Department of Linguistics

Linguistic Atlas of Central Romani

Methodology

SOURCES OF DATA

Audio-recordings of elicited speech in a large number of local varieties of Central Romani are the major source of linguistic data. During audio-recorded elicitation sessions, organized during fieldwork, in speakers’ natural environment, speakers orally translate items of a linguistic questionnaire from their major contact language into their native variety of Romani. The questionnaire exists in several language mutations (Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Slovene, and German), which are used for elicitation in the different contact languages of Central Romani.

Audio-recordings of spontaneous speech, especially narratives and conversations, in a large number of local varieties of Central Romani are another source of linguistic data. Samples of spontaneous speech are acquired during fieldwork, in speakers’ natural environment, especially from those speakers that also participated in the elicitation sessions. In addition, the research team can draw on an extensive archive of recordings of spontaneous speech from previous projects on Central Romani. The recordings, many of which have been transcribed, are archived in the digital Archive of the Seminar of Romani Studies of the Charles University in Prague. Several of the available recordings are the only linguistic documentation of now extinct varieties of Central Romani.

In addition to audio-recorded data, the project also draws on all relevant published sources: grammatical and lexical descriptions of Central Romani and text collections or individual texts in Central Romani. The inclusion of older publications adds a diachronic dimension to the project and makes it possible to take into account data from several Central Romani varieties that are now extinct. Given the dialectological nature of the project, only those published sources that describe or document well localized varieties of Central Romani are directly relevant.


FIELDWORK

Audio-recordings of elicited and spontaneous speech are acquired during a series of field trips to selected regions within the Central Romani area. Until now, the fieldwork has covered most Central Romani regions of Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine. In addition, there are several undocumented or seriously underdocumented regions within the Central Romani area, which need to be covered in the next years of the project such as Moravia (Moravian Romani), Eastern Ukraine (Plaščuno Romani), Prekmurje (Prekmurje Romani), and Burgenland (Burgenland Romani).

Navigation Bar

Department of Linguistics

Charles University, Faculty of Arts

 

Last update: November 25 2017, 12:03. Webmaster: Jan Křivan. Made with PSPad.