Glenna Waycaster

The project RomIdent is

nancially supported by the HERA

Joint Research Programme (www.

heranet.info) which is co-funded

by AHRC, AKA, DASTI, ETF, FNR,

FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST,

NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The

European Community FP7 2007-

2013, under the Socio-economic

Sciences and Humanities

programme.

Peter Bakker and Aymeric Daval-

Markussen (Aarhus University)

2013

Romani identity in Romani

language teaching materials:

Visual and linguistic aspects

http://romani.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/virtuallibrary

RomIdent Working Papers

Paper No.21

Romani identity in Romani language teaching materials: visual and linguistic aspects *

Peter Bakker and Aymeric Daval-Markussen

Aarhus University, Department of Aesthetics and Communication

Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................................... 1

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 2

1.1. Language of educational materials for Romani children ............................................................... 2

1.2. State language or Romani .......................................................................................................................... 2

2. Segregation or inclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 3

3. Romani books and language materials ......................................................................................................... 4

3.1. Romani book production ........................................................................................................................... 4

3.2 Language learning materials for adults ................................................................................................. 5

3.3. Catalogues of Romani educational materials ..................................................................................... 5

3.4. Schoolbooks and other printed materials in Romani ..................................................................... 5

3.4.1 Schoolbooks ............................................................................................................................................. 6

3.4.2 Dictionaries .............................................................................................................................................. 6

3.5. Central production of teaching frame ................................................................................................... 7

4. Schoolbooks and Romani reality ..................................................................................................................... 8

4.1. Romani identity in educational materials: imagery ........................................................................ 8

4.2. An example of images: depiction of Roma groups on a card set................................................. 9

4.2. Imagery in educational materials for children ................................................................................ 13

4.3. Romani identity in educational materials: choice of language .................................................. 16

5. Connections between imagery and language choice. ............................................................................ 18

5.1. Greece .............................................................................................................................................................. 18

5.2. Denmark ......................................................................................................................................................... 19

5.3. Rumania .......................................................................................................................................................... 21

5.4. Latvia ............................................................................................................................................................... 22

5.5. Lithuania ......................................................................................................................................................... 23

5.6. Sweden ............................................................................................................................................................ 24

5.7. Finland ............................................................................................................................................................. 26

5.8. Bulgaria ........................................................................................................................................................... 28

5.9. Germany ......................................................................................................................................................... 30

5.10. Austria, Burgenland ................................................................................................................................. 31

5.11. General remarks ....................................................................................................................................... 33

6. Discussion and conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 34

References ................................................................................................................................................................... 36

Abstract

The collection and cataloguing of educational materials in Romani in the framework of the

Romident project (HERA) on the role of language and identity among Roma has made it

possible to make a number of observations with regard to the depiction of a Romani identity

through the use of imagery – an essential part of schoolbooks – and language use. It appears

that ideological choices with regard to the role of the school and attitudes towards Romani

culture are typically reflected in visual images as well as the choice of language varieties.

Compilers of educational materials have made a range of different choices for images and

language varieties, which reflect a diversity of views on Romani education. These views range

from a romantic view of an idealized past to adjustment to wider society, to a view where

Roma do not come into the picture as a different group at all, in a modern world probably

close to the actual experience of the Romani children. The choice of language to be taught in

the classes for Roma children range from the state language, but adjusted to a Roma world, to

the simultaneous use of several varieties, a standardized language or a local variety only. The

images and language varieties reveal the ideologies of the compilers, but these choices do not

always point in the same direction.

1. Introduction

This study deals with the interaction of visual images in Romani language schoolbooks, and

the choice of Romani variety. We compare a number of Romani primers and readers with

regards to the pictures and the choice of the language in the book. First we will give some

background information. In section 2 we will deal briefly with the question of separate or

non-separate schools. In section 3 we provide background information on schoolbooks in the

Romani language, and in section 4 we will describe some of the options that are available for

depicting Roma. In section 5 an analysis follows of a selection of schoolbooks. Section 6

concludes the paper.

1.1. Language of educational materials for Romani children

When developing educational materials for Romani children, the first question to be solved is,

what language to choose? This choice has to be taken at two levels: should the language be

Romani, or the official language of the state or region? If one opts for the state language, or the

majority language, there is only one possibility, the standard language. All states have a

standardized form of their language, and non-state regions such as Catalonia and Wales also

have a centrally codified language in the school system.

If the developers of learning materials opt for Romani, when that is the mother

tongue of children, the choice is more complex. Do the authors use the local variety, a regional

variety, or an international variety – to the extent that such a variety can be identified. Even

though several authors have claimed to use some form of international Romani, it is a reality

that there is no universally accepted standard Romani (Matras 1999), and none of the

different competing forms for an international standard have gained wide acceptance (Matras

2005a, b). Below we will discuss among others a Romani textbook in the state language (in

Greek, from Greece), and two where a self-acclaimed standard form of Romani has been

chosen (Rumania, Denmark), as well as a range of other options in between, such as local

varieties or several varieties.

