1,720,999 research outputs found
When Two Roma Communities Meet: Consequences for the Vulnerability of Romani in the Belgrade Suburb of Batajnica
No full textThis chapter explores language vulnerability in two Roma
communities residing in the Belgrade suburban settlement of Batajnica:
Sremski Roma and Arli Roma. These communities settled in the area at
different times; they speak different Romani dialects and belong to different
religious denominations. Based on the responses to the sociolinguistic
VLingS Questionnaire 1.0 conducted during fieldwork in 2023, the research
focuses on several sociolinguistic aspects, such as linguistic background,
intergenerational language transmission, attitudes toward Romani, issues
of identity and language maintenance, as well as various domains of
language usage. Although characterized by many similarities—particularly
in their linguistic backgrounds and attitudes toward language—the two
communities differ in the frequency of Romani language usage across
different domains. Notably, significantly more Arli Roma use their language
when speaking to their partners, children, and neighbours, discussing topics
of social interest, and, most importantly, during prayer and in gravestone
inscriptions. In contrast, Sremski Roma report more frequent usage of
Serbian across various domains, pointing to the potential vulnerability of
Romani in this community. These findings indicate that assessments of
language vulnerability and endangerment of Romani varieties should take
into account dialectal diversity and various extralinguistic factors, providing
separate estimates for distinct varieties.Поглавље истражује рањивост језика у двема ромским заједницама у београдском приградском насељу Батајница: у заједницама Сремских Рома и Арлија. Ове две заједнице настаниле су се у Батајници у различитим временским периодима, говоре различите ромске дијалекте и припадају различитим верским деноминацијама. Истраживање се заснива на одговорима саговорника на социолингвистички упитник VLingS Questionnaire 1.0 који је у датим заједницама спроведен током теренских истраживања 2023. Студија се фокусира на неколико социолингвистичких аспеката, као што су језички профил, међугенерацијско преношење језика, ставови према ромском, питања идентитета и очувања језика, као и различити домени употребе. Иако их одликују бројне сличности, посебно у језичком профилу и ставовима према језику, ове две заједнице разликују се у фреквенци употребе језика у различитим доменима. Значајно већи број Арлија употребљава ромски језик у разговору са својим партнерима, децом, комшијама, током разговора о друштвеним питањима, и нарочито током молитве и на надгробним натписима. С друге стране, Сремски Роми наводе чешћу употребу српског језика у различитим доменима, указујући на потенцијалну рањивост ромског у овој заједници. Добијени резултати сугеришу да процене рањивости и угрожености ромских варијетета треба да узму у обзир дијалекатску разноврсност и различите ванјезичке факторе, омогућавајући одвојене процене за различите варијетете
Promotion and Preservation of Gurbet Romani in Eastern Serbia : Actions Targeting Children and Youth
Full text linkThis paper deals with the Gurbet Romani variety spoken in Eastern Serbia, an area with an extensive language contact between Serbian as the dominant language and Romani as a minority language. The paper focuses on the Romani language classes in one of the schools in the town of Knjaževac (Eastern Serbia), as well as on the workshops and publishing activities organised by the local library with the purpose of promoting and preserving Romani varieties through activities targeted at primary-school pupils, but also through publishing the work of young local Roma authors. The aim of the paper is to investigate the ongoing participatory measures taken by the local community in Knjaževac, focusing on those targeting children and youth. I recorded a workshop and several semistructured interviews with the school’s principal, first to fourth grade teachers, pedagogical assistant, Romani language teacher, librarian and pupils. The qualitative analysis suggests that the activities organised by the library in Knjaževac represent significant affirmative measures for the promotion of Romani, which are crucial in the context of marginalization and restricted domains of language usage as indicated by my informants.https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-472012</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Tendencies in expressing verbal aspect in the Gurbet Romani: pilot experimental study with elementary-school children
