On the World Romani Language Day, which we mark today, the Romani community around the world and in Slovenia emphasizes the importance of preserving language as a key element of identity. Romani scholar Jožek Horvat Muc believes that “the Romani language is what tells members of the Romani community who they are and what their history was like”.
An article in the Slovak press on the international Romanes day.
16 years ago, in 2009, at a conference on the Romani language in Zagreb, linguists, educators and leaders of Romani organizations from 15 European countries declared November 5th as the International Romani Language Day. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO also designated November 5th as the World Romani Language Day in 2015.
Romanes is taught in schools in Slovakia and is used in the media.
Romanes is an Indo-Aryan language that belongs to the Indo-European language branch. István Vályi, who came from the area around today’s Komárno, was one of the first to conclude in the 18th century that the Romani language is of Indian origin. While studying theology in the Netherlands, he met students from India and, in conversations with them, realized that the language they spoke was similar to the language of the Roma from his native region.
The Murska Sobota Regional and Study Library marked the upcoming World Romani Language Day, which is celebrated on November 5, with a presentation of a poetry collection and a discussion about the importance of the Romani language.
Jožek Horvat Muc said that “the Romani language is always the one that tells members of the Roma community who and what they are”. According to Horvat Muc, preserving the language is directly related to preserving the identity of the Roma community.
Quite a buzz because of a Bulgarian romani video on Instagram that highlight the commonality of Romanes, Hindi, and Urdu.
Ever heard about Sanskrit and Prakrit?
Phen oda romanes (Say it in Romanes) – a two-day series of workshops focused on written Romani will take place on October 4 in Třebechovice and November 22 in Prague. The event is intended for novice and experienced authors, journalists, translators and students of Romani studies – both Roma and the majority. The workshops will be led by experts in Czech and Romanes and will offer space for creative writing, translations (e.g. of biblical and judicial texts) and sharing experiences.
The director of the Office for Roma Inclusion of the AP Vojvodina Ljiljana Mihajlović, together with provincial deputy Jelena Jovanović, visited the Vršac College of Education and Medicine with the aim of supporting the enrolment of a new generation of students for the preschool teacher program in the Romani language.
President Andrzej Duda has signed the amendment to the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and on Regional Language, his office announced on Friday.
The purpose of the amendment to the Act on National and Ethnic Minorities and on Regional Language is for the Chancellery of the Sejm to provide substantive and administrative support to representatives of minorities and communities whose members speak a regional language on the Joint Committee of the Government and National and Ethnic Minorities (Joint Committee). The costs will be covered by the state budget – funds at the disposal of the Head of the Chancellery of the Sejm.
Two more articles on the concerns of the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe warnings that Romanes is still not part of formal education, although there is a dictionary and several projects. It also states that there is no strategy for training Romanes teachers and that the lack of qualified personnel remains an obstacle. It also warned that it has not been introduced into official use in any municipality, despite previous recommendations.
The Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages has welcomed some policy measures implemented by Montenegro in the field of the protection of minority languages, but expresses serious concern about the lack of progress when it comes to Romanes, in particular in the areas of education, institutional use and teacher training.
Last week, a number of prominent Roma personalities came to Prague thanks to the Khamoro festival. Among the guests was linguistics professor Hristo Kjučukov, who comes from Bulgaria. He has struggled with discrimination since childhood, not only as a Rom, but also as a Muslim. And this is what he tried to overcome with education and success.
A very nice video on the Zargari Romanes dialect. Zargari are Roma who went back eastwards at some point in history and settled in Iran. This is underlined by the number of Greek words in their dialect, which is on par with other Balkan Romanes variants.
We hope to hear more about them!
Roma music is a melting pot of all genres, it is diverse and fascinating, says linguist and musician. Ondřej Skovajsa, a literary historian, ethnomusicologist and chairman of the Giľora association, which records and makes contemporary Roma songs accessible in audiovisual form, as well as linguist and musician Martin Gális speak about music and Romanes. The end of May belongs to the Khamoro World Festival, which is a traditional celebration of Roma culture. But do young Roma still speak Romanes in everyday communication?
Serbian is the mother tongue of most Belgraders, and next to it, the most common are Romanes and Russian, according to the study “Population and Households of the City of Belgrade”, published by the Serbian Statistical Office.
The article unfortunately, classifies “Romanes” as a migrant language … No comments…
An article that totally misses the point. A project, that aims to “help” people with a different mother tongue (read Roma and Turks). What they miss is that Roma always grow up with several mother tongues, local and Romanes, and in the Balkan, Ottoman Turkish.
No further comments …
In 1996, UNESCO developed the Atlas of Endangered Languages, which included as many as nine languages from our country. These include Kashubian, Lower Saxon, Belarusian, Polesian, Romanes, Rusyn, Slovinian, Yiddish, Wymysorys. The fight to preserve the last of them, which is already used by a small group of older residents of Wilamowice near Bielsko-Biała, is still ongoing.
Many Polish Roma have left the country and now live in the UK.
The Romano suno (Roma Dream) competition has been organized by the non-profit organization Nová škola since 1996. It is open to everyone who knows Romanes and wants to write their own text in that language, make a video, or compete live in Romanes. The purpose of the competition is to encourage people to take an interest in Romanes, to create in it, and to use Romanes publicly.
The Centre for Research and Preservation of Roma Culture from Novi Romanes Romani language. The project was funded by the Provincial Secretariat for Education and the RTV Roma Program Editorial Office, while the author and director is Dr. Marija Aleksandrovic.
Živorad Ajdačić, a Serbian politician, said in a statement at the session of the Committee for Culture and Information of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia held on January 23, 2025 questionned whether it is possible for us to have a program in the Romani language and at 7 p.m.?
Opre Roma says that “this statement represents an unacceptable act of belittling the Romani language and culture, as well as open disrespect for the Romani community, which has been an integral part of Serbian society for centuries.
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.
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…
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