The Domari Language of Aleppo (Syria)

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to shed light on an under-described variety of Domari, a very scarcely documented Indo-Aryan language spoken by the m, who are often referred to as "the Middle-Eastern Gypsies". Described as an archaic Indo-Aryan language, Domari is known to the scholarly community from a limited number of word lists dating back to the 19 th century and two partial descriptions based on a rather moribund dialect, the one spoken in Jerusalem. Apart from these sources, no reliable data are available about other varieties. The data presented in this paper come from an original fieldwork carried out in 2009 and 2010 amongst the m community in the city of Aleppo in Northern Syria and are an important contribution to our knowledge of one of the very few old diasporic Indic languages spoken outside the Indian subcontinent.

Not-so-strange bedfellows: Documentation, description, and sociolinguistics in Gaza

“…The Dom are an Indo-Aryan community, speakers of Domari, an endangered Indo-Aryan language related to but distinct from Romani. Matras (2012) provided a thorough grammatical description of the Jerusalem variety of Domari, while Herin (2012, 2014) has provided an additional account of the Domari varieties spoken in Aleppo and Saraqib (Syria), and in Beirut (Lebanon).…”

Bir Roman Lehçesi Olarak Doğu Anadolu Domcasının Biçimsel Örüntüleri

“…In the case of being a contact language, to maintain its communication competence or to lose this functionality is primarily related to the duration and intensity of the interaction. Some languages like Domani, cannot preserve their mother tongue functions as (L1) in long-term and intense interactions, but they can adopt its linguistic entity to some extent due to the use of 'secret language' (Herin, 2012;Varol, 2020). Apart from being an endangered, secret and substrate language Domani is basically a language of contact.…”

Analógia a lovári alaktanban = Analogy in Lovary morphology

“…The word and the people are not only related to the Romani people, but also to other groups of Indian origin living outside India. The two other notable groups, the Domari and the Lomavren people are also marginalised groups where they live: the Domari are scattered in the Middle East (for the variety spoken in Syria, see Herin 2012, for the variety spoken in Jerusalem see Macalister 1914 andMatras 2012), the Lomavren live in Armenia. These groups are related in several aspects.…”