Customer Reviews

Learn Romani: Das-duma Rromanes

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hi there,

I'm Romani and I don't speak the language of my ancestors and there are many of us who don't. This books is perhaps a help in fostering a spirit of commonality among us, across the various subgroups that exist among us. I have purchased a copy and it looks very good. A number of people I know who are Romani plan to study the book online together and a few of those folks do know a bit of Romanes. It should be interesting.

As to the previous reviewer's negative comments about the police learning our secrets, sorry, that cat was let out of the bag over 100 years ago and the notion that this is damaging to us is unconvincing at best and absurd at worst. I think it will do just the opposite and help bring our people together. As to imposters, right! This is a joke, right?

Cheers,
Mengro, the Road Scholar

First I would like to say I am very grateful to Mr. Lee for writing this book. I sing and play Romani and Balkan music in general and wanted to learn some of the language so I would have a better idea what I was singing, hearing and playing, and how to pronounce it.

I would like to see a different organization for the introduction of the language elements in the book. The order in which words and linguistic concepts were introduced in each chapter didn't seem to have an obvious reason behind them. For example I would like to see words that have opposites introduced in pairs, all the interrogatives introduced together, and I really wanted accusative case introduced sooner than the 3rd chapter, as it made it really hard to make useful, conversational sentences until then. Also, most beginning language books start out with basic conversational words and usage, including such things as greetings, "how are you," "I'm fine," etc., and I've found this a very useful approach. The verb "to be" is so important to language in general that I would want to see it introduced first (which would require accusative case as well).

Regardless, it is a valuable resource, and I recommend it for anyone wanting to learn basics of Romani language.

Get a look into a language few know and is not widely spoken. Learn to accept and protect these people, not learning to help destroy them. Great book, great author, and easy format.

All students of the Romani language, especially of the Kalderash dialect, are indebted to Ronald Lee for putting together this very thorough coverage of Kalderash Romani. I am from the era when many older Vlax Rroma did not believe in sharing the language,or anything else,with outsiders. Hundreds of years of oppression in the the Balkans had created this attitude, when the only protection that the Rroma had against a hostile world was their language. Much has changed in the
past 50 years, when,as a boy, I heard the language spoken by older Rrom who spoke almost exclusively in Rromanes.
Ronald Lee addresses every aspect of Romani grammar and does an excellent job of illustrating points of grammar in sentences. A student who uses this book, especially if used together with Ian Hancock's "Handbook of Vlax Romani," will have a good foundation in the language. Of course, Romani,as any language, should be heard spoken by a native speaker.
That said, I wish to remind the reader that there are several types of Kalderash spoken in the U.S. and Canada:the Serbian, the Russian, and the Argentine (Arxentino) are the most prevalent. Each of these dialects have minor differences of vocabulary that present no obstacle to the learner. For example, "shoe" is "tsokola" or "tsokoli" to
a Serbian, but "papuka" to a Russian.However, ALL Kalderash understand "tsokola/tsokoli." Also, in the U.S. and Canada many English words have infiltrated Romani, giving "rumo" and "floro" as the common equivalents for "room" and "floor." Words like "soba" (room) are now called "old words" by many Rroma, although many "old words" are actually Serbian, Romanian, etc.
This book, as well as Ronald Lee's Kalderash and English dictionaries, is a blessing to the student of Romani.

I have searched high and low for a study guide for the Roma Gypsy language. This is the closest dialect and best I have found!

This book, along with Ian Hancock's Handbook of Vlax Romani (which, however, is written with more academic audiences in mind), is the best self-teaching book available for Romani to date. In fact, I know of no serious competition accessible to an English-speaking audience.

The lessons start right from the basics, and both vocabulary and grammatical concepts are introduced gently and with ample explanation. The occasional Romani song and poem is a great extra, not to mention the numerous cultural factoids the author, himself being a Canadian Rom, peppers throughout the lessons.

If you are serious about learning Romani, consider also getting the author's dictionary: Romani dictionary: Kalderash - English. Supposedly the English to Kalderash dictionary is also due out soon.

I'm Romani, and I bought this book to get a better grasp on our language. It's a really great book for beginners and intermediate learners. I'd recommended this to anyone who interested in learning the language. It also has great resources (like websites and children's books) in the back of the book for the different dialects. (Such as Kalderash and Lovari)
However if you have an advanced grasp of the language, while this book would be a very good brush up, it's not as in depth as you might need it to be. This book makes verb conjugations very easy to remember, and also teaches you the language with some popular romani folk tales and songs. If you speak a language such as romanian as well, this language will be very easy to pick up, and makes some references to the romanian language for better understanding.

With that being said, thank you Ronald Lee for writing a great Romani language book.

The author has here provided law enforcement, academics, bounty hunters, SCA gypsies, welfare workers, Live Action Role Players and myriad curious non-Gypsy eavesdroppers with a marvelous tool to crack the code of Romany secrecy. There is no better beginner's book on the market than this one! It is inexpensive and user friendly. A perfect roadmap for non-Gypsies to quickly learn Romani and tunnel under that great divide separating Gypsy and non-Gypsy cultures. Soon everyone will be speaking Romani! Opre Roma!