Tag Archives: Romanes

Slovenia, Roma, and India

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Slovenia, Roma, and India

The Roma Association of Slovenia, in cooperation with the Embassy of India, organized a unique event, where they explored the connections between the Hindi and Romani languages.

Slovakia and Minority Languages

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Slovakia and Minority Languages

The Slovak Act on the Use of Languages ​​of National Minorities permits the use of the minority language in official relations and at council meetings. In practise, this is not the case.

One example is the meeting of the city council in Veľké Kapušany, a town which, according to the 2021 census,  has 8,799 inhabitants, of which 32.9% of Slovaks, 53% of Hungarians, and 4.4% of Roma. There are probably more Roma, but they often declare themselves as Hungarians.

Last December the council decided to increase kindergarten fees. The debate was partly in Slovak, and partly in Hungarian. No translations provided…

Romano Suno: Roma Dream

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Romano Suno: Roma Dream

Almost 200 Romani texts were submitted to the Romano Suno competition this year and sent entries to the literary and audiovisual. The quality of the submission was greatly improved and even children were better than adults this year. The competition is organized by the organization Nová škola, which also offers seminars on Romani and Romani literature, creative writing workshops in Romani, Romani language courses and much more.

Austria: Romano Paper

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Austria: Romano Paper

Since 2012, the Roma Adult Education Center Burgenland has been publishing the “RomaCajtung” twice a year. The main person responsible for the existence of the newspaper is the ORF journalist Erich Schneller, who died in 2021. He always set himself the goal of raising public awareness of the Roma and was editor-in-chief of the “RomaCajtung” until his death. “Erich Schneller’s commitment was tireless, we still miss him very much today,” says Horst Horvath.

Bosnia and Hercegovina – Romanes Day

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Bosnia and Hercegovina – Romanes Day

A very small number of Roma speak their mother tongue. The question is why this is so. Are the Roma additionally exposed to discrimination due to the use of the Romani language, or is it not being given enough attention? And the activities so far have not produced concrete results.

Ago and Beko from Kakanj speak the Romany language every day, thereby emphasizing their tradition, and the language is passed down from generation to generation in their family. “It’s important for us, it’s part of our tradition. The first language is Romanes, and then it gradually goes to Bosnian.”

Kosovo, Romanes, and Music

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Kosovo, Romanes, and Music

With a part of this musical opus, the International Day of Roma Language and Culture was marked by the ensemble “Egnatia”. The program included poetry in the Romani language as the chosen form for its promotion.

Switzerland: Advertisement

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Switzerland: Advertisement

The Swiss online shop and portal Galaxus launched a new advertising campaign in Switzerland with their usual slogan of “almost everything for everyone”.

What is different this time, is that each of these posters which can be seen everywhere in Switzerland, is in languages spoken in Switzerland. And that goes way beyond French, German, Italian and Romantsch. As far as having one of these advertisements in Romanes …

North Macedonia and Romanes

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North Macedonia and Romanes

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski of North macedonia emphasised at the commemoration of the International Day of the Romani Language that taking care of the language is also taking care of the future of Roma culture and its values. With the support of education, cultural manifestations and international initiatives, he said we can be sure that the Romani language will continue to be part of our cultural wealth.

Conference on Romanes

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Conference on Romanes

The European Roma Institute for Arts and Culture (ERIAC), in partnership with the Council of Europe’s Roma and Travellers Division and the Division of National Minorities and Minority Languages, proudly presents the 5th International Conference – Safeguarding Romani Language. November 5th and 6th.

International Romani Language Day

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International Romani Language Day

An article in the Slovak press on the creation and adoption of November 5th as the international Romanes Day.

Romanes Day in Slovenia

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Romanes Day in Slovenia

On today’s World Day of the Romani Language, the need to preserve this language, which is on the verge of disappearing in Slovenia due to many factors, is becoming increasingly evident. According to Roma assistant Bojana Rozman, Roma is heard less and less, as young people rarely use it, and the school system neglects the Romani language. Also, the language is changing rapidly, modern expressions are entering, as a result of which its authenticity can be nullified.

Romanes Day and Croatia

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Romanes Day and Croatia

An article about Roma in Croatia, stating there are 18’000 of them (based on census or how?) and about the celebration of the November 5th Romanes day. They say that the date was chosen because of the publication of the first Roma-Croatian and Croatian-Roma dictionary by Veljko Kajtazi in 2008 and because in 2012, the Croatian Parliament was the first to support the initiative for the international celebration of the World Roma Language Day. In 2015, UNESCO did the same.

Education and Minorities

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An article about the issue of seggregated schools versus the right to being taucht in one’s language. Background is the current drive by the Fico government to set up a school in Eastern Slovakia where teaching will be done in Romanes.

This is a false debate. All Roma who speak Romanes are dual language speakers. They speak the local language and Romanes. Desegregation is thus the key here, together with some courses about Romanes. Segregation and Romanes only schools will certainly no solve any issue.

Google Translate

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In June, Google announced that it had expanded the language palette of Google Translate by 110 languages. One of them is Romanes. According to linguist Viktor Elšík, it is good that the Romani language is represented in a virtual public space. However, Elšík adds that it is necessary to take into account the fact that the translations are not according to the north-central Romani language, which is used in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Well, in fact, the Romanes used in Google translate does not correspond to any single dialect of Romanes. It is a mix of all dialects.

Jerzy Ficowski

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The Association of Roma in Poland reacted to the accusations against Jerzy Ficowski published in a book by Dr. Emilia Kledzik, who accused Jerzy Ficowski of excessive interference in the translation of the works of Papusza, i.e. Bronisława Wajs, using the word “forgery”.

The Association stated that “We believe that the allegations presented are unfair and require taking into account the appropriate historical context.”

Papuša

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Bronisława Wajs (Papusza) is one of the best know Romani poets. She owes part of the fame to Jerzy Ficowski, a Polish poet and ethnographer who published her poetry. In the article here,  Emilia Kledzik, a professor in the university of Poznan, claims that the poetry were largely constructed by Jerzy Ficowski.

She even uses the word “forgeries”.

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