Sepecides - Romani

Petra Cech & Mozes F. Heinschink

Sepecides is a non-vlah Romani dialect (Romani belonging to the New Indian languages) spoken by several related grand families now living in Izmir/Turkey and Volos/Greece. This formerly united group of basket weavers split up around 1920, when exchanges of Greek/Turkish population took place. One part of the group migrated to Turkey and settled finally in Izmir, the others moved to Volos (Greece) and stayed there. Since then their previously uniform Romani developed under different linguistical conditions. Both variants are endangered in their transmission to the younger generation by the impact of TV and school education. The Izmir variety of Sepe…ides shows the characteristics of other non-Vlah dialects like unshortened pronominal forms, Greek, Southern-Slavic but no Rumanian lexems etc. under the influence of the agglutinative Turkish language it has preserved a rich derivational morphology absent from corresponding dialects.

As Sepecides has not previously been described, the sketch will present a survey of the entire grammatical system as well as short chapters on phonology and syntax. One chapter will analyze the various influences of the Turkish language on Sepe…ides and their morphological and idiomatical implications. Investigations are based on approx. 130 hours of recorded talks ranging from tales, songs, and biographical notes to short anecdotes and explanations of phrases and proverbs.