1.2. State language or Romani

Probably the vast majority of Romani children in the different school systems throughout

Europe receive schooling in the state language. This is true for all children who take part in

the regular school system, and also for those who attend segregated schools. Segregated

schools are often set up for disable children, but often Roma are routinely sent there.

In many countries, segregated schools for Romani children have been

established, often with the argument that Romani children are mentally behind the others.

Such schools existed, or still exist, in countries like Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia, but also

formerly in Denmark.

When teachers opt for the state language as the instruction language, they can

choose existing schoolbooks, developed for the general population. In the vast majority of

schools, such regular schoolbooks are used, without special considerations for children of

ethnic minorities. All teachers and educational specialists agree that it is important for all

citizens of a country, including national minority children, to have a good grasp of the state

language in its oral and written forms. Just learning the minority language Romani is not

sufficient in any society. On the other hand, most specialists in language education agree that

it is best when children receive schooling in their mother tongue, at the least in the early years

of schooling. Offering classes in languages other than the mother tongue is not optimal, but is

a potentially convenient solution when other options are difficult to realize. Clearly, the vast

majority of Romani children are in this situation: they have classes in a language which is not

their home language.

When teachers decide to develop special materials for teaching the state

language, of for teaching Romani, they have a special goal in mind. They are apparently

dissatisfied with the existing materials, perhaps because the depiction of life styles is alien to

the Romani children, and culturally inappropriate (see Hancock 2012 for some examples).

And choosing Romani as a language of instruction can help to facilitate the

acquisition of literacy. That is often an important reason for the development of teaching

materials in the mother tongue. Ideally their variety would be as close as possible to what is

spoken at home.

2. Segregation or inclusion

Increasing pressure from the EU is geared towards the cessation of these schools, under the

argumentation that people who differ from the mainstream ought to be included. It has also

been shown that such separate schools, nominally for children with mental disabilities,

routinely received a disproportionate number of Romani pupils. The curriculum is usually far

below the national standards, and the teachers were not always of appreciable quality. There

have in fact been cases of Romani pupils from these schools who have been able to shift to a

better quality school in time, and several have subsequently entered university. This shows

that the supposed "mental disability" was automatically applied to many Romani children.

Some court cases have forced governmental agencies to pay compensation to families for

substandard education, after Romani parents had sued the schools or school boards (see

Bakker 2006 for a brief discussion of separate schools; see also Halwachs et al. 2013 for a

recent overview of different models of segregation and inclusion, based on UNICEF's 2011

report). A survey conducted in 2001 shows how widespread this practice was (and there is no

reason to believe that it was limited to this country): "A specific feature of the Hungarian

situation is a high degree of segregation in schools and its knock-on effects for Roma children:

according to a survey carried out in 4000 primary schools in 2001, Roma children were

segregated in 700 classes mainly by means of remedial classes. In addition, a disproportionate

number of Roma children are still enrolled in schools for the disabled" (Committee of Experts

for "Charter", 2nd Report on Hungary, 2004). Some 17 % of Hungarian schools had special

classes for Romani pupils, on the basis of the assumption that the pupils were unable to follow

regular schooling because of mental or linguistic shortcomings (quoted in Halwachs et al.

2013: 33-34).

3. Romani books and language materials

Most Romani language learning materials are schoolbooks, i.e. printed materials intended for

use in classroom situations. In addition to those, there are also publications for language

learning and language use for different audiences.

Before treating those, we will have to briefly describe Romani book production

and distribution, which have to face special challenges, quite unique to the Romani situation.

3.1. Romani book production

Until around 1990, the production of books in Romani was very limited, taking the number of

Romani speakers into consideration – probably close to 4 millions. Except for a boom in the

Soviet Union in the 1920s-1930s, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia from the 1970s, and

occasional publications elsewhere, the number of printed materials in Romani was quite

restricted. An exponential increase followed from the 1990s on. The biggest impetus for

publications in Romani was probably the different publication programs initiated by the Open

Society Institute, operating out of Budapest, Hungary, which sponsored the production and

printing of many books in Romani, including educational materials. The subsidiary

organization Next Page Foundation sponsored the printing of some thirty books in Romani

between 2002 and 2007 in twelve countries, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe. Also other

Open Society organizations sponsored publications.

The hundreds of books produced in the past two decades, however, are often not

available through the distribution channels of regular booksellers. Rather, they are only

distributed locally, often by the author or a sponsor. This means that even this increase in

book production has not lead to a wider availability of said publications. Even those produced

by the Open Society are difficult to obtain and hard to find in libraries. Romani books are

rarely for sale in bookstores, and are only seldom found in book catalogues available to

bookstores and libraries. Some organizations have opted for an online distribution of

materials, but that still represents a minority.

Husic (2012) has described some of the headaches for librarians when they

attempt to add Romani books to their library collections. For instance, over a 1000 titles in

the central book catalogue were marked as being in Romani, with the ISO-code rom.

However, many of these appeared to be in Rumanian (or Romanian, in modern spelling in

English) or in Romansh, the Rhaeto-Roman language of Switzerland. Also, publications in

Latin, publications from Rome in Italy, and even publications in the Latin script, were

catalogued under the code for Romani.