Full text linkThe Romani system of tense-aspect-modality categories consists of three dimensions: aspectual (perfective : non-perfective), temporal (remote : non-remote), and modal (the category “intentionality”). Aspect is expressed as an extension to the verb stem: the perfective aspect is marked with a perfective marker added to the stem in order to express a completed event, whereas the absence of perfectivity provides an ongoing perspective (Matras 2001). This paper reports on a pilot study of verbal aspect in the Gurbet variety of Romani spoken by elementary-school children in eastern Serbia (the village of Minićevo, next to the town of Knjaževac). Participants (7 Romani-Serbian bilingual children aged 7 to 10) were shown short non-verbal cartoons from the serial “Die Sendung mit der Maus”. Participants were asked to retell the content of the cartoons and their production was video-recorded and transcribed. The research was conducted in November 2017, and the material is available in the Digital Archive of the Institute for Balkan Studies (Belgrade). The analysis is based on 23 narratives revealing the following tendencies: perfective markers are added to the verb stems to express completed events; ongoing events are typically unmarked for perfectivity; verbs unmarked for perfectivity additionally refer
to completed events; Serbian loanverbs, morphologically adapted to Romani, are used to convey the aspect; and perfectivity is additionally achieved by borrowing Serbian prefixes. Although the majority of verbs behave in the expected way in terms of aspect, several exceptions are observed, suggesting that the choice of a verb form (perfective vs. nonperfective) might refer to the temporal dimension of an event, to its iterativity, or moreover be used for the narrative purposes
Istraživanje sociolingvističkog pejzaža ladino jezika u savremenoj Srbiji
No full textLadino, or Judeo-Spanish, the historical language of Sephardic Jews, faces severe endangerment globally and in Serbia, where intergenerational transmission has largely ceased. This chapter examines Ladino’s sociolinguistic status in Serbia through data collected via the “Vulnerable Languages and Linguistic Varieties in Serbia” (VLingS) project. The project aimed to assess the vulnerability of several minority languages in the Serbian context and included interviews with 14 Sephardic descendants. Findings reveal a generational decline in Ladino proficiency, with Serbian emerging as the dominant language. Nevertheless, Ladino holds symbolic and cultural importance as a marker of Sephardic heritage and identity. Respondents expressed positive attitudes toward the language, associating it with cultural memory and emotional connection, despite its active use being limited to specific domains such as music, ceremonial events, and familial expressions. The study emphasises that Ladino’s future lies in its postvernacular role, where it functions as a symbolic and cultural asset rather than a vernacular for daily communication. This transition should be facilitated by digital platforms, cultural revitalisation efforts, and educational initiatives that engage younger generations and foster global connections among dispersed Sephardic communities. Ladino’s status in Serbia underscores the evolving relationship between language and identity within multilingual, diasporic communities. Its preservation requires innovative approaches involving community members, cultural organisations, linguists, policymakers, and educators. These efforts should adapt to contemporary sociolinguistic realities while honouring Ladino’s historical and cultural significance.Ladino, ili judeo-španski, istorijski jezik sefardskih Jevreja, suočava se sa ozbiljnom ugroženošću širom sveta i u Srbiji, gde je međugeneracijsko prenošenje uglavnom prestalo. Ovo poglavlje ispituje sociolingvistički status ladina u Srbiji kroz podatke prikupljene putem projekta „Ranjivi jezici i jezičke varijetete u Srbiji“ (VLingS). Cilj projekta je bio da proceni ranjivost nekoliko manjinskih jezika u srpskom kontekstu i obuhvatio je intervjue sa 14 sefardskih potomaka. Rezultati otkrivaju generacijsko nazadovanje u poznavanju ladina, pri čemu se srpski pojavljuje kao dominantan jezik. Ipak, ladino ima simbolički i kulturni značaj kao obeležje sefardskog nasleđa i identiteta. Ispitanici su izrazili pozitivne stavove prema jeziku, povezujući ga sa kulturnim pamćenjem i emocionalnom vezom, uprkos tome što je njegova aktivna upotreba ograničena na određene oblasti kao što su muzika, ceremonijalni događaji i porodični izrazi. Studija naglašava da budućnost ladina leži u njegovoj postvernakularnoj ulozi, gde funkcioniše kao simboličko i kulturno dobro, a ne kao narodni jezik za svakodnevnu komunikaciju. Ovu tranziciju treba da olakšaju digitalne platforme, napori za kulturnu revitalizaciju i obrazovne inicijative koje angažuju mlađe generacije i podstiču globalne veze među raspršenim sefardskim zajednicama. Status ladina u Srbiji naglašava evoluirajući odnos između jezika i identiteta unutar višejezičnih, dijasporskih zajednica. Njegovo očuvanje zahteva inovativne pristupe koji uključuju članove zajednice, kulturne organizacije, lingviste, kreatore politike i edukatore. Ovi napori treba da se prilagode savremenim sociolingvističkim realnostima, uz poštovanje istorijskog i kulturnog značaja ladina
