Phonetics in Romani

Certain words in Romani produce more than one sound such as the word "insect", which is pronounced as “kermo”,"kjermo"and “chermo”. While at the same there are words such as “kalo” that are pronounced as “kalo” (black) and “chil” (butter), in most dialects.

Below we go through the alphabet in accordance to the phonetic system we use for Romani and at the same time use words in Romani so that one can associate the various pronunciations to a single word when it will re-appear in other segments of our lesson plan. Remember to continually re-visit this page so that one can memorize the various pronunciations. In parenthesis is the English version of the word in Romani. Click on the sound file for Romani phonetics to hear the pronunciations.

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A – “angrusti” – ring (a as o in oven, or a after f in father)
B – “baro” – big (b as in big)
C – “cera” – little (ts as in cats)
Ch – “Chon” – month (double pronunciation, ch as in church and sh as in share)
D – “dur” – far (d as in dinner)
Dj – “djaso” – period of sorrow (j as in jungle)
Dh – “dandh” – tooth (aspirated as the d in bad. Stretch the “d” out)
Dzh – “dzha” – go (double pronunciation, dzh as j in jungle and as the s the sounds in confusion or j as in the French jour)
E – “pek” – fry (e as in wreck)
F – “fosuj” – bean (f as in far)
G – “grast” – horse (g as in goose)
Gj – “gjilli” – song (gj double pronunciation, dj as j in jungle and g as in goose)
H – “hasna” – use (h as in horse but sometimes silent to lengthen a vowel a preceding it)
I – “ilo” – heart (i as in it)
J – “jag” – fire (j as y in yes)
K – “kerr” – do (double pronunciation k as c in can and ch as in chair, and in some cases as the c sound can alone )
Kj – “kjermo” (double pronunciation k as c in can and ch as in chair)
Kh – “kher” – house (Aspirated-a more pouted k sound that has a double pronunciation with c as in can and ch as in chair)
L – “lulugji” – flower (l as in long)
M – “manro” – bread (m as in man)
N – “nah” – no (n as in nine)
O – “opre” – up (o as in snow minus the w from the end)
P – “pak” – wing (p as in spat)
Ph – “phral” – brother (p as in pat)
R – “riat” – night (r as ran)
Rr – “rrat” – blood (rolling r or guttural-like gargling r in the throat)
S – “sap” – snake (s as snake)
Sh – “shil” – cold (sh as in shake-observe: single pronunciation in some words, this sound has a double pronunciation see Ch)
T – “tud” – milk (t as in tight)
Th – “thranda” – thirty (th as in there)
Tj – “tjil” – butter (single pronunciation, see ch for double pronunciation, tj is as ch in chair)
U – “Ungro” – Hungary (u as o in do)
V – “vesh” – forest (v as in vest)
X – “xandro” – sword (x is difficult to find in English it is like th ch in the German achtung, or try gutteralizing the h in hard by making a k sound before it)
Z – “zlag” – earing (z as in zebra)
Zh – “zharo” – temperature (Russian loan word, commonly it is loan words that have the single pronunciation for this sound, see dzh)