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    Roma Communities and Romani Speakers in PDF

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    This document discusses Romani language use among Roma communities in Romania based on census data and research. It finds that over 500,000 people in Romania declare Romani as their native language, with most also identifying as Roma. While Romani language use remains strong in informal community contexts, institutional support for teaching the language has been limited, and language shift toward Romanian and Hungarian is occurring. Future trends will depend on balancing the natural vitality of Romani with greater institutional codification and education efforts.

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    Roma Communities and Romani Speakers in PDF

    Uploaded by

    ulise
    45 views18 pages
    This document discusses Romani language use among Roma communities in Romania based on census data and research. It finds that over 500,000 people in Romania declare Romani as their native language, with most also identifying as Roma. While Romani language use remains strong in informal community contexts, institutional support for teaching the language has been limited, and language shift toward Romanian and Hungarian is occurring. Future trends will depend on balancing the natural vitality of Romani with greater institutional codification and education efforts.

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    This document discusses Romani language use among Roma communities in Romania based on census data and research. It finds that over 500,000 people in Romania declare Romani as their native language, with most also identifying as Roma. While Romani language use remains strong in informal community contexts, institutional support for teaching the language has been limited, and language shift toward Romanian and Hungarian is occurring. Future trends will depend on balancing the natural vitality of Romani with greater institutional codification and education efforts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    45 views18 pages

    Roma Communities and Romani Speakers in PDF

    Uploaded by

    ulise
    This document discusses Romani language use among Roma communities in Romania based on census data and research. It finds that over 500,000 people in Romania declare Romani as their native language, with most also identifying as Roma. While Romani language use remains strong in informal community contexts, institutional support for teaching the language has been limited, and language shift toward Romanian and Hungarian is occurring. Future trends will depend on balancing the natural vitality of Romani with greater institutional codification and education efforts.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as pdf or txt
    of 18

    Multilingualism in Europe: Prospects and

    Practices in East-Central Europe

    Roma communities and Romani


    speakers in Romania:
    An overview
    László FOSZTÓ

    The Romanian Institute for Research on National


    Minorities

    25th–26th March, 2011


    Budapest
    Outline
    • Ethnicity and native tongue in the Censuses

    • Language varieties and groups

    • Main domains of language use

    • Some conclusions
    Census data
    • National censuses in Romania (1977, 1992, 2002)
    • Forthcoming census in October 2011

    • Methods employed
    – auto-identified ethnicity (i.e. self identified Roma)
    – auto-identified native tongue
    • Advantages and disadvantages
    – not showing the social practice (these are not the “real
    numbers”)
    + these are the official figures (they need to be taken “as they are”
    by the administration)
    + standard questions (comparable with in time and between
    countries)
    Roma by native tongue (2002)
    Romani
    235.346
    Romanian (44%) Hungarian
    275.466 23.950
    (51%) (4,5%)
    Roma
    535.140
    (100%)
    Native Romani Speakers by
    Ethnicity (2002)
    • 99% of the Romani native speakers declare
    Roma ethnicity

    • Some native speakers of Romani declare other


    ethnicity:
    – 1046 Hungarians
    – 1000 Romanians
    – few others
    Minority languages in Romania
    (native speakers)
    Roma by native tongue
    Territorial pattern by counties in the censuses
    (1977, 1992, 2002)
    Evolution of the numbers of Roma and
    Romani native speakers (% of total population)
    Rate of growth
    by Ethnicity and Native tongue
    Some general features
    • There is a remarkable stability of the territorial
    pattern over time (between 1977-2002)
    • There are considerable regional differences
    • There are more native speakers of Romani in
    rural communities (ca. 60%)
    • The influence of the contact languages is
    significant (Romanian, Hungarian, Turkish but
    also other languages)
    Some observable trends
    • There is a constant increase in the number of
    self identified Romani native speakers
    • There is more increased rate of growth in the
    native Romani speakers compared to the rate
    of growth of self-identified Roma
    • Even major institutional changes (ex. regime
    transformation after 1990) have limited
    impact on the registered number of native
    speakers
    Dialects and Groups 1.

    Source: van den Heuvel & Urech


    Dialects and Groups 2.

    Source: van den Heuvel & Urech


    Domains of language use
    • Informal
    – family and kinship
    – community domains
    – regional networks
    – contexts of international migration
    • Formal
    – administration
    – education
    – church services
    Some data about teaching
    • Two ways of teaching native tongue
    – full curricula (only in Hungarian and German)
    – as “native tongue”
    • Estimates:
    – 250.000 children exposed to some form of Romani
    language teaching (Gheorghe Sarău’s estimate, 2010)
    – Several schools experimenting with “bilingual education”
    • The role of school mediator system
    • The impact of the quota system for Roma students in
    universities
    Explanatory models
    • Demographic and cultural / linguistic
    reproduction and vitality
    • Functional expansion, codification
    • Assimilation, language shift / language
    revitalisation with the help of institutions
    • Two parallel processes are present:
    – natural language vitality
    – codification efforts and language teaching
    Some conclusions
    • The main domains of reproduction continue to be
    in the informal context (language vitality)
    • The impact of institutional changes seem to have
    a limited impact (revitalization is not
    characteristic)
    • The role of codified and institutionally endorsed
    variant need to be defined (more research
    needed) – Will it be a diglossia on Romani in
    Romania?

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