The Roma Cultural Center Pancevo brought school supplies as a gift to the children who learn the Romani language with elements of the Roma national culture at the “Đura Jakšić” Primary School in Pavliš, on the occasion of the International Day of the Romani Language.
More articles this week about Roma. First, on the International Romanes Day, then about Roma themselves.
In Western France, the closure and expulsion in Nantes of a Roma camp results in divisions and oppositions. Parents are protesting the removal of Roma children from school. This is good, as it may start forcing authorities to be a bit more integrative.
Further South, a mayor refuses the authorisation for a photo exhibition about Roma. In the Loire valley, in Angers, the question of the integration of Roma is asked. Then, the usual: Two camps, one near Paris, one in Marseilles have been closed.
Two articles, one from Slovenia, one from Montenegro on the International Romanes Day. The one from Slovenia, says the language as being threatened, as parents do not teach it anymore to their children.
On the occasion of November 5th World Roma Language Day, the Association of Roma in Slovenia has prepared a seminar entitled Researching the Roma language from the perspective of Romanology. At the seminar, the representatives of the Union of Roma of Slovenia pointed out that they are facing the challenge that Roma children no longer speak Romanes. This is what they want to change.
By decision of the Teaching and Scientific Council of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, since April 15, 2015, the teaching of the Romani language has been included in the basic academic studies of this higher education institution.
Within the Centre for Professional Development and Evaluation, the Faculty has been organizing Romani language courses for years, which enables graduated teachers to obtain certificates of knowledge of the Romani language and join regular classes in primary and secondary schools where the subject Romani language with elements of the national language is taught. culture.
About 600 students attend this language in schools.
On November 5, the World Day of the Romani Language, the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest invites for a temporary exhibition on Roma stories. The foundation of the exhibition, which opened on May 23 this year, is quite extraordinary: the Kamill Erdős legacy has been preserved in the collection of the Ferenc Erkel Museum in Gyula. For the first time, the interested public can see the results of the research conducted among Roma in Hungary in the 19th century.
The promotion of the Dictionary of the Roma-Montenegrin and Montenegrin-Roma language / Rromengo alavari by Dr. Hedina Tahirović-Sijerčić was held in the National Library “Radosav Ljumović” in Podgorica, Montenegro. The publisher of the Dictionary is the JU Centre for the Preservation and Development of Minority Culture of Montenegro.
An article about the first course of Romanes in Kuplin, Vojvodina, in an elementary school. The Ministry of Education has approved two classes, and there are five students from the first to the fourth grade, and seven students from the fifth to the eighth grade.
Romanes, language of Roma was introduced in elementary schools in Tuzla Canton, which thus became the first canton in Bosnia and Herzegovina to systematically contribute to the creation of an educational environment without discrimination and the preservation of the rights of national minorities. Years of lobbying and advocacy have finally borne fruit, say the Roma Association “Euro Rom” Tuzla.
The Romanes of the Sinti is closely interwoven with the Koblenz subculture. As kickboxing world champion, Marlon Reinhardt often lets his fists do the talking. But the 32-year-old is also intensively involved in the Sinti community.
The efforts to standardise Romanes continue. We are not in agreement with this, as the main dialect groups are quite different. The danger of creating an artificial language are quite large.
The 15th International Conference on the linguistics of the Romani language will take place on 13 and 14 September 2023, a biennial event that brings together all the specialists in this field and which is held for the first time in Italy.
A lecturer of Romanes on the state of the language in Slovakia, with many expressions and words slowly disappearing in spite of promises 15 years ago that this language would be taught as standard in schools.
The Language Centre of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Pristina is planning to open a course where basic Romani language will be taught for the first time, the Kosovo media reports.
The Serbian language is the mother tongue of 84.4 percent of the population of Serbia according to the latest numbers published by the Serbian Republic Institute of Statistics.
After Serbian, the most represented mother tongues are Hungarian, 2.6 percent, Bosnian, 2.2 percent, Romani, 1.2 percent, and Albanian, 1.0 percent.
We can only guess that many Roma simply wrote their mother tongue is Serbian (or Hungarian).
The Serbian Roma Centre for Strategy, Development and Democracy submitted an initiative to introduce the Romani language into official use where, based on the census, the Roma community is represented in the local self-government bodies. They also proposed to introduce the Albanian language into official use throughout the territory of Serbia.
If Serbia is on the way to the European Union, then it is obliged to respect the rights and freedoms of minorities, in this case Roma and Albanians, but also Egyptians, Ashkali, Goranians, Bosniaks and Turks who use the Albanian language, according to the announcement.
In Tetovo, North Macedonia, it is better to be able to speak the languages of its neighbours: Albanian, Macedonian, Turkish, Romanes or Serbo-Croatian. This mutual knowledge is the basis of social and professional relations. And the Roma are, as often, the champions of multilingualism!
Tetovo is certainly one of the most multicultural cities in North Macedonia. According to the last census in 2021, it has 84,770 inhabitants, including 60,460 Albanians, 15,529 Macedonians, 1,885 Roma, 1,746 Turks, 256 Serbs, 189 Bosniaks and eleven Vlachs.
Many speak several languages in addition to their own, so they can communicate with neighbours and friends from other communities. In the streets of Tetovo, one hears Macedonian, Albanian, Romanes, Turkish or Serbo-Croatian. The Roma community is the most multilingual, perhaps because its children cannot be educated in their mother tongue in Tetovo and have to attend lessons in Macedonian, Albanian or Turkish.
Nezir Huseini, for example, speaks the languages of all the communities of Tetovo. In addition to Romanes, he speaks Macedonian, Albanian, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian, but also English and German. “Romanes is my mother tongue, but I speak Albanian because I studied it in primary school. I always spoke Macedonian and Turkish and, as I studied in a military academy in Belgrade, during the time of Yugoslavia, I improved my Serbo-Croatian. Finally, I learned English and German, which I speak, read and write fluently,” he explains.
Sadly, the younger generation often doesn’t speak Romanes, even though, contrary to Hungary, Roma in Slovakia have kept their language.
Bad.
A new Slovenian – Romanes Dictionary was presented in Slovenia.
November 5, 2008 marks the World Romanes Day. A symposium entitled “ROMA LANGUAGE – basis for understanding Romani history and culture” was prepared on the occasion of World Roma Language Day. It is a project that was implemented with the help of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Council of the Roma Community of the Republic of Slovenia. The organizers of the symposium are the Association of Roma of Slovenia and the Roma Association Romani Union and IRŠIK, the Institute for Roma Studies, Education and Culture.
EN 
DE 
FR