#romani:general

[guillemelgat]

Yeah as a rom I got to agree with the previous anon in regards to learning our language. The romani people are a closed culture and you don't get to learn our language, our customs or our culture. That is a hard line that needs to be drawn.

Sorry for the late reply but thank you for sending in this message. I fully agree with you—I think I overstepped my boundaries and really didn't do things in the way I should have, and I'm very sorry for that. If you have any concerns about things I've posted specifically, let me know.

#asks #romani:general #just so people see this at the top

[guillemelgat]

Romani Reading Vocab (2/8)

Some vocabulary that came up when reading a short story:

prashtia - belt

phadjol - break, be broken

karfin - nail, hook

kecil - fasten

pachiv - honor

duto - second

trito - third

sakade - in that way (?)

atunchi - then

jertisarel - forgive

hat - so, well, then, for

hurado - dressed

kade - so (much)

hintova - cart

kezdil - begin

athadol - be deceived

xoxavel - lie

#going to try to add in some more stuff into my routine because i don't think i'm doing as much currently as i'd like #although i haven't spent any time on malayalam because i'm The Worst #i'll try to get on that tomorrow hopefully i'll go to bed now and be able to wake up early then be more on track #also these are very hastily transcribed so may not be in root form etc #romani:general #romani:vocab

[guillemelgat]

End of Month Reflection - February

So February is finally at an end, and actually it was a really good month for language study! (Plus this is actually the most posts I’ve made in a month on this blog for the first time in a long while, possibly ever.) I think there are quite a lot of things to reflect on though, so this might be a somewhat rambly post.

I’ve been keeping track of how much time I spend on languages this year because I set goals back in January based on the amount of estimated hours I’d need to move up a CEFR level. That has been really interesting, because I don’t actually have any sense of how much time things take, and tl;dr the time goals are a lot more intense/unachievable than I previously thought. That being said, I think it’s been a really good demonstration to me of how committed and hardworking I really need to be able to make progress. For Romani, I did about 15 hours of work, and for Malayalam about 8. Which was quite a good amount in terms of how I felt about them for having done it, but it really puts the fact that you need several hundred hours to go up a level into perspective.

I did basically finish the challenges, although with Romani I didn’t post them all on here. I think that the Malayalam one was very productive and really got my brain going – my pronunciation improved a bit and also it was just really cool to talk to my dad about it, I could tell that it got his Malayalam brain going again as well. I’m excited to keep working on it, which I feel like is rare for me and Malayalam given my complicated past relationship to learning it. On the other hand, I wasn’t super happy with the Romani challenge. I wasn’t exactly unhappy with it, but I think that the nature of the daily challenges wasn’t enough to make me do the kind of learning I needed. I really liked listening to Radio Romano so I think that’s going to be more of a thing in the future. I also think I’ll try to focus on reading my book, which has a translation to English that on the one hand is helpful but on the other hand is probably sort of keeping me from really pushing my language skills...idk we’ll see. I also feel like I needed to work on rebuilding my vocabulary again, so I’ll work on that more in the future.

All in all, though, it was a successful month and hopefully I can continue to build on that in March!

#i'll post malayalam vocab in a bit hopefully #i have the last couple of lists review i just haven't typed them up yet #reviewed* #general:reflections #malayalam:general #malayalam:reflections #romani:reflections #romani:general

[guillemelgat]

February Language Goals

This month I’m going to be working on two of the languages that are my main focus this year, and specifically the two that I’ve spent the least time studying. So this month is probably going to be a lot of work, but I think that it’s a reasonable amount??? For Romani I’m just diving in – I think I have enough of a base that talking to people/using the language isn’t unreasonable to expect at this point. For Malayalam, I’m going to try to build up resources for a core vocabulary, making lists of words I think would be useful and then asking my dad to help translate them. The goal is also to put them up as a Memrise course because there’s currently Absolutely Nothing there for Malayalam.