These factors make it extremely difficult to establish the number of printed

works in Romani. A rough estimation would be several thousands monographs. In addition,

perhaps up to a 100 periodicals, have been initiated, but many of them were only short-lived.

These publications cover a wide range of fields, but in this study, we focus only on illustrated

language learning materials for children.

3.2 Language learning materials for adults

First, there are a number of language courses for adults, aimed at either speakers of the

language or at adult non-speakers who want to learn the language, be they Roma who did not

grow up with Romani, or outsiders with a desire or need to learn the language, including

potential teachers in Romani communities, aid workers or human rights activists. Some

examples of such language courses are Barthélémy (no year), Franzese (1980) and Lee

(2005).

There are also very few conversation guides of the kind "how to say it in…". The

best example here is Heinschink & Krasa (2004, 2009), intended for German speakers and

including both a book and a CD. A French adaptation was prepared by Medo Gurbetovski and

published in France in 2010 (Heinschink & Krasa 2010). Other examples are Jovanović (2000 ,

Serbian and English), Grigore (2000, Rumanian), Sară u (2000, Rumanian) and Cioabă (2001,

Rumanian). These are also intended for adults, either tourists who visit Romani settlements or

households. Others are language courses for people who want to learn the language for social

or professional reasons, or to add a linguistic aspect to their Romani identity.

The vast majority of language-learning materials are intended for children, and

for use in school situations.

3.3. Catalogues of Romani educational materials

Several lists of Romani educational materials have been compiled and made available. Bakker

(2001) listed mostly ABC books. Bakker & Kyuchukov (2003) included also other types of

materials such as dictionaries, text collections and grammars. Their collection covers all

materials that could be profitable to teachers. Proctor (2008) is a compilation of sources and

resources for people who want to learn Romani. It covers a wide selection of materials from a

wide range of dialects, focusing on materials that are relatively easy to obtain and that are of

relatively good quality. Valentin (2009/2011) compiled a list for the Swedish Language

Council, which contained ABC books, biographical texts, nonfiction texts, ethnographic

materials, grammars, teaching materials, mathematics books, dictionaries, religious texts,

collections of texts, including fiction and oral traditions, poetry and songs, and materials for

learning to read. His materials are comprehensive for Scandinavian countries, but not limited

to those: the list covers especially Finnish Romani, Lovari, Kalderash, Traveller language

(Scandoromani), but also other varieties. Audio and video productions from Scandinavia are

also listed.

On the basis of these catalogues, we estimate that the number of educational

titles intended for children of early school age is over a hundred.

3.4. Schoolbooks and other printed materials in Romani

In recent decades, the number of educational materials available in Romani has increased

dramatically. Bakker (2001a) listed around 30 schoolbooks for teaching Romani available at

the time in the European Union. In 2013, the number is estimated to be over 100. The real

number is certainly higher, because many materials are produced locally and are thus not

readily available outside the school context or local community.

Schoolbooks are not the only types of materials produced in Romani. We

estimated that over 1000 books have been produced in Romani during the past decade - this

number does not take into account scholarly books about Romani (see Bakker & Matras 2003

for a bibliography of scholarly work on Romani, both monographs and articles). Publications

in Romani include books on medicine and hygiene, including dental care (Pavlović 1995),

collections of proverbs, legends and folktales (e.g. Heinschink et al 2006), cookbooks (e.g.

Horváthová et al. 1998, Oláhová 2000), books on nutrition, on dealing with drugs and alcohol,

biographies (e.g. Kovacheva 2001), children's books, poetry, local history books, songbooks

and theatre plays (e.g. Kruezi 2009).

While some of the oral text collections were made by and for academics for

language study, sometimes as part of a grammar, the vast majority of these publications were

geared towards a readership in the Romani community. In many cases, several goals were

sought. Apart from the goal of the spread of information contained in the books, some of the

materials were no doubt intended to enhance the prestige of Romani, and the stimulation of

Romani as a written language. The readership may have been limited to very small groups.

Some publications in Romani have even been called 'emblematic' (Matras 1999) in the sense

that the mere existence of printed books (including religious Christian and Islamic materials

such as Bible translations and Qur'an publications in Romani) had a tremendous impact, and

enhances feelings of pride of the language. Nevertheless, many readers opted for the other

language in a bilingual edition. Roma who have been schooled in a language other than

Romani, often prefer to read the text in the other language, not Romani, as they are more used

to the state language when dealing with written languages.

The materials have also been used by Roma to learn written Romani, and

especially young Roma have familiarized themselves with written forms of the Romani

language, and in some cases it stimulated them to write in the language themselves. The more

spontaneous use of written Romani, for instance in Romani chatrooms, comments on Youtube

videos and the like, as studied by Viktor Leggio, also suggest that some of the writers are

familiar with other forms of written Romani. The use of letter symbols not present in their

mother tongue, or letters with special sound values (for instance <x> for a velar fricative,

rather than a /ks/ sequence), could be indicative of this.

