With a pluricentric language such as Romani, there is no realistic hope of real linguistic regulation in the modern world.
Even languages which are "controlled" by specific countries such as Spanish, French, German, or Portuguese, have had major problems in aligning national standards.
Romani, on the other hand, is considered by linguists to be a family of languages, rather than a single language, because the three main dialect groups are not really mutually intelligible.
Here is a list of the words for "woman" in some Romani varieties:
džuvel -- welsh manušňi -- sremski gurbet dženi -- sinte džuuli -- romungro džuvli -- macedonian džambazi manušňi -- lovara džuuli -- latvian źuvli -- kalderaš manušňi -- gurvari džuuli -- finnish džuvli -- dolenjski džuvli -- burgenland manušňi -- banatiski gurbet džuvi -- bugurdži dźuvli -- crimean rani -- east slovak džuvli -- gurbet žuvli -- hungarian vend džuvli -- kosovo arli džulî -- lithuanian džuvli -- macedonian arli dźuvlî -- north russian romni -- sepečides dženi -- sofia erli žuvli -- ursari
With such differences as this in even such a basic word, it is unrealistic to expect people to be able to understand each other, without studying the so-called "unified romani" for years beforehand.
From what I've heard from Roma people, Unified Romani is not really wide-spread.
On the other hand, if we have separate Wikipedias for each Romani variety, they will be able to reach all literate Roma.
Mark
On 25/03/06, Alin Dosoftei desiphral@gmail.com wrote:
By now the "Standard Romani" is a bit in a ideal phase, with more centers of developement worlwide. Already there are some differences in the way I have written and the way the other Romani user has written, but this does not impede the mutual understanding. Personally I don't have in my mind a wiki confined only to some specific patterns of the Romani language picked from those disponible worldwide. Speakers of every dialect would be welcomed to contribute to rom.wiki, and if there is standing power to make wikis in specific dialects, let them run. But for the beginning there is standing power for a general Romani Wikipedia.
Also, the evolution of the standardized form, is not based only on Vlax Romani. As I wrote in the English article abot the Romani language, Romani taught in schools from Romania has mostly the pronunciation and grammar style of the older non-Vlax dialects, considered closer to the original language. The language used till now for the Romani Wikipedia is not quite Vlax, it does not stand for a Vlax Wikipedia.
Desiphral
On 3/25/06, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
The comparison to Kurdish isn't exactly valid -- the Kurdish Wikipedia doesn't use a single "standard form", but rather has separate "sections" for each dialect, beccause quite simply there is no Standard Kuridsh.
Mark
On 25/03/06, Alin Dosoftei desiphral@gmail.com wrote:
Have a look at the debate for the test Romani Wikipedia, at my last
comment:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Requests_for_new_languages/Vlax_Romany/Discus...
My point is that if it is will to make Wikipedias in other dialects,
it's
OK, but I don't think this is an impediment to have one for the standard form.
On 3/25/06, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
As far as I know, although there is a "standard romani", it doesn't totally bridge all Romani languages as it intends (it is apparently based mostly on Kalderash), and is not intelligible to diverse varieties such as Ursari, Sinte, or Baltic.
I don't think it's right for any single language to claim to be "*the* Romani language", I think rom.wp should be a portal.
mark
On 25/03/06, Alin Dosoftei desiphral@gmail.com wrote:
Thank you!
But the proposed code name is rom. not rmy. which is only for the
Vlax
Romani dialect. Is it because I forgot to change it at the Meta page
for
requests? Vlax was the first proposal but then the test changed to
Standard
Romani and I made the changes from rmy to rom wherever I found the
older
code.
Also in English it is favoured the spelling Romani instead of
Romany,
because this is the way the other Indo-Aryan languages are spelled:
Hindi,
Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri etc. The Romani dialects are spelled also
like
this: Drindari, Erli, Jambashi etc. and even the dialects of other
languages
spoken by Roma (with only Romani vocabulary) like Pogadi. *Romany*
look
awkward together with other Indo-Aryan languages.
On 3/25/06, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) rowikipedia@gmail.com
wrote:
Just a question - none of the Wikipedias so far seem to have a
localised
interface. The Romany Wikipedia (code RMY) has a nearly
fully-translated
localisation file at:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/LanguageRom.php
(This file still contains some Romanian-language fragments)
Once this file is fully translated, how is it possible to update
the
interface? Neither me nor the native Romani user, Desiphral, know how to use
the
CVS
system.
Thanks,
Ronline
2006/3/25, Servien Ilaino servien@gmail.com: > > YEEEAAAH!! Finaly!! :D > > Serv > > > 2006/3/25, Wikipedia Romania (Ronline) < rowikipedia@gmail.com>: > > > > WOO HOO!!! > > Thanks so much for that! > > > > 2006/3/25, Jens Frank < JeLuF@gmx.de>: > > > > > > Hello, > > > > > > the following wikipedias have been created: > > > > > > nds-nl > > > rmy > > > lij > > > bat-smg > > > map-bms > > > ksh > > > pdc > > > vls > > > nrm > > > frp > > > zh-yue > > > tet > > > xal > > > pap > > > > > > See also > > > > > > > > >
http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Approved_requests_for_new_langua...
> > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > JeLuF > > > > > > -- > > > Echte DSL-Flatrate dauerhaft für 0,- Euro*! > > > "Feel free" mit GMX DSL! http://www.gmx.net/de/go/dsl > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikipedia-l mailing list > > > Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org > > > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikipedia-l mailing list > > Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org > > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikipedia-l mailing list > Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l > _______________________________________________ Wikipedia-l mailing list Wikipedia-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikipedia-l
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