|Variety of the Romani language}}

{{redirect|Welsh Romani|the Roma of Wales|Kale (Welsh Roma)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Welsh Romani

| nativename = Romnimus

| states = Wales (United Kingdom)

| ref = e25

| familycolor = Indo-European

| fam2 = Indo-Iranian

| fam3 = Indo-Aryan

| fam4 = Romani

| fam5 =

| fam6 = Northern Romani

| iso3 = rmw

| glotto = wels1246

| glottorefname = Welsh Romani

}}

The Welsh Romani language is a variety of the Romani language spoken by the Kale subgroup of the Romani people, who have been present in Wales since the 16th century. Welsh Romani is one of the many Northern Romani dialects.Norbert Boretzky: Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004 p. 18

The majority of the vocabulary is of Romani origin but there are a number of loanwords from other languages. Welsh loanwords include melanō ("yellow", from melyn), grīga ("heather", from grug) and kraŋka ("crab", from cranc). There are also English loanwords such as vlija ("village"), spīdra ("spider") and bråmla ("bramble").John Sampson (1926) The dialect of the Gypsies of Wales, being the older form of British Romani preserved in the speech of the clan of Abram Wood, Oxford University Press, London.

Historically the variants of Welsh Romani and Angloromani (spoken by the Romanichal) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani.Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Clarendon Press. Welsh Romani is closely related to Angloromani, Scandoromani (spoken by Romanisæl in Sweden and Norway), Scottish Cant (spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani in Lowland Scotland) and Kalo (Spoken by Kaale in Finland and Sweden). Kale, Romanichal, Romanisæl, Kaale and Scottish Lowland Romani are closely related Romani subgroups which stem from the wave of Romani immigrants who arrived in Northern Europe in the 16th century.Bakker (1997) Review of McGowan, The Winchester Confessions. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Fifth series, 7. (1): 49–50.