3.4.1 Schoolbooks

Many states have directly supported the production of schoolbooks in Romani, sometimes

covering costs for the development, sometimes the printing costs. Examples of state-

supported school books can be found in Bulgaria (books produced by Hristo Kyuchukov 1993,

1995), Denmark (Kruezi's school books, 2003a, b), Finland (e.g. Vuolasranta 1995), Rumania

(books produced by Gheorghe Sar ău and his team (e.g. 2002) and Michaela Zătreanu, 2003),

Sweden (several books published by Skolverket, the Swedish National School Board). In other

cases, local support was given.

3.4.2 Dictionaries

The production of wordlists for Romani goes back to the 16th century, when curious

Europeans such as Johannes ex Grafing (Knauer 2010), Van Ewsum and Vulcanius collected

word lists from Roma in Western Europe (Moorman 2002). In later periods, it was mostly

scholars with a more academic interest who produced Romani dictionaries.

Romani dictionaries for a Romani audience are fairly uncommon yet. For

instance, no monolingual Romani dictionary exists. Existing printed Romani dictionaries are

all bilingual, i.e. Romani to the state language (sometimes including other important

languages), or the other way around, or both directions.

The Internet opened up for infinite possibilities, and a number of dictionaries

and word lists have been produced and made available online. In this respect the collection of

electronic dictionaries produced under the auspices of Romlex (ht tp://romani.uni-

graz.at/romlex/) based in Graz (Austria) with input from Manchester and Aarhus, should be

mentioned. More than 25 varieties of Romani are included, with more than 15 source (or

target) languages. The words from all Romani varieties can be translated into English and

German, and the other way around, and for almost all varieties additional target or source

languages are available. This resource thus generates a potential number of 80 bilingual

dictionaries. All Romani varieties included have translation possibilities into the major state

languages in which they are spoken. A fuzzy search system enables users to find forms spelled

in different ways in Romani, and another option allows a search for parts of words, including

word-medial ones.

When we limit our discussion to dictionaries produced for educational purposes,

we can distinguish several types. Some have been produced to assist Romani teachers, both in

an effort to provide standard spellings of words, and to provide words they may not be

familiar with. Teachers may or may not be native speakers of Romani, and native speakers are

never familiar with all the words in the language. Some dictionaries also contain neologisms,

especially when they were compiled on the basis of existing word lists, and the compilers

wanted to avoid loanwords. A few Romani dictionaries have been produced especially for

children, including picture dictionaries, and also several primers contain word lists.

3.5. Central production of teaching frame

The Council of Europe developed a Common European Framework of Reference for Languages

in order to have standards of reference for foreign language teaching in Europe. This

framework was a basis for a number of projects that sought to develop language-teaching

materials. Based on earlier experiences with language teaching, the Council of Europe and the

European Roma and Travellers Forum developed a Curriculum Framework for Romani (CFR),

which is a general model that allows curriculum developers to devise graded teaching

materials. Following their guidelines, curriculum materials were developed by teachers from

a number of European countries for schools for six varieties spoken in different parts of

Europe. Academic specialists in the Romani language and education cooperated with Romani

teachers to develop European Language Portfolio Models (ELPs) for Romani, with different

levels for different stages, according to EU norms of level of achievement. This was an

important step into the professionalization of Romani language education at the European

level – the most appropriate level because the Roma are a minority residing in all countries of

Europe.

(see http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Rom_CuFrRomani2008_EN.pdf)

The project Quality Education in Romani for Europe (QUALIROM) pilots the corresponding

European Language Portfolio Models (ELPs) and develops learning materials for several levels,

in a Europe-wide cooperation project. The end result will likely be a new generation of

educational materials for Romani for European schools.

In the next section we will deal with the possibilities that compilers of textbooks

have with regards to language choice and choice of pictures. After that, a sample of

schoolbooks will be investigated in order to find out to which extent the choices of the

compilers correspond to the child's own world.

4. Schoolbooks and Romani reality

Before embarking on the themes described in Romani schoolbooks, we need to provide a brief

overview of the contents of schoolbooks in the non-Romani world.

Schoolbooks intended for language learning have generally been written in such

a way that they reflect some form of reality. The background may refer to the home situation,

the school situation and children's activities, with their school, their family or with other

children.

The description of the home situation in schoolbooks has undergone changes in

recent decades. Especially in the 20th century, they may depict core families in which father

goes to work, reads the newspaper when he comes home, and mother is at home for

household tasks such as providing food and taking care of the children, painting a world that

is perhaps more ideological than realistic. For many non-Western cultures, for instance, the

extended family with several generations interacting, is more realistic than a core family. This

is also true for many Roma. Already in the latter part of the 20th century, more diversity was

introduced into many textbooks. Children with other skin colors, different distributions of

household tasks and out-of-house jobs for the different genders, other family constellations,

etc., have entered the scene, in an attempt to create an openness for household forms that do

not consist of core families.