Romani

Main goal: Get used to actively using the language

Goals:

Finish @therealpolyglot's Level Up Challenge (modified slightly)

Message the discord every day

Things I’ll try to post:

Daily reflection on the challenge

Possibly any vocab that I learn from conversations

Side note but I want to make posts on Romani dialects, however I promise absolutely nothing

Malayalam

Main goal: Build my vocabulary

Goals:

Make vocab lists for all Temauke themes

Translate "600 Words" list

Things I’ll try to post:

All aforementioned vocab lists

#general:goals #romani:goals #romani:general #malayalam:goals #malayalam:general

[guillemelgat]

Okay so I was supposed to learn song lyrics today but instead I made the mistake of trying to understand the Romani lyrics to this song (most of it is in Hungarian btw). Here’s what I ended up with, stuff in green is stuff I’m sure of, [...] means I didn’t understand it, stuff in lime green is stuff I was about 30-50% sure on, and stuff in orange is stuff I just wrote down because I thought I heard it. This was actually really hard, which I guess is good because I feel like I need to be challenged more if I want to get better.

[ ...] shuka shej Avjasta mande [ ...]

Chumidav lake thaj no kamav la murro jilo shej me tuke lav

tu kerdjom shej sako felo te kames shej numa tiro jilo shej tu des mande

chi tehara me khelenav bukja tuki tire shukar jakha mande [...]

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#this song is just like i'm going to sprinkle in a healthy dose of the word 'shej' #or else maybe i'm hearing things wrong #'shej' just means girl (like the vocative form so addressing a girl) #so it makes sense #it's just wild how many times i managed to turn up that word #also shdfkjhsjkdfh my spelling is terrible someone help me #this song is a bop though y'all should listen to it #the music video scares me though #idk what's going on #romani:general #romani:music #general:music #level up romani #actually going through and coloring this i realize that i understood a lot more than i'd though #thought*

[guillemelgat]

So for Day 2 of the challenge, I had to listen to a song and (1) try to transcribe/understand the words on my own, (2) compare them and correct them against the actual words, (3) look up any words I didn’t know, and (4) try to memorize the lyrics. This is the song I picked, unfortunately it’s like more than half in Hungarian, but I did the parts in Romani and I could understand it pretty well! I’ve highlighted in red the parts I couldn’t understand and put the vocab I learned at the bottom! The translation is really bad, corrections welcome 😅

Suno san tu numa shej You are only a dream, girl Kade dur sar le čerhaja As far away as the stars Katar mande shej From me, girl

Kai te rodav aba tut Where I still look for you Nai man pača p’adi phuv I do not have peace on this earth

Andre phirav me e luma I walk out into the world Numa te zhantar e dukha Only that the pain may leave Cerraj mange adi luma This world is just a little to me Na bistrav tut šoha I will never forget you

New Words:

suno - dream

čerhaj - star

pača - peace, rest

šoha - never

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#honestly the fact that i can understand this much in romani scares me #idk if i can even understand this much in basque or welsh 😳 #and i've been studying those for way longer #also this had the fun experience of me thinking i had lost my ability to understand romani and it turned out it was just hungarian shdfkshdj #romani:general #romani:music #romani:translation #romani:vocab #romani:challenge #general:music #general:translation #ooops also there was a mistake in the first line that has now been fixed #level up romani #also also forgot to include the tag bc i'm a mess apparently

[guillemelgat]

November Language Goals

Okay, I’m going to try my best to get back into language study, especially since I’m not really doing anything else with my life rn, so here are my way too ambitious goals for November:

Malayalam - review vocabulary (Sundays) + do the TL90Days challenge (Tuesdays)

Basque - write a one-page text (Mondays)

Romani - read 1-2 pages (Wednesdays) + write on the Discord (Thursdays)

Tamasheq - make/study flashcards (Fridays) + learn verb conjugations (Saturdays)

I really want to put in time for all of these languages and improve them significantly by the end of the year but I wish I had more time ;;-;; (either way, there’s always 2021 I guess, assuming the world lasts that long), but I’m hoping that if I keep to this schedule I can at least prevent them from slipping any further than they have. Expect sporadic posts, at least ones for Basque and Malayalam, and possibly some Romani or Tamasheq depending on how I’m feeling. And best of luck to all of you in your November language studies!

