Roma communities today Historical background, culture and current issues -Week 6 Class 2: Socialism/Language ANTH 4020/5020

Today‘s outline 1.Roma under Socialism – case study CSSR: concluding discussion 2.Language: Introduction (Susanne) 3.Text Romanes: Bakker & Kyuchukov (2000). What is the Romani language? 4.Film „Slovakia: The sterilisation of Roma women“, part 1

The nature of the Romanes (1) “Like all other languages, it has dialects, it has borrowed words from other languages and it has a vocabulary, which is sufficient for all needs. There are dictionaries, grammar books, language teaching materials, etc.” (Bakker & Kyuchukov 2000, p. 21).

The nature of Romanes (2) Romanes is a NOT slang or jargon! “jargon” means subcode of a natural language, a set of words and phrases within a frame of reference  Romanes is a normal language learned as first language by children  Romanes has a vocabulary of its own and a unique grammar Romanes is a NOT a dialect! “dialect” means a speech which deviates from some established norm  Romanes is a language (separate from Hindi, Punjabi, Dom or any other Indian language) which consists of a number of dialects  Romani dialects are the result of sound changes that took place in some regions and not in others  Roma are multilinguals and other languages they speak influence their Romanes

The nature of Romanes (3) Where do it’s words come from? Basic vocabulary has Indian basis (body parts, nature, family, verbs for basic needs & actions, …)  Most ancient layer of the language Different layers of non-Indic words mostly from Asian languages  Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Georgian  common to all varieties of Romanes Some dialects with borrowings from German, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkish and Slavic languages Words from countries where speakers currently live  Romanes is comparable with English which has also borrowed words from many languages But: Romanes is not “corrupted by borrowings”, taking over words or structures from other languages is an entirely normal process!

The nature of Romanes (4) The borrowings reveal what features the migrating Roma encountered where and how long and intense the contact with particular languages was. Romanes is not a “poor language” with a “limited vocabulary”!  Modern borrowings are often not included in dictionaries  Romanes is well suited for the needs of the communities which use it Speakers of Romanes themselves call the language Romanes or Romani čhib “the Romani tongue” (abbrev. “Romani”), amari čhib  Romani is an adjective derived from the noun “Rom” Even if not all speakers of Romanes call themselves “Roma” virtually all call their language “Romanes” Labels of outsiders for the language as Cyganskij, Cingene, Tsingane, Zigeunerisch, Zingarico, are often perceived as negative or derogatory by Roma

The nature of Romanes (5) Romanes is NOT a secret language!  Spoken without aim of secrecy  Many Roma are proud if outsiders are interested in their language  A few dozen dictionaries, grammar books of Romanes exist as well as magazines in Romanes. But: There is a wide range of attitudes and some groups want to keep their language to their group only! Romanes does have a grammar!  It has all different classes of words which linguists distinguish as verbs, nouns, adjectives, articles, adverbs … and some more.

Summary “ (…) Romani is not some jargon or an incomplete language. It is a language like English, German, Hindi, Italian, Latin or Russion, but still clearly different from all of them. Romani structure and vocabulary are fully developed and capable of expressing all the needs of the community of its speakers“ (Bakker & Kyuchukov 2000, p. 37)

Text: Bakker, Peter and Kyuchukov, Hristo What is the Romani language? Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, pp (Ch. III: Language use; Ch. IV: Language and Culture). Short presentation by Andrew