Apart from the external world, schoolbooks may refer to life at school, where

classrooms and school activities are depicted, buildings and surroundings, travelling from

home to school, playground activities in the school breaks and the like. Activities in free time

may include everyday activities such as visits to the stores or markets, transportation, sports,

entertainment (including television), handling of pets and more special activities such as

visits to the zoo, swimming pools, visits to farms and meeting farm animals, consults with a

physician, visit to grandparents and other members of the extended families, birthday parties

etc. Also the physical environment may be depicted, including the home, a village-like or city-

like environment and the streets, parks, playgrounds and stores.

The questions that come to mind in this connection when we think of Roma, is to

what extent such a depiction reflects the world of most Romani children. Is their life also

depicted in Romani schoolbooks, or rather a different reality? Do children really like to read

about their day-to-day reality, or rather about fantastic events? If schoolbooks describe a

reality that is closer to Roma experiences, one can also wonder whether such books describe

the reality of the children's world, or a more romantic view of a "Gypsy life", as it once was, or

was imagined to have been in the past. For instance horse-drawn wagons may be shown for

groups where these are not part of reality, or perhaps only in a distant past. One may also

wonder whether children in general, and Romani children in particular, rather read about

their own reality, or a fantasy world with supernatural humans, aliens, speaking animals,

fictional beings and exotic places and peoples. As we will see, some developers of children's

books have opted for the latter.

4.1. Romani identity in educational materials: imagery

In connection with the kind of world is depicted in schoolbooks (the children's daily life, or a

real-world scenario that is to some extent foreign to the children, or a fantasy world), the

question of identity in schoolbooks surfaces. It is of course difficult to generalize here, as the

world of these children will be quite different from one community to another.

Most Romani children will have classes together with non-Romani children in

mainstream schools. Schoolbooks in Romani or in other languages intended for special

Romani classes (e.g. mother tongue teaching, Sunday schools, home teaching) will most often

be used not in full-time schools where all teaching takes place in Romani, but in special

classes, within or outside the regular school curriculum. They will also have classes together

with non-Roma children.

School materials could depict a Romani world that is romantic and hence

unrealistic. Such texts and images would be overwhelmingly or exclusively positive. Ideally

school materials for Roma would also be culturally appropriate, and not show taboo subjects,

or behavior that would be against cultural values. On the other hand, boundaries can be

shifted by showing different values as well. There are many different traditions among Roma

groups, and the values in one group can differ from those in other groups. School materials

may also depict a non-Roma world, or a world in which Roma and non-Roma coexist and

interact. All such choices have an impact on the reception of the educational materials.

4.2. An example of images: depiction of Roma groups on a card set.

The Albanian Romani Ferdinand Koçi has drawn the images for a card game devised for

Romani children (Koçi 2002) . If we look at these drawings, we can see a wide range of cultural

aspects of different Roma groups. For Roma subgroups (British Romanichels, Spanish Gitanos,

Finnish Kaalos, Kalderasha (coppersmiths), Meckari (Balkan handworkers), Ursari (bear

leaders) and Xoraxane (Muslims), cards show different family members: mother, father, son,

daughter, grandfather, grandmother.

Many Roma and people dealing with Romani history and culture, will be able to

associate these pictures with certain groups or regions. We have chosen six pictures to

illustrate how the images are limited with certain groups, in order to show that the Roma are

not a homogenous group at all. They share a language (although some groups have lost it), a

common descent in South Asia and an overall feeling of belonging to a Roma nation – even

though Roma feel much more closely connected to their own group than to other groups of

Roma. But the many differences are obvious.

Ill. 1. A Kalderash grandmother with a child

(a) Illustration 1 shows a picture of a Kalderash woman with a child. The adult is dressed in a

traditional colorful long skirt and has her hair in braids and her head covered. She follows the

traditional dress code for her group. In the background one can see tents, as still used by a

minority of peripatetic Kalderash groups in Rumania, but quite rare nowadays.

Ill. 2. Balkan bear leader (Ursari)

(b) This picture shows a bear leader (Ursari), leading a dancing bear. This was a tradition

followed by groups sometimes called Ursari, or bear leaders, in Southeastern Europe and

Turkey. In the 1800s and 1900s these groups sometimes ventured into Western Europe as

well. However, in the past few decades these practices have disappeared almost completely,

mostly because of regulations regarding the treatment of animals. Most former dancing bears

are now kept in sanctuaries.

Ill. 3. Gitano woman

(c) This picture shows a flamenco dancer with a guitar player in the background. The

landscape suggests that the scene takes place in the entrance of a cave. There is no doubt that

this depicts Spanish Gitanos. The Gypsies in Spain are considered to be the ones who

developed the special style of music and dance associated with flamenco. In flamenco texts,

occasionally Caló (Romani) words are interspersed in the Andalucian Spanish lyrics. The long

dresses for the women can be seen as characteristic, and the style of male clothing of the

guitar player as well.

In one or two communities, the Gitanos did live in caves, as in the famous

Sacromonte neighbourhood in Granada, but in modern times the caves are almost all hidden

by houses and stone stuctures that cover the entrances. It should also be mentioned that

flamenco is not limited to Gitanos, but very much part of the traditional culture of the Spanish

in Andalucia, and Andalucians considered flamenco a part of their Spanish heritage as well. A

reasonable number of southern Spaniards have inherited some Indian genetic markers from

their Gitano ancestors. In other words, the people depicted on the card represent southern

Spain rather than specifically Gitanos, and the cave scene is representative only for a small

minority of the group.

