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František Godla - The Romani Language
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It was probably affected by the environment there.
In fact, we lived surrounded by majority.
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And thus, we were bicultural.
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The Slovak and Romani cultures co-existed together,
and somehow we perceived it as our own culture.
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And in the meantime we participated in various meetings.
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For example with the Roma people from Chmiňany.
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They were musicians, and we knew them, they were quite close to us. So we used to meet.
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But maybe once or twice a year, on the occasion of church festival.
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So they came to the festival, of course, and we met at our house.
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So it was a big time and non-Roma participated as well.
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So, at home we spoke Romani language, when we went out, we spoke Slovak, it was common and natural.
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We had no problem with it. It was the situation at my father's family.
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The family of my uncle spoke only Slovak and only my uncle could speak Romani.
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His sons and daughters could not speak Romani but when they got married and moved to the Spiš region, they learned the language.
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Because they got to and had to live in a very strong Romani environment.
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So they learned Romani language there.
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And it was the same as Slovak for the Slovaks or Russian for the Russians because the language is an instrument in fact.
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The language is what makes us being human.
It changes us from biological beings to the social ones.
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It is a cognitive communication tool.
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It is impossible to live without a language.
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And should there be no language we would
probably be at the level of animals, maybe higher,
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but simply the language and thinking are interconnected
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and this has created the social aspect - social reality and environment
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where we live and which determines us.
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Maybe even more than the natural environment, which of courseN is also very important and determining.
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And the Romani language is the language of national minority,
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it came to Europe from completely different environment.
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It was something
what the majority society could not accept.
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They were afraid because they didn't understand.
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It was forbidden,
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and it didn't develop in language or linguistic institutions
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which were established in previous centuries.
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The Romani language existed on a more or less spontaneous basis, simply in Roma families,
Roma environment, Roma settlements.
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So it absorbed a lot of words from the environment where the Roma people lived.
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For example in Slovakia, it was especially from dialects.
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And from many other languages as well, e.g. Greek, Persian,
Arabic and Balkan languages
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And I think this is not bad.
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Because it also happens with the Slovak language. At present many new words are taken from
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English, German or even Hungarian.
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It means it is a natural and regular process and the Romani language
is not an exception.
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On the other hand, Romani and literature in this language started to develop especially after 1989,
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and this increases its value.
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Its value rises because it has become the language of art
even though it exists in the form of dialects.
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Even if we talk about standard Romani language,
dialects continue to be used in practice.
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And thus it is necessary to guard
the purity of this language to a certain extent.
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I mean, the use of original words should be renewed
where they were replaced with foreign words in the past.
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For example with words from Slovak or dialect.
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But we know that there are equivalent expressions in the Romani language.
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A typical example of this phenomena is the fact that in everyday practice
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many Roma people are not able to use numerals in Romani.
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They talk in Romani and out of the sudden they use a numeral in Slovak.
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But there are numerals in Romani that are original and also taken from Greek, for example.
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So one day, when I was going to work
I could hear two young boys talking and I stopped them.
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And I explained the issue to them
because for them it was natural taking like this.
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I mean the language needs to be cultivated, developed and
it has to be given the cultural value.
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Because it is the manifestation of culture. There is no culture without a language.
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So the nation without a language has no culture.
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And this naturally raises doubts about such nation
and whether we can talk about the nation.
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The Roma people have their language despite dialect diversity
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which exists in Roma communities in Europe.
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In most of cases people using various dialects can understand each other in principle.
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For us, the least understandable is the language of the Vlach Roma because
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it is more or less affected by the Romanian language and some
Romanian and Hungarian impacts.
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But they are able to understand our dialect so communication is possible.
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Well, I think that the fact that poetry and prose started to be written in the Romani language and dramatic art started to develop,
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enables us to talk about the real Roma culture not only in the form of folklore,
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I mean, yes, Roma people sing, play the instruments and dance,
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but I am really very happy and I personally do appreciate
that the state of art improved with the literature.
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Quite important translations from world literature were made into the Romani language.
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And this process can be expected to continue so
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the Romani language will develop further.
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Of course, the use of this language by ordinary people in everyday life is another issue.
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In Roma settlements, as I said, there are serious problems in terms of language.
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And this is also the reason, why the Romani language
may hardly be used in direct school language or language of instruction.
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Well, it may be used as a supporting language, that is necessary where applicable
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and where the children need it, so they can talk in their mother tongue.
