The majority of the vocabulary is of Romani origin but there are a number of loanwords from other languages. Welsh loanwords include melanō ("yellow", from melyn), grīga ("heather", from grug) and kraŋka ("crab", from cranc). There are also English loanwords such as vlija ("village"), spīdra ("spider") and bråmla ("bramble").[2]
Historically the variants of Kalá and Angloromani (spoken by the Romanichal) constituted the same variant of Romani, known as British Romani.[3] Kalá is closely related to Angloromani, Scandoromani (spoken by Romanisæl in Sweden and Norway), Scottish Cant (spoken by Scottish Lowland Romani in Lowland Scotland) and Kalo (Spoken by Kaale in Finland and Sweden). Kale, Romanichal, Romanisæl, Kaale and Scottish Lowland Romani are closely related Romani subgroups which stem from the wave of Romani immigrants who arrived in Northern Europe in the 16th century.[4]
^Norbert Boretzky: Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004 p. 18
^John Sampson (1926) The dialect of the Gypsies of Wales, being the older form of British Romani preserved in the speech of the clan of Abram Wood, Oxford University Press, London.
^Sampson. J. (1926) The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales. Oxford. Clarendon Press.
^Bakker (1997) Review of McGowan, The Winchester Confessions. Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society. Fifth series, 7. (1): 49–50.
