Download - Российский комитет Программы ЮНЕСКО ...

In the course of the emancipation of the Roma as a European ethnicity, Romani
became one of the primary features of a transnational Roma identity. This process,
which started in the 1970s, is mainly based on a common history and culture and
consequently aims for a common language. This resulted in various attempts to
standardise Romani, which have more or less failed so far. However, concrete
measures to codify individual varieties and expand their functions from mainly
oral use in informal situations into formal written usage have been successful to
some extent. This expansion of Romani into formal domains resulted in literate
forms of Romani and inter alia also in its use on the internet.
2. Romani on the Internet
The use of Romani on the internet is best described by the examples of various
web pages which were set up as a result of the emancipation of the Roma as an
ethnolinguistic community of Europe. Romani is used on websites of:
• national and international Romani NGOs,
• international NGOs and organisations,
• public and private Romani media.
2.1. Online Multilingualism
Romani is a dominated language. Romani speakers are always plurilingual
and mainly use the respective dominant language in formal written domains.
Consequently, there are no monolingual Romani web pages on the internet.
Romani texts primarily accompany texts in dominant languages which is in
line with the additive type of linguistic diversity on the internet.
2.1.1. National NGOs on the Web
Almost as a rule, the language of the state in which the respective NGO is active
dominates its web pages. Some websites are almost exclusively in the dominant
language as for instance the pages of the Austrian cultural association of Roma,
the Kulturverein Österreichischer Roma . 86 Only the
title of the association’s journal Romano Kipo ‘Romani picture’ and the link to
an archive of radio broadcasts in Romani – Roma Sam ‘We are Roma’ – are in
Romani. All other texts are exclusively in German, on the website as well as in
the journal. The same applies for the web pages of the official Romanian centre
for Romani culture, the Centrul Naţional de Cultură a Romilor – Romano Kher
. The URL Romani Kultura ‘Romani culture’ and
86
Accessed 2012-02-24.
274