Ill. 4. British Romanichel Gypsies

(d) This picture shows a father and a boy in what one could say are mass-produced clothes

from stores. The couple look at the motor of a car. Car trade, repair and demolition is a

profession that was quite widespread in Europe among the Roma (and still is in some parts).

In the background one can see a horse and some caravans. The horses suggest horse trade,

the caravans are reminiscent of old-style caravans in Britain. The different components

suggest that British Angloromanies are depicted, which is indeed the case.

Ill. 5. Xoraxane Turkish Romani man, Balkans

(e) The next picture depicts a man, perhaps a seller of ropes at a market. In the background a

woman can be seen selling baskets. The dress, including the headscarf, is quite typical for

traditional Muslim women in Turkey and the Balkans, nowadays mostly limited to older

women.

Ill. 6. Finnish Romani man

(f) The final picture depicts a man in a dwelling or office, with a telephone. The many pictures

on the wall suggest a deep interest in horses, perhaps he is a horse trader. He has a calculator

and writing materials on his table. This makes it more difficult to associate him with a

particular group or region, but a reasonable guess would be Britain. In fact he is a Finnish

Kaalo. His dress code, however, is different from what is considered appropriate among

traditional Finnish Kaalo, with light shirts and dark jackets. Appropriate clothing or behavior

in some groups may be inappropriate for others.

The pictures show that the cards sometimes tend to depict extremely rare examples, even

though the image may part of the stereotype (e.g. the Gitano dancers in caves), or overly

generalized images, or even culturally inappropriate for some subgroups (Finnish Romani

clothing). These pictures not only provide a glimpse in the historical cultural diversity of the

Romani people, but they also show that the scenes depicted in the images can often be

associated with certain regions or certain subgroups of the Roma, and in some cases with

certain groups only.

The same is true for non-material differences, in that musical styles differ

strongly between regions and groups, and different varieties of the Romani language are

typical for the different groups. Some traditions fare in some groups, and they may directly

oppose traditions in other groups. What is taboo one place, is part of the culture elsewhere.

The dynamics of the Romani culture, caused in some cases a degree of isolation from other

groups, is reflected in the different traditions, which are adjusted to local circumstances.

For a depiction of Roma in a study of Romani identity, one must therefore

distinguish between the different groups and subgroups. It would make as little sense to

display, say English Romanichals with Kalderash clothing and hair style, as it would be to

show Hungarians or Danes in Saami traditional clothing.

4.2. Imagery in educational materials for children

There is quite a deal of variation between the quantity and quality of imagery in schoolbooks.

Take for example two ABC books published in Latvia in a four-year interval, and compiled by

the same author.

The 1992 ABC book (Mānuš 1992, Ill. 7) was produced in a very simple way. It

uses the Russian alphabet, and there is only one page displaying a few simple illustrations, as

shown in illustration 8. Russian words are also used, presumably in order to facilitate reading

the Romani words, as in the top and sides of the illustration, and on the cover (Ill. 7 and 9).

Ill. 7. Cover of a 1992 ABC book from Latvia

Ill. 8. Illustration in the 1992 ABC book from Latvia (Mānuš 1992)

Ill. 9. Page from the 1992 ABC book from Latvia (Mānuš 1992) , with Russian words (in

squares) and Romani words in the Cyrillic alphabet

In 1996, an ABC book beautifully illustrated in full-colour was published by the same author

(Mānuš 1996). The cover is presented on Ill. 10. This time the Latin alphabet is used. The

illustrations in the book depict a rather traditional life, and the absence of non-Roma is

conspicuous throughout the book in the visual materials. The cover picture is quite

illustrative of some of the rest of the contents.

Ill. 10. Cover of the 1996 ABC book from Latvia compiled by the same author

In contrast to the segregated world in the illustrations in the Latvian book discussed above, a

Romani language primer published in Denmark shows a world in which Romani and non-

Romani children share their school world. This choice is not mentioned explicitly in the text,

but it is clear from the illustrations alone that the Romani learners visit a prototypical school.

The illustrations were especially produced for this book, in a somewhat naïve drawing style.

This can be seen on the cover (Ill. 10), and elsewhere in the book. The cover picture shows the

Romani flag and the Danish flag.

These pictures show some of the choices that compilers of textbooks make. We

will get back to both of these books below in sections 5.2 and 5.4, in a comparison with other,

similar textbooks.

Ill. 11. Cover of a Danish ABC book (Kruezi 2003b)

4.3. Romani identity in educational materials: choice of language

The use of the different varieties of Romani in Romani materials has been the subject of

several detailed studies, which we will summarize here. With regard to illustrations, we will

also analyze the choices made by the compiler.

