LANGUAGE CONSEQUENCES OF MIGRATION OF ROMANI SPEAKERS FROM SLOVAKIA TO GREAT BRITAIN AND BACK: THE CHANGE OF PARADIGM OF TOWN NAMES IN TWO ROMANI DIALECTS

• Authors: Červenka Jan
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article focuses on language changes in Romani spoken by Slovak emigrants to England and re-emigrants to Slovakia or by people residing alternately in both countries as the case may be. The changes are monitored separately in two Romani groups: the so called Slovak Roma (speakers of the Northern-Central dialect of Romani) and the Vlax Roma (speakers of the Slovak variety of the Lovari dialect). The author addresses the way the language is influenced both by the changes of the environment and lifestyle and the changes of the contact language. He mostly focuses on adult respondents whose contact language has really changed during their life. He concentrates on one striking and unexpected change: the change of the system according to which toponyms, specifically town names, are created in Romani. First the author submits the survey of the system in the pre-emigration situation that has not been systematically published for either of the examined dialects. Further on, he introduces the changes the described system has gone through in both the dialects due to the influence of migration to Western Europe and he cautiously attempts to suggest interpretation of the examined phenomenon.

Keywords

EN

MIGRATION; ROMA; ROMANI; TOPONYMS; ENGLAND

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 65
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 383 – 403

Contributors

author

Červenka Jan

• Department of Central European Studies – Seminar of Romani Studies (Charles University, Faculty of Arts), nám. Jana Palacha 2, 116 38 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Identifiers

DOI

10.26363/SN.2017.4.02