#shfjkhdsjfhsdjf too many languages too little time #i love all of them so much though i really want to put like 15 hours a day into each of them #and all the others which aren't even on here #watch me make it like 2 days before getting overwhelmed #ah well at least that'll be two days more of language study under my belt #language goals #language month #(? sorta) #malayalam #basque #romani #tamasheq #general:goals #malayalam:general #malayalam:goals #romani:general #romani:goals #basque:goals #basque:general #tamasheq:goals #tamasheq:general

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 15

Prompt: Learn 5 new words and use them in a sentence.

(I’m pretty behind on these, I’ll possibly try to catch up or possibly just skipped what I missed :/)

tista - quite

Si tista shil ke si o ivend. - It's quite cold because it's the winter

mako - poppy

Ande i bar si yekh mako. - In the garden there's a poppy.

drab - medicine

Murro murtano chi xal pesko drab. - My cat does not eat his medicine.

inkrel - to hold

Inkrav e bukfa. - I hold the book.

kecavo - such

Ashundem kecavi paramicha p'o Radio Romano. - I heard a story like that on Radio Romano.

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#was just out of it for a couple of days my bad #these are all from the part of the horse-dealing story that i read today #going to post the reading vocab list in a sec #anyways i FINALLY found out what inkrel means #had been meaning to do that for a while #and also i understood a fair amount of the kids' stories today on radio romano #might actually be able to start listening to it to get things out of it instead of just letting it wash over me :0 #romani:general #romani:challenge #romani:vocab #romani:practice #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 6

Prompt: Read a blog.

I don’t know any blogs so I read the first story in this book (Tusa Ande Akhoren Khelos), which is in Lovari but I could find anything in Kalderash ;-; Anyways at this rate I’m going to end up knowing Lovari but so be it I guess

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#see the problem with this is that i can't tell if stuff is above my level or just in a dialect i don't speak #because sometimes people say stuff and i don't understand it but they repeat it in kalderash and i understand every word #the struggle of learning a macro-language which gets classified as one cohesive unit and there's no materials for it anywhere :') #so i just have to suck it up and read stuff in dialects i literally do not have the vocab to understand #romani:general #romani:reading #general:reading #romani:challenge #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 5

Prompt: Listen to Radio Romano.

I’ve actually been listening to Radio Romano every day, the episode I listened to today was about Holocaust Rememberance and some initiatives related to that. I could understand it better because I think this announcer speaks in something closer to Kalderash/Lovari.

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#i like the episodes where they tell kids stories bc that's about my level :') #but this was cool too #romani:general #romani:challenge #holocaust tw #(just in case) #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 4

Photo by LinedPhoto on Unsplash

Here’s my extremely iffy text (you know how I made that post about Romlex...well that was where we were at today so idk if half these words even exist):

Kaki fotografija si Tarantestar. Ande Taranteste si but Rroma kai den-duma ando Amerikani Kalderashitska. Kodo si o dialekto kai sikav. Chi gelem ka Taranteste, numa gelem ka Kanadate, ka Montreal. Si but jiv ande kakja fotografija, thai but kamav o jiv. Vi akathe si but jiv. Numa ande fotografija o jiv perel. Thai-vi si but mobilija. Kamav o jiv maj but katar le mobilijandar.