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But I think, in the long-term, it is impossible to use it as the language of instruction
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because of the lack of technical terminology.
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Another fact is that the people living in settlements are isolated quite a lot and unsociable.
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Then it has to be taken into account that
nobody took care of this language and it existed as it existed
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with local terms and words being absorbed by it.
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I would say that those so called settlement languages
have never been technically developed
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so, in fact, many original Roma words have been naturally removed
or disappeared.
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I remember when girls, Roma girls, from Čaklov
were making fun of their grandfather
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who used the word šut for vinegar.
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And when I asked them how he should call it, they said octos.
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So, this is an example of being unaware that the language, the Romani language
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has its own words and terms to denote
many various objects of everyday life
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which need to be used.
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And there are many other examples like this, so that's why I say that the language is sort of spoiled
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into the Slovak and Romani combination and
in the south and south-east Romani and Hungarian combination of words.
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When I attended one meeting of parents and teachers and the Secondary Art School in Košice,
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the director asked parents if they knew the Romani word for a mirror.
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And one Roman woman, an older lady, immediately said ťikeris.
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This is a Hungarian word for mirror.
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Yes, it is notgendalos, ale ťikerisso this is the real condition of the language.
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What we have here, of course, is good. It is good there is a dictionary and there are more of them.
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And probably there will be other prepared and maybe on the level of technical terminology as well.
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This must gradually get also to Roma settlements.
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If fact, I do not know if I can dare to say that it should get to Roma settlements because it is a complicated process.
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And a long-term process, simply, it can hardly be expected
that it will happen in a period of several years.
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The standard Slovak definitely hasn't developed that way.
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There was the Šariš dialect, other various local dialects
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commonly used and only a small group of intellectuals were dealing with the standard language.
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And they started to use it as the language of literature and the like.
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It means this needs a process, and it is a historical and long-term process.
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And of course it has to be accompanied with development of education and the level of education.
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Otherwise the process will not take place.
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And, of course, we have to talk about integration.
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The fact that today we support inclusive approaches to education and social life
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despite many difficulties and lack of understanding we have to face,
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I think this fact will have to get on but again this will take a long time.
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Because the social adaptation of many Roma communities
living in social and intellectual poverty
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is impossible in the short term. Because these communities
are not included and involved in the life of society.
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They are at the edge, marginalized, yes,
and they are fenced with a sort of Great Wall of China.
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And this is what will hinder development
although I feel or I think that
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I have already said that poverty and destitution may not a barrier for the education.
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It may be a motivation,
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but this, on the other hand, requires consciousness and it needs help
on the part of competent authorities, I mean
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especially the area of schools, education, teachers, directors and school system in general and the change in their attitude.
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The Neologisms
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New words are created in every language, it is a process.
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If we compare the Slovak language in 1920's and its present form,
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for example letters which Slovaks living in America wrote home
, we probably would laugh.
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But in fact, this reflects the state of the Slovak language at that time.
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The Romani language is subject to this process as well, and, of course, the need arises in connection with this.
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It is not spontaneity, it is a must to create neologisms.
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To create new words and include them in the language as life requires.
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I used to translate quite often from the Slovak to Romani language and vice versa.
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And one day I was requested by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic
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to translate the tax census in agriculture.
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And this was almost a disaster because the Romani language
is not the language of peasants, or farmers. Quite the contrary.
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So there weren't many technical terms for agricultural issues.
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And it was necessary to create new words, neologisms
or translate things using brief description.
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So I think this process is taking hold even in the Romani language.
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And we can see it also in the works of some Roma
writers or people dealing with the language.
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Because they add these words to vocabulary and, yes,
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it has to be said, that to most, vast majority of Roma people these words are unknown because they do not use them,
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they do not circulate among the Roma people.
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But they already exist and I think they are getting into dictionaries
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and into technical texts.
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So when translating my text, I was really very angry, because it was difficult and complicated.
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But finally I was proud that i managed it.
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And and the Statistical Office was satisfied and happy that they had their text translated.
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So new words are necessary,
they are a must and it is necessary to introduce them in the language
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if there are no original words to denote reality
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which we want to denote or write about.
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The Future of the Romani Language
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Definitely, the language should develop under some institution and by professional linguists.
