НОВЫЕ ТЕНДЕНЦИИ В ПРОЦЕССЕ СТАНДАРТИЗАЦИИ РОМСКОЙ ТЕРМИНОЛОГИИ

Научная статья
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18454/RULB.3.16
Выпуск: № 3 (3), 2015
PDF

Аннотация

Статья представляет некоторые новые тенденции в развитии ромского (цыганского) языка в связи с процессом его стандартизации. Проанализировав опубликованные международными организациями документы на ромском языке, автор пытается найти некоторые правила в процессе развития ромских неологизмов, основанных на английских заимствованиях. В статье дана классификация различных грамматических категорий ромского языка (существительное, прилагательное, глагол).

Introduction

It is known that Romani is not a standardized new-Indian language-formed outside of India, spoken in Europe, Americas and Australia, influenced by Armenian, Greek, Romanian and Slavic languages. Roma are bilingual and multilingual - they speak at least 2 Romani dialects and the official language of the country where they live and also some of the international languages such as English, Spanish, French, Russian or German. Last two decades or so there were some international conferences organized by different universities or by different governments on the issue of standardization of Romani language (Kyuchukov, 2009). In countries such as Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, the governments accepted “standardized” Romani alphabets for that particular country only. And nowadays in these countries newspapers, journals, and books/textbooks are published using different orthographies.(Samko, 2010, 2014)

Alan Patten (2003:297) writes about two principles of bilingualism: ”The principle that citizens should enjoy the same set of language rights no matter where they are in the country is commonly referred to as the “personality principle”. The opposing principle, that language rights should vary from region to region according to local conditions, is generally labeled the “territoriality principle”.

Applying the “territoriality principle” of Patten to the standardization process of Romani language there are three levels of standardization of a language:

I level: Standardization of Romani for Roma in a particular country- Slovakia, Sweden or Romania. It means a particular orthography and loan-words in Romani language from the majority contact languages.

II level: Standardization of Romani on Regional level- Balkan countries- Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia.

III level: Standardization of Romani for international purposes - for communication between Roma from different parts of the world. 

The standardization on national level usually goes through the following process – one of the most popular Romani variety is chosen and it is used as a mean of communication, for publications and etc. The terminology chosen is the most comprehensive for all other groups.

On Regional level – the similar varieties which exist in neighboring countries are used for standardization. The common terminology is used as a base (usually from a language which was in a contact with Romani in early stage of  its development, for example from Turkish)  In Balkan countries where most of the Roma are Muslim and at the same time Turkish speaking the common terminology is form Turkish.

Examples of standardization of Romani terminology

In my earlier work (Kyuchukov, 1998) I showed different lexico-semantic groups from Turkish which are used in different varieties of Romani:

  • Names of plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables;
  • Names of animals;
  • Words from the nature;
  • Names of minerals;
  • Names of foods and drinks;
  • Names of plays and musical instruments

There are different strategies for creating a standard common terminology on international level. One of them is using loan-words from Armenian and Greek, which are the same in all varieties around the world. Roma in their way from India to Europe come in contact with Armenian and Greek in early12 c., and there are a lot of examples from Armenian in the international Romani:

  • Parts of human body:

čekat (forehead); morči (skin); koč (knee) (v)ogi (soul)

  • Names of vegetables and fruits:

dudum (pampkin)

  • Names of foods:

bokoli ( small flat loaf); xumer (dough)

  • Names of animals:

grast (horse); khuro (young horse); rikono (puppy)

P. Bakker & H. Kyuchukov (2000) have some examples from Greek

  • Metallurgical terms:

amoni (anvil); kakavi (kettle); petalo (horseshoe); karfin (nail); sviri (hammer) 

Standardization of Romani on International level

A group of Roma activists and linguists interested in Romani language have been working for last 20-25 years in different countries and there is some new developments. The levels which the group of scholars accepted are the following:

  • Creating of a common Romani language on oral level-speakers of different Romani dialects from different parts of the world, coming together on international events find ways to communicate;
  • Creating a common orthography;
  • Creating a common grammar;
  • Creating a common lexicon.

Methodology

For the purpose of this study I analyze documents published by different international institutions and organizations written in Standard Romani (Council of Europe, European Commission, European Roma Right Center, Open Society Institute). Special attention is paid to English-root terminology, and trends for creation of new terminology in Romani are observed.