FOCUS-AFFECTED (UN)AVAILABILITY OF SCALAR IMPLICATURES
Full text linkThis paper investigates the role of contrastive focus in the process of generating scalar implicatures (SIs) in the interpretation of sentences with the quantifier neki ‘some’ in Serbian. The role of focus has been neglected in the previous research, since most studies insisted on using ‘neutral’ stimuli in experiments on SIs. We hypothesize that the proportional reading of the quantifier, and the scalar implicature, should be facilitated if the proper scalar alternatives are evoked. One strategy to achieve this is to focalize the quantifier, given that focus is a device for evoking alternatives (Rooth 1985, Herburger 2000) – a mechanism characteristic of generating SIs as well (Barner & Bachrarch 2010). In order to test this prediction we performed a series of experiments based on the Truth Value Judgment Task. Adult Serbian speakers (n=27) performed a visual version of the experiment, but we also present preliminary results from our work-in-progress with 7-year old (n=30) and 9-year old children (n=30) who conducted an audio version of experiments. The results suggest that focus does affect the availability of SIs, given that both adults and children tend to interpret the quantifier neki ‘some’ proportionally when it bears contrastive focus (although certain constraints such as partitivity affect the role of focus in adults)
Писменост на ромском језику: пилот подаци из Србије
No full textThis study explores adult literacy in Romani in two Roma communities in Serbia through responses to the sociolinguistic VLingS Questionnaire 1.0. Results indicate that reading and writing in Serbian significantly exceed Romani literacy, which is mostly confined to personal communication via messaging apps. Awareness of Romani-language publications, written media and language instruction remains low. Structural educational disadvantages and minimal institutional support contribute to limited written engagement. The findings suggest that promoting multidialectal, community-centred literacy and leveraging digital platforms could enhance Romani literacy, supporting multilingual competence among Roma speakers.Istraživanje se bavi pismenošću na romskom jeziku među odraslim članovima dve romske zajednice u Srbiji: u selu Bavanište (Banat) i prigradskom naselju Batajnica (Beograd). Podaci su prikupljeni sociolingvističkim upitnikom „VLingS Questionnaire 1.0“, a rad je fokusiran na kvantitativnu analizu odgovora ispitanika na pitanja vezana za pismenost, obrazovanje, sadržaj i učestalost čitanja i pisanja, romski jezik u školama, publikacije i pisane medije na romskom, kao i samoprocenu jezičkih veština. Rezultati pokazuju dominaciju srpskog jezika u svim domenima, dok je pismenost na romskom ograničena uglavnom na ličnu digitalnu komunikaciju (privatne poruke i društvene mreže). Većina ispitanika nije upoznata sa postojećim publikacijama ili časovima romskog jezika, a samoprocena nivoa čitanja i pisanja u romskom znatno je niža nego za razumevanje i govor. Pismenost na romskom je takođe ograničena nizom obrazovnih i institucionalnih faktora, uključujući nizak nivo formalnog obrazovanja ispitanika. Studija ukazuje na potrebu za razvojem lokalnih i dijalekatski prilagođenih obrazovnih materijala, jačanjem nastave romskog jezika i podrškom pismenosti kroz digitalne medije, kako bi se romski jezik učinio vidljivijim i funkcionalnijim u pisanom obliku
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Bernard Lory, Les Tsiganes des Balkans (1280–1914). [The Gypsies of the Balkans (1280–1914)]. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2024, 688 p.
No full textBernard Lory’s book Les Tsiganes des
Balkans (1280–1914), written in French, is
an ambitious documentary collection offering
important insights into the history
of the Roma in the Balkans. Comprising
157 documents, the volume spans from
the first mentions of Roma in Byzantine
sources of the late 13th century to the beginning
of the First World War, focusing
on the centuries under Ottoman rule and
the 19th century, when documentation
becomes increasingly abundant. Lory, a
distinguished historian of the Balkans,
has gathered, translated, and commented
on sources originally written in numerous
languages, including Byzantine Greek,
Ottoman Turkish, Latin, Serbian, Croatian,
Bulgarian, Macedonian, German,
English, and others
- …