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These cannot be "so called" linguists or self-proclaimed professionals but first of all real language specialists who
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are well-qualified and who,
in fact, could make the biggest step forward in this direction.
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What kind of institution?
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Maybe this is not that important but
it should definitely be some scientific institution
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or educational institution as minimum.
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It shouldn't be any political or third-sector etc. institution.
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Because with these institution there is no guarantee of professionalism.
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But it should be really a scientific institution as for example Institute of Linguistics for the Slovak language.
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So probably a mini institute of the Romani language could be established within this Institute.
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Or maybe a section or the like that would deal with the issue.
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That would monitor the development of for example literature, poetry and culture.
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Because these connections are normal,
natural and thus mutually interrelated.
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So I think it could be either at the Slovak Academy of Science,
Institute of linguistics of this Academy,
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or in any other educational institution,
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or at a department of some university with expert teams available.
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Because it is people and their quality that matter in further development of the language.
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As for Roma people, ordinary Roma people, they are not worried by this issue.
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This is more the issue of better educated Roma people.
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Intellectuals, people with secondary school or university education who understand and know what this is all about.
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Yes, and what the value of the language and culture is,
so its more the matter of this group of people.
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But this is typical for other nations as well.
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We are now experiencing something the Slovaks experienced maybe
at the beginning or at the turn of 19th century.
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Or also the Czechs, well, so I do think
the Romani language should develop in this context.
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Because even today, there aren't many experts, although we have to credit them for their work.
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But to tell the truth, we have no or only a few own
experts.
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So we have to be thankful for what has already been done but we need to move on.
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And, of course, this requires linguistic education at necessary expert level.
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You know, for all my life, and I am 68 now so I have experienced quite a lot, I have participated in various processes
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but during that time I haven't noticed any real interest in any single time.
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I mean for example at the Ministry of Culture or Ministry of Education.
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No real interest in creating conditions for development of that language.
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From time to time, sporadically, some money was given to prepare a spelling book.
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It was given to somebody.
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Dežo Banga is originally a secondary school teacher, and, of course, he is a well-known personality in culture.
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So he became the author of the spelling book.
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And he also invited me, Mr Zeman and Mrs Macejková from Košice
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to review the spelling book.
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And when I saw the book for the first time, it was beautiful.
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But my job was to assess its material content not pictures.
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So my first idea was that children wouldn't understand it.
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And we cannot teach children a foreign language instead of the Romani language. This would make their situation even worse.
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So I pointed this out and I wrote 20-page review
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because I thought it was very important. For me, it was
my first spelling book ever.
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The textbook was prepared very well, it was interesting with nice articles
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so I had no reservations, but rather the opposite.
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But I had reservations about the spelling book and I simply clearly
defined them, named them and gave reasons for my reservations.
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And Mr Banga promised me to correct everything I suggested before I left.
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But nothing was done and the spelling book remained as he first made it.
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And unfortunately, in other localities,
where other dialect is used, it cannot be used.
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Children couldn't understand although teachers tried.
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Well, this was one attempt. Then several other works followed which were rather scientific, and
represented a scientific interest of Mrs Hübschmann.
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She dealt with the issue of the language and history
of the Roma people in the long term and did an extensive research work.
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It's a pity she died tragically because I am sure she would have a lot to say even today.
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So during one of our meetings,
it was some workshop or conference in Spišská Nová Ves,
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she wanted to talk to me in the Romani language very much.
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So we were having our coffee and talking and she said
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that she liked our Prešov dialect
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which she had already known from her meetings with Mrs Lacková, they were friends,
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the most. This dialect was her favorite.
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But I have one more experience. One woman from India visited me.
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She was in my home and she wanted to talk in Romani.
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So I was speaking the Romani language a she said
that we use many Indian words.
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These were the personalities I had a chance to meet.
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But the Roma people, I mean educated Roma people
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who want to deal and work with the language are unwilling, they don't want to accept new things.
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And this is what I don't like.
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Because to denote common things
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they always use foreign words ending in -es instead of the words in the Romani language.
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So the question arises whether and to what extent ordinary people
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will need to be able to speak this language.
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Because if they don't need it, they won't accept it.
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And this means that if language ceases to exist, the nation will become extinct.
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The nation becomes extinct because it can only present that it is still alive,
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that it exists, only through its language and culture.
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Narrator: František Godla
Place: Prešov
Date: 19.02.2014
Translation: Gabriela Kleinová