The Roma, in general, speak a language which they call řomanes. This roughly translates to “the Romani Language.” The language itself is an Indo-Aryan derived language that has been spoken entirely in Europe since the middle ages. Linguistics have tried to outline the development of the language, however it is difficult as the earliest known texts of the language date back to only the sixteenth century. However, linguistics have still been able to divide the development into three stages, Proto-Romani, Early Romani, and Modern Romani, based on comparison with the development of more documented Indian languages.
There is a common misconception that the Roma, or Gypsies as they are often referred to as, have more than one language. This is inaccurate. However, geographic variations in the language do exist, as with all languages. Since the sixteenth century, various dialects of the Romani language have emerged. As the Byzantine Empire fell, Romani-speaking populations immigrated into eastern and central Europe in hopes of a better life. There, they came into contact with a variety of other languages, such as Turkish, Romanian, Hungarian, German, and various Slavonic languages. This contact led to alterations of the morphology and phonology of the language, which depended on the region in which the community was located.
The variations found in the language between different geographic regions exemplifies how languages change over time. These changes likely came about due influences from the dominant culture and the tendency of minority cultures to incorporate aspects of the majority culture as time progresses. Children of Roma background who were raised speaking both Romani and the dominant language of the region were likely to blend aspects of the dominant language into Romani, either unconsciously or purposefully in an attempt to make Romani more similar to the dominant language. It is remarkable how the language has maintained enough of its uniformity across its dialects to still be considered one language, especially when one considers what the Roma and their culture have been through during their time in Europe.
Despite facing centuries of persecution and discrimination, the Romani language has remained strong. In the past decade or so, the Romani have begun to have a stake in local media outlets. However, publishing documents in Romani has been strictly limited to local outlets due to the language’s lack of geographic diversity. These local texts have presented another problem in that a uniform codification system for the language has still not been formally developed. This means that how the language is written can vary from location to location. Romani intellectuals from various regions in Europe have begun to come together in an effort to create a uniform, official alphabet and grammar system which can be universally implemented, though progress is slow.
References
Romani Linguistics Website
2015 What is Romani?. University of Manchester.
http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/whatis/whatisromani.shtml
There is a common misconception that the Roma, or Gypsies as they are often referred to as, have more than one language. This is inaccurate. However, geographic variations in the language do exist, as with all languages. Since the sixteenth century, various dialects of the Romani language have emerged. As the Byzantine Empire fell, Romani-speaking populations immigrated into eastern and central Europe in hopes of a better life. There, they came into contact with a variety of other languages, such as Turkish, Romanian, Hungarian, German, and various Slavonic languages. This contact led to alterations of the morphology and phonology of the language, which depended on the region in which the community was located.
The variations found in the language between different geographic regions exemplifies how languages change over time. These changes likely came about due influences from the dominant culture and the tendency of minority cultures to incorporate aspects of the majority culture as time progresses. Children of Roma background who were raised speaking both Romani and the dominant language of the region were likely to blend aspects of the dominant language into Romani, either unconsciously or purposefully in an attempt to make Romani more similar to the dominant language. It is remarkable how the language has maintained enough of its uniformity across its dialects to still be considered one language, especially when one considers what the Roma and their culture have been through during their time in Europe.
Despite facing centuries of persecution and discrimination, the Romani language has remained strong. In the past decade or so, the Romani have begun to have a stake in local media outlets. However, publishing documents in Romani has been strictly limited to local outlets due to the language’s lack of geographic diversity. These local texts have presented another problem in that a uniform codification system for the language has still not been formally developed. This means that how the language is written can vary from location to location. Romani intellectuals from various regions in Europe have begun to come together in an effort to create a uniform, official alphabet and grammar system which can be universally implemented, though progress is slow.
References
Romani Linguistics Website
2015 What is Romani?. University of Manchester.
http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/whatis/whatisromani.shtml
As a first generation American born, Indian-American, I understand how a person’s ethnic culture can be influenced by a more dominant culture. For example, normally my family and I would speak pure Hindi at home. However, because I was brought up in America, we speak a blend of Hindi and English, a combination we call Hinglish. In Hinglish, the primary sentence structure is of Hindi but the vocabulary can come from either Hindi or English. This influence will definitely impact how Hindi is spoken in my family for generations to come because I hardly know how to speak Hindi without incorporating English.
ReplyDeleteThis is in a way similar to how I imagine the various dialects of Romani emerged, allowing me a more understanding perspective on why things change. While doing research on modern Romani, I came across comments which appeared to me as ignorant. They were along the lines of “Why don’t Gypsies just give up trying to preserve their language and just speak the language of the nation in which they reside?”, but in a less bluntly stated manner. As a person of two cultures myself, I can see the importance of preserving one’s language. I see Hindi as part of my Indian identity. Without Hindi, I would just see myself as a person whose roots are from India, but nothing more. With Hindi as I language I maintain a stronger connection with Indian culture, and I think it is important that the Roma do the same with their language.
I also think it is important that the Roma create an official codification of the language. In the globalized world in which we live in, it is important to maintain some form of uniformity or risk losing aspects of one’s culture. With the variety of dialects that already comprise Romani, it is not crazy to think that Romani will be further altered by the plethora of extra influences that have emerged with the creation of the Internet. If the Roma do not attempt to formalize their language, the language could further splinter into two or more separate languages, in essence ending Roma culture as it is known today and creating new, separate cultures.