Romani alphabet and pronunciation

North Central Romani (Slovak Romani) is written in the standard Czech-Slovak Romani spelling, which uses Czech and Slovak letters. Here are the letters the Čiriklo course uses, each with an example word, and the sounds English speakers should watch.

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The letters

The pairs čh, dž, ch, kh, ph and th each stand for one sound.

Letter	Example	English
a	akana	now
b	baba	grandmother
c	cikno	small
č	čiriklo	bird
čh	čhavo	boy
d	dad	dad
ď	ďives	day
dž	džal	goes
e	efta	seven
f	foros	town
g	gav	village
h	hino	is (masculine)
ch	chav	I eat
i	igen	very
j	jekh	one
k	kaj	where
kh	kher	house
l	lolo	red
ľ	giľi	song
m	maro	bread
n	nakh	nose
ň	ňilaj	summer
o	ochto	eight
p	paňi	water
ph	phral	brother
r	rikono	dog
s	sap	snake
š	šukar	nice, beautiful
t	tu	you (one person, informal)
ť	buťi	work
th	thud	milk
u	ruv	wolf
v	vast	hand
z	zumin	soup
ž	žeľeno	green

Most letters sound roughly as in Spanish or Italian. The ones to watch:

c – “ts” as in cats
č – “ch” as in church
ch – like “ch” in Scottish loch, never as in church
dž – “j” as in jam
h – a voiced “h”, as in Czech and Slovak
j – “y” as in yes
r – a rolled or tapped “r”
š – “sh” as in ship; ž – like the “s” in measure
ď, ť, ň, ľ – soft consonants: ň is like Spanish “ñ”, ď and ť are close to the “d” and “t” of British duke and tune, ľ is like the “lli” in million. The softness is always written; without the mark, d, t, n and l are hard even before i.
čh, kh, ph, th – aspirated, see below

Aspirated consonants: čh, kh, ph, th

These four are pronounced with a puff of breath, like the English k, p and t at the start of kit, pit and tip. Plain č, k, p and t have no puff, as in Spanish or French. The difference changes the meaning of words. Th is never the English “th” of think, and ph is never “f”.

Plain	Aspirated
čiriklo – bird	čhavo – boy
kaj – where	kher – house
paňi – water	phral – brother
tu – you (one person, informal)	thud – milk

Aspirated consonants

The sounds čh, kh, ph and th are said with a short puff of breath (like the p in English pin), while plain č, k, p and t have none (like the p in spin). The difference changes the meaning: kher is house, but ker! means do it! Say the č in lačho (good) with a puff of breath, too.

Soft consonants: ď, ť, ň, ľ

Soft consonants are common in North Central Romani, as in Slovak:

Romani	English
ďives / džives	day
buťi / buči	work
ňilaj	summer
giľi	song

Softening

In the feminine, d, t, n and l before -i become soft (palatal – think of the ny sound in canyon): cikno → cikňi, kalo → kaľi, lolo → loľi, terno → terňi.

Variants

Romani sounds a little different from region to region, and the spelling follows the pronunciation. Where the course also accepts another form, it is shown after a slash: in eastern Slovakia, for example, Lačho ďives is pronounced Lačho džives.

Romani	English
Lačho ďives! / Lačho džives!	Hello! / Good day!The most common greeting. In eastern Slovakia it is pronounced lačho džives.
ďives / džives	day
buťi / buči	work
pheň / phen	sister

Other Romani dialects are written differently – see Romani dialects.

More about Romani

Learn it with Čiriklo

The free app Čiriklo teaches North Central Romani in short, game-like lessons: you hear every word and sentence, also slowed down, and practise it until it sticks. The app’s explanations are in Czech.

Free · iPhone with iOS 17.0 or later

Android: in testing on Google Play, coming soon

Thanks! We will e-mail you when Čiriklo is on Google Play.

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