New Terminology in Romani

The new terminology in Romani is created mainly from English terminology with added suffixes from Romani:

-a (sg.); -e (pl.)

Examples (nouns)

Romani

English

specifika

specifics

lingvistika

linguistics

analizo/analiza

analyses

sistemo/sistema

system

baziso

base

logika

logic

forma

forma

literatura

literature

leksika

lexics

fonetika

fonetics

-o (sg.); -ja (pl.)

Examples: (nouns)

Romani

English

Romani

English

Romani

English

telefono

phone

leksikono

lexicon

specialisto

special

treno

train

seriozo

serious

elemento

element

computero

computer

minoriteto

minority

autoro

author

prezidento

president

principo

principle

varianto

variant

regiono

region

mediatoro

mediator

dialecto

dialect

karaktero

charachter

levelo

level

deficito

deficit

seminaro

seminar

alternativo

alternative

proceso

process

fondo

fond

mandato

mandate

kongreso

congress

faktoro

factor

interneto

internet

testo

test

problemo

problem

sistemo

system

leksikono

lexicon

analizo

analyze

intereso

interest

moderatoro

moderator

-ija; -ije

Examples: (nouns)

Romani

English

ortografija

orthography

strategija

strategy

etnologija

ethnology

metodologija

methodology

leksikografija

lexicography

etnografija

ethnography

-alno (sg.);  -alne (pl.)

Examples: (adjectives) 

Romani

English

emocionalno

emotional

regionalno

regional

internacionalno

international

lokalno

local

socialno

social

specialno

special

globalno

global

spiritualno

spiritual

leksikalno

lexical

-(a)no; -(a)ne

Examples: (Adjectives)

Romani

English

urgentno

urgent

politikano

political

lingvistikano

linguistic

modernikano

modernized

tehnikano

technical

gramatikano

grammatical

-cija; -cije (-zija; -zije)

Examples: (Nouns +Verbs) 

Verbs

Romani

English

Romani

English

Romani

English

fondacija

foundation

relacija

relation

unifikacija

unification

kondicija

condition

variacija

variation

standartizacija

standardization

edukacija

education

populacija

population

kodifikacija

codification

organizacija

organization

funkcija

function

komunikacija

communication

deklaracija

declaration

kooperacija

cooperation

participacija

participation

rezoljucija

resolution

deskripcija

description

konservacija

conservation

konferencija

conference

institucija

institution

izolacija

isolation

tradicija

tradition

informacija

information

ratifikacija

ratification

generacija

generation

proposicija

proposition

kolaboracija

collaboration

konkluzija

conclusion

konvergencija

convergence

segregacija

segregation

komlikacija

complication

kompetencija

competence

desegregacija

desegregation

 

 

Conclusion

The process of standardization of Romani started already some 25 years ago. During international meetings, where Romani is one of the used language for translation, in published documents and reports of International institutions and NGO organizations, the English based Romani terminology is take more often place. The task of the linguists now is to make much better classification of the neologisms in Romani, which did not exist some 25 years ago. These kind of systematic work is needed not only for national and regional standardization but also for standardization on international level.

May be it is also time to start more precise classification of different categories terminology as I tried to do in modest way in this paper. The system shown here may be can be used for further developments of Romani terminology. The use of it in schools and university textbooks will bring Romani to another level of development. 

Список литературы

  • Bakker, P. and Kyuchukov, H. (eds) (2000) What is the Romani Language? University of Herefordshire Press.

  • Kyuchukov, H. (1998) Turkish and Armenian Loanwords in Bulgarian Romani. Grazer Linguistische Studien,50, pp. 103-108.

  • Kyuchukov, H. (ed.) (2009) A language without Borders… Endangerded Languages and Cultures. Uppsala: Uppsala University Press, vol. 5.

  • Patten, A. (2003). What Kind of Bilingualism?. In: Kymlicka, W. and Patten, A. (eds.) Language Rights and Political Theory. Oxford University Press, pp. 296-321

  • Samko, M. (2010). Attitudes of Roma to languages: a case study. In: Kyuchukov, H. and Hancock, I. (eds). Roma Identity. Praha: Slovo 21.

  • Samko, M. (2014). Inkluzívny vzdelávací program: jazyk a kultúra žiakov z MRK v inkluzívnom vzdelávaní. In: V. Klein (ed.) Pedagogický model inkluzívneho vzdelávania v základných školách. PRined projekt INkluzívnej EDukácie. Prešov: MPC.