In almost all cases, educational materials have been produced for a more or less

local market, be it the Roma community of a particular town, or a group, or a region or

country, or perhaps even an international market. Only rarely have these books been

intended to be accessible to all Romani-speaking groups. Perhaps the only ones with that goal

are some publications written in a spelling system which was discussed at the Conference of

the International Romani Union in Warszawa, and devised by Marcel Courthiade (see Matras

2005a, b and Husic 2011 for different views on the history of this alphabet). This writing

system has been used in a few European Union publications (e.g. the children's books by Hill

1994a, 1994b, 1995), a dictionary (Courthiade 2009), a few publications from the Kosovo (e.g.

Krasnić i 2001), Spain (Gonzalez & Ortega 2011), Macedonia and Albania (mentioned in Matras

2005b) and almost all publications produced in Rumania since the 1990s. In any case all those

materials produced under the responsibility of the Rumanian Ministry of Education had to be

published in this alphabet (see Sară u 2009 for an overview of activities; the author was

himself the main agent in these activities). There are several levels in which this supra-

dialectal writing system is designed to function. Ideally, it would be a writing system adequate

for all dialects. For that purpose a few graphemes have been designed to denote one phoneme

in some varieties, and another in other varieties, so that all Romani users can read it as in

their dialect. Another aspect of the design is the use of a few letters in case endings that are

pronounced differently depending on the preceding phoneme. In this area, all Romani dialects

behave in the same way, but the letter is a more abstract unit, an "archiphoneme",

pronounced voiced or voiceless depending on its environment. We are aware of no other

writing system where such a system exists. But these writing conventions of speech sounds

provide no solution for the fact that the there are also lexical differences between dialects. In

general, different words can be used, depending on the variety of the writer.

The question can thus be asked: is this a mere writing system that can be applied

to any Romani variety, or is this a standard variety? In some cases, older Romani texts have

been republished following the older texts quite strictly (e.g. Nicolă escu-Plopş or 's texts from

the 1930s, republished in 1997), except for the spelling – which would suggest it is just a

spelling system. The room left for lexical choice seems to indicate a pluralistic view – although

in practice the texts contain quite a few neologisms that are not always transparent. In its

ideology, however, it is a standard language.

As this writing system has never really caught on, despite fervent attempts, and

as there has been only a few publication using this system in recent years outside Rumania, it

needs no detailed discussion. We will analyse one of the ABC books using this spelling below

in 5.3.

When a decision is made to write Romani, the first question to ask is, which

alphabet is appropriate? It may sound obvious to use the Latin alphabet, but as the Romani

language is also used in Greece (Greek alphabet) and in countries where the Cyrillic alphabet

(e.g. Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Ukraine, Russia) is used, this is not obvious. In practice,

however, the Latin alphabet appears to be preferred. In no countries in which the Latin

alphabet prevails have Romani writers chose to use the Cyrillic or Greek alphabet, but the

opposite has happened. Some educational materials published in Bulgaria, for instance, use

the Latin alphabet for Romani (e.g. the material for Romani children produced by Kyuchukov

between 1993 and 2001, even though he started with Cyrillic script).

Once an alphabet is chosen, the choice is open whether one adopts the alphabet

of one of the local languages and uses it as it is, or whether one adjusts the writing system to

the sound system of Romani. Romani has a number of distinctive phonemes that are not found

in European languages, notably the aspirated stops (ker "do", kher "house", pen "speak", phen

"sister"). Authors with experience in only one writing system, may not be aware of some of

the essential distinctions, and may neglect using different symbols for the different phonemes.

We are not aware of writing systems where distinctive aspiration was not indicated, but it is

not always used consistently (see Friedman 1995, 1997, 1999 for Macedonia, and

Hübschmannová 1995 for the Czech Republic).

In most cases, the existing alphabet will be modified, by using extra letters for

phonemic distinctions. These can be digraphs (e.g. <ch> for the phoneme /tʃ/, or a letter

modified by a diacritic sign, as in <č>, or a letter which is part of the Latin alphabet but which

is not used for the Latin value of the letter, thus <q> is used for /č/, not /kw/. If the phoneme

/č /is written as in the local languages, it may be written <tj> in Denmark and the Netherlands,

<ch> in Britain, <tch> in France, <tx> in the Basque Country, <cs> in Hungary, <c> in

Rumanian and Italian (before front vowels), and <tsch> in Germany. That is not a very

practical solution for an international orientation of publications. If the same sound is written

differently, or if certain letter signs would be pronounced differently in different regions for

the same language, is not ideal.

In the next section, we will discuss the choices made by the authors and

compilers, and we will discuss possible links between the choice of the language and the

selected imagery, as both supposedly reflect a certain identity, for instance a strictly local

Romani group, or one which is part of the broader Romani world, as well as a choice for

including non-Roma or not.

