Finnish Romani language

Kalo, Kàlo or the Finnish Romani language (Kalo Finnish Romani: kaalengo tšimb) is a variety of the Romani language spoken by the Kaale subgroup of the Romani people in Finland and Sweden. The language is related to but not mutually intelligible with Scandoromani or Angloromani.

Kalo
kaalengo tšimb
Native to	Finland, Sweden
Native speakers	10,000 in Finland (2001 census) 1,700 in Sweden (2009)
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Central Zone Romani Northern Romani Northwestern Romani Kalo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rmf
Glottolog	kalo1256

Kalo has 6,000–10,000 speakers and many young people do not know the language. The majority of speakers are from older generations and about two-thirds of the Romani in Finland still speak the language. There have been some revival efforts. Dictionaries and grammar books have been produced and some universities offer Kalo as a course. It has some similarities to the Romani languages in Hungary, where stress is placed on the first syllable of the word. This may be related to the fact that both Finnish and Hungarian words have fixed word-initial stress, a feature that would have diffused to the Romani languages. Kalo has been taught in schools since the late 1980s, with some courses available as early as the 1970s.

Current situation

In 2012 only 30% of the 13,000 Romani in Finland spoke Kalo fluently, but about 50% could understand it. It is now uncommon for Kalo speakers to pass the language to children although there have been efforts made to revive it in recent years. There are language nests in Rovaniemi, and in Helsinki, Romani courses were established. In Finland, the municipalities can establish Romani courses if there is enough demand, though there have been problems due to a lack of resources.

Finnish Romani in Sweden have a right to Kalo and Finnish education.

Kalo in Finland

Phonology

	Front				Back
	unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	y	yː	u	uː
Mid	e	eː	ø	øː	o	oː
Open	æ	æː			ɑ	ɑː

Finnish Kalo has 8 pairs of long and short vowels. Vowel length can be phonemic as in bur 'through' versus buur 'boor' or allophonic as in baaro/baro 'big'.

Finnish Kalo has 9 closing diphthongs and 3 opening diphthongs.

Diphthongs			Ending point
			Front		Back
Starting point
Close	Front	unrounded	ie		iu
		rounded	yi	yø
	Back		ui		uo
Mid	Front	unrounded	ei		eu
		rounded	øi
	Back		oi		ou
Open	Front		æi
	Back		ɑi		ɑu

Finnish Kalo has the following consonant phonemes:

		Labial	Dental/ Alveolar	Postalveolar/ Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t̠ʃ	k
	voiceless aspirated	pʰ	tʰ		kʰ
	voiced	b	d	d̠ʒ	ɡ
Fricative		f	s		x	h
Approximant		ʋ	l	j
Trill			r

Alphabet

Main article: Romani alphabets § Finnish Romani

See also

• Miranda Vuolasranta

References

• Granqvist, Kimmo (2001). "Suomen romanikieli". Kielikello (in Finnish). Retrieved January 28, 2021.
• Granqvist, Kimmo (2002). "Finnish Romani Phonology and Dialect Geography" (PDF). SKY Journal of Linguistics. 15. Linguistic Association of Finland: 61–83.
• Granqvist, Kimmo (2011). Lyhyt Suomen romanikielen kielioppi [Consice grammar of Finnish Romani] (in Finnish). Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten keskus. ISBN 978-952-5446-69-2. ISSN 1796-041X. Retrieved January 28, 2021.
• Tuukkanen, Pia (April 10, 2012). "Romanikieli on vaarassa kadota". Yle Uutiset (in Finnish). Retrieved January 28, 2022.

External links

• Finnish Kalo teaching materials by the [[Finnish National Agency for Education]] (in Finnish)
• Finnish-Kalo Finnish Dictionary Online, Glosbe