The Romani Language Database is a comprehensive resource for documenting the structural diversity of varieties of the Romani language across Europe and beyond. Its vision is to serve as the leading platform for documenting minority and endangered languages as well as dialect variation.
The structure of the resource was originally developed between 1999 and 2006 by Yaron Matras and Viktor Elšík. From 2024 to 2028, it is being upgraded as part of the project Documenting Zargari – A missing link in understanding Romani. The approach combines methods from linguistic typology with insights from the historical study of Romani.
The database draws on systematic fieldwork with Romani speakers complemented by data extracted and referenced from published sources. To date, it contains material from over 120 speakers representing diverse Romani communities and locations. Data include translations of a uniform set of questionnaire phrases and segments of connected speech obtained via semi-structured ethnographic interviews.
The resource offers a unique user experience enabling:
Planned functions will allow users to store and view conversational data in glossed transcription, audio, video, and translation, to extract lexical items, and to conduct detailed searches for grammatical functions.
Beyond Romani, the database will also include data on other languages. Currently available are data on the dialects of Arabic and Kurdish.
