Samenvatting

The Roma and Sinti (formerly called gypsies) have a language of their own called Romani or Romanes. The language has been present in the Netherlands since 1420, and the first documentation from our country dates from the 1500s. Linguists have established that the language is a continuation of Indian languages. The dialects of Romani from all corners of Europe also show the clear unity of the language. It is not – as sometimes supposed – a secret jargon. After centuries of neglect or downright oppression of the people and their language, Romani is now recognized at the national and European levels. This also led to an increasing use of a written language, used for all genres, from literature to cookbooks and political texts. Despite having been spoken beside other languages for over a millennium, its vitality is higher than for all of the more recent immigrant languages in the Netherlands.