Notes on proto-romani

This M.A. thesis, entitled Notes on Proto-Romani, attempts to outline an introduction to research into Romani in the context of an historical and comparative linguistics of Indo-Aryan languages. It summarizes the research carried out so far, beginning with the discovery of the Indian origin of Romani and placing particular emphasis on the Turner's theory about its Central Indo-Aryan provenance. The core of the diploma paper lies in the notion of "Proto-Romani", which is here considered a label for the development between the direct Middle Indo-Aryan forerunner of Romani and Early Romani. The aim is to demonstrate ways and methods of reconstructing such development, based on the comparison of (Common) Romani with various Indo- Aryan languages and with those of the Middle Indo-Aryan period in particular. The definition is accompanied by some in-depth linguistic analyses illustrating the reconstruction of Proto-Romani development on various language levels (phonology, morphology, syntax). The final chapter pertains to etymology and lexical development, in that it tries to analyse and resolve issues concerning some words for which both an Indo-Aryan and an Iranian source have been proposed