Download - Российский комитет Программы ЮНЕСКО ...

Mitrivoca through reports and stories of their parents and grandparents. They
were not yet born or small children when they left their countries of origin.
Nevertheless, the Romani dialect of Kosova Mitrovica is the primary means
of communication in the chat and is used in the plurilingual mode described
above: orate style, spontaneous writing, and linguistic hybridisation by making
use of all common languages in the repertoires of the interlocutors. 96
2.3. Summary
The difference between additive multilingualism and integrative
plurilingualism outlined in chapter 1 of this paper has become obvious from
the examples discussed in sections 2.1 and 2.2:
• In additive multilingual settings Romani only functions as an auxiliary
language. It is presented in a literate written form with predominant
symbolic functions. The communicative aspect of websites that
provide translations into Romani is mainly covered by the respective
dominant languages, the national language of the country where
a Roma NGO is based and active, or English on the web pages of
supranational organisations and NGOs with international aims.
• In integrative plurilingual settings Romani usage often equals that
of other languages. It is used in an orate style and communicative
functions prevail. As neither Romani speakers nor the internet
are monolingual in Romani, other languages are used in domains
they cover and/or are embedded into Romani in interactive online
communication. Compared to the more or less static mode of Romani
usage in additive online multilingualism, the mode of interaction
in integrative plurilingual settings is dynamic and, consequently,
highly transient.
The differences described so far are in no way aspects of simple two-way
dichotomies but features marking the two extremes of a gradual field between
ethnic symbolism and communicative functionalism against the background
of the sociolinguistic situation of Romani as expressed by the arrows in the
following summary table:
96
I am highly indebted to Daniele Viktor Leggio for information about Radio Romani Mahala. He is currently
writing a PhD dissertation on the linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of the chat on this website at the
University of Manchester. He has recently published a description of the Romani dialect upon which this
online interaction is based: Leggio, D.V. 2011. The dialect of the Mitrovica Roma. Romani Studies 5, Vol. 21,
No. 1: 57-113.
280