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#not a fan of image describing as an activity #i understand Why but also.....it's just weird #did not know how to find a good image so if any of y'all have tips lmk #anyways....have never been to toronto but thought it worked for culture reasons #all in all 3/10 strongly mediocre language practice #also i'm so tired and my hands are dying from cutting out little puzzle pieces for the past like...3 1/2 hours #so i'm going to shut up and go to bed #romani:general #romani:challenge #romani:practice #general:practice #romani:culture #(very very tenuously) #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Learning Romani is just *Romlex is down* *Romlex refuses to load* *Romlex no longer exists* *ROMLEX IS HERE QUICK LOOK UP THE WORD* *Romlex crashes as soon as you hit search* *Romlex is down* *Romlex is down* *Romlex is do

#(romlex is an online dictionary for context) #like it's a useful resources but at what cost ;;;;-;;;; #and i feel like with each passing day it gets worse #currently let it sit and load for the entirety of writing this post and checked and it wasn't loaded #then hit return again and suddenly magically it appeared as if nothing had ever happened #is2g i literally can't #romani:general #romani:memes #general:memes

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 20

Prompt: Write about your day.

yes these posts are completely out of order now

Ages kerdem but buki. Wushtilem rano ando diminyatsa ke but tato sas murre khereste – murro dad bishterdyas te phandavel (?) o phiromasko. No, ramosardem trin lil, yekh sas murre veroste, thai dui sas murre amalinande. Pala kodole, kerdem buki murre traburya tsine. Ando mizmeri, gelem te phirav ka univerziteto. Sas but lungo drom. No, dav-duma vi murra amalinasa vi murre dadesa. Dikhlem televizhono thai akana ramov Rromanes, pa zhav te sovav!

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#i'm quite happy with this actually #i'm not fluent but i know words #half of the grammar that i'm confident on is probably wrong though :') #romani:general #romani:challenge #romani:practice #general:practice #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani): Day 16

Prompt: Plan your day.

Ages musai te....

zhav klasate

phirav te kinav thud

sikav Rromani shib

ramov paramicha

ramov lil murre veroske

ginav La memòria de l'arbre

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#sometimes you just gotta do the bare minimum to get a challenge done 😔 #hey at least i'm doing more things than the last time i made one of these lists #now i look like less of a slacker lol #will i do all of these???? probably not #romani:general #romani:practice #general:practice #romani:challenge #level up romani

[guillemelgat]

Romani Reading Vocab (2/15)

(same disclaimer as before but these are basically just my notes so might not be that helpful/understandable)

kereshkedevo - dealer, salesman

keci - how much, this/so much

khas - hay

futeri - feed

kingo - wet, humid

rat - blood

drab - medicine

mindig - always

ushoro - light, easy

karnalo - prickly

kecavo - such

mako - poppy

shukarel - to dry

tista - quite

lufto - outside air

shol - to put

shtalovo - stable (for horses etc.)

shuko - dry

vetrineri - veternarian

acharel - to notice (?)

inkrel - to hold

mishkil - to move

#romani:general #romani:vocab

[guillemelgat]

Level Up Challenge (Romani) - Day 10

Prompt: Learn filler words.

This is a bit late because there’s not exactly lists of filler words in Romani easily available, so I was talking with people on the server I’m on to get their opinions. Here’s the list of filler words they came up with, probably skewed towards American Kalderash:

zhanes, hakyares - you know

znachi - that is (Slavic loanword)

azhuker (tsirra/ekh klipa) - wait (a sec)

chaches? - really?

naj kadja? - right?

apsolutno(?), sar te na - of course (sar te na came off as sarcastic to some people though so potentially use with caution)

mishto, ja ja - okay

gindiv - I think

Let me know if you have any other words/corrections!

[ Other Days of This Challenge ]

#also i know i am behind on malayalam it's because me and my dad's schedules are not lining up #despite neither of us doing absolutely anything of worth with our lives atm #but i'll try to do more today or tomorrow and might just dump like 25 vocab lists on you at the last second #and i'll do the challenge for today either today or tomorrow #romani:general #romani:vocab #romani:challenge #level up romani #general:vocab #romani:reference #(just because it's useful)