Balkan Roma, Balkaniko Romanes, or Balkan Gypsy is a specific non-Vlax dialect of the Romani language, spoken by groups within the Balkans, which include countries such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Turkey etc. The Balkan Romani language is typically an oral language.
Romani (/ˈrɒməni, ˈroʊ-/ ROM-ə-nee, ROH-; also Romanes /ˈrɒmənɪs/ ROM-ən-iss, Romany, Roma; Romani: rromani ćhib) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani people. The largest Romani dialects are Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Romani (300,000). Some Romani communities speak mixed languages based on the surrounding language with retained Romani-derived vocabulary – these are known by linguists as Para-Romani varieties, rather than dialects of the Romani language itself.
The differences between the various varieties can be as large as, for example, the differences between the Slavic languages.
Languages of Yugoslavia are all languages spoken in former Yugoslavia. They are mainly Indo-European languages and dialects, namely dominant South Slavic varieties (Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, and Slovene) as well as Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Italian, Venetian, Balkan Romani, Romanian, Pannonian Rusyn, Slovak and Ukrainian languages. There are also pockets where varieties of non-Indo-European languages, such as those of Hungarian and Turkish, are spoken.
Muslim Romani people are Romani people who profess Islam. Most Muslim Romani people are cultural or nominal Muslims. They primarily live in the Balkans, though they are dispersed across Europe. Significant minority communities can be found in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia. They are also notably present in Crimea, Croatia (where 45% of the country's Romani population is Muslim), Romania, Serbia and Slovenia. Xoroxane is a Romani term of Turkish origin used to refer to Muslim Roma.
Islam among Romani people is historically associated with their time spent within the Ottoman Empire and, to a lesser degree, under early caliphates. The majority of Muslim Romanies in the former Yugoslavia speak Balkan Romani and South Slavic languages, while many speak only the language from the host country's like the Albanized Muslim Roma in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and North Macedonia, known as Khorakhan Shiptari. They speak only the Albanian language and have fully adopted the Albanian culture. In Šuto Orizari (Shutka), North Macedonia, they have their own mosque and Romani Imam and use the Quran in the Romani language.
Rumelian Romani is a dialect of Southern Balkan Romani of strong Turkish pronunciation with Turkish and Greek loanwords, traditionally spoken by Muslim Romani people (Xoraxane) in the Balkans. It was historically spoken by Romanies in Ottoman Rumelia, especially by sedentary Romani people of various subgroups in Edirne in East Thrace First described by Evliya Çelebi's Seyahatname in 1668, of the Muslim Roma in Gümülcine, and later by William Marsden in 1785 and by Alexandros Georgios Paspatis (Paspati), a scholar of the Romani language in 1870. This Romani dialect is almost extinct in East Thrace, but still spoken by Muslim Roma in West Thrace and some other parts of the Balkans.