5. Connections between imagery and language choice.

The choice of imagery is closely connected to the choice of language, or language variety. We

will illustrate this on the basis of a number of educational books. In a Romani conversation

guide published in Serbia in 2000 (Jovanovič 2000), the Serbian language is not written in

Cyrillic but in Latin script, and the images show photographs of attractive young Roma

wearing sunglasses with cars and motorcycles in urban settings, suggestive of a modern

lifestyle, symbolized by the choice of a non-local alphabet, and the choice of English as an

added international language in a trilingual book. The Romani variant used in the book shows

mostly traits of Southern Vlax dialects, but with some Arli (Balkan) traits as well, suggesting a

choice for more superregional identity rather than a strict personal variant or a variety

belonging to one subgroup. In fact, the author thinks and hopes his choice will contribute to a

standardized variety, when he writes in his preface:

"Each recorded variant of any of the Roma dialects brings the Romany language closer

to the standardisation that is aimed at, which means closer to the forming of a common

language of all Romas. This is also the final purpose of this book" (Jovanovič 2000).

This provides a realistic example of what is going on in the Romani community at

large. Individual writers feel inspired by other texts they know in Romani, and in other

spoken varieties, and they may use a system they think reaches most people. We can expect

these varieties to converge, and perhaps eventually to merge, perhaps, but it is impossible to

say what the time frame would be.

We will now use a number of children's books as illustrations for the mutual

interaction of the choice of images and the choice of language variety. The choice of books is

inspired more by a desire to show examples from the whole spectrum, rather than to attempt

and provide a complete list, or a balanced sample.

5.1. Greece

One Romani community in Greece produced a textbook in the Greek language aimed at

Romani children (Vasiliadou & Pavli-Korre, 1992. ill. 12). The imagery, however, makes clear

that the book is intended for Roma children. Some of the recurring persons have stereotypical

traits of Roma. Otherwise, the book is quite typical of the genre of a primer, with examples of

the letters, drawing exercises, fill-in tasks, etc. (see ill. 13).

Ill. 12. Cover of a primer in Greek for Romani children

Ill. 13. Sample page from the Greek primer

5.2. Denmark

In 4.2 above, we discussed a language-learning book from Denmark, where the cover (Ill. 11)

showed a school building with a Danish flag (red with a white cross) and a Romani flag (green

and blue with a red wheel in the middle). The variety used in this book, and other books

written by the author shows his intention to use an international variety, maximally

intelligible for as many people as possible (Kruezi, p.c.). The language is clearly influenced by

the author's native Arli variety from the Kosovo (Balkan Romani). In short, it is to some extent

dialectal but obvious dialectal traits are avoided. The spelling strategy used is, according to

the author, a system developed and approved at a meeting in Prizren. It is maximally simple

in that no diacritics or unusual symbols are used, but only the 25 letters of the Latin alphabet.

Specifically Romani phonemes are indicated by digraphs (ch, sh, dy, ny), and the letter <q> is

used for the phoneme /tʃ / . Thus it can be produced on any typewriter or computer, without

the hassle of special actions needed for typing letters with diacritics. The writing system is

clearly international, not only because of the choice of the Latin alphabet, but also the clear

European, international orientation. The author explains: "Akaya pustik garantinela may uqe

Evropako standardi ano siklovipe kote e Romengo siklovipe anela yekh e yaver themyenge

siklenca", or "This book guarantees a higher European standard in teaching, and teaching of

the Roma will bring Romani teaching to pupils from a range of countries with pupils", clearly

motivating the international intentions of his orientation.

ill. 14. A page from the primer from Denmark (Kruezi 2003b)

From a visual point of view, the illustrations are clearly recognizable for Roma and

non-Roma. Both groups of pupils can identify with the illustrations, which include outdoor

family activities, a range of hair colors (i.e. mixed classes), a visit to the hospital (ill. 14) and

fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood. Likewise, the choice of the Latin alphabet is

intended to make it accessible as broadly as possible. Thus the language has an international

orientation, with some local flavor. In the preface and on the website (no longer accessible in

2013) alternative words are sometimes given in order to make the text accessible to speakers

of different dialects, or to provide explanations for neologisms and other unusual words, as in

this quote: "Akaya pustik si hramimi e 25 hramardenca (harfi, slovo, bukva, germa) kolenca

hraminyola e Romani qhib" ("This book is written with the 25 letters [four equivalents of the

same meaning are given, including Slavonic-derived slovo] with which the Romani language

can be written" ). Linguistically, the author clearly has international ambitions. With the use of

a spelling system that is reportedly collectively approved, the goals of the book are clearly

beyond the local circles who discussed and approved it. Visually, a social world is depicted

which is recognizable for different ethnic groups, and which is inspired by a non-

segregationist attitude.

5.3. Rumania

A large number of educational materials have been produced in Rumania. Zătreanu (2000,

cover on ill. 15) is an example of a primer in the special alphabet discussed in 4.3. The

illustrations blend school life, everyday activities, special events such as a visit to the zoo, and

a blend of Roma and non-Roma on the images, some with traditional trades, others showing

the modern world (ill. 16), or a fantasy world with anthropomorphic animals.

The choice for what is meant to be an international variety is reflected in the images,

which shows a non-segregated world.

Ill. 15. Cover of a primer from Rumania

Ill. 16. Page from the Rumanian primer.

5.4. Latvia

We already mentioned above in 4.2 two textbooks from Latvia, where a picture of the cover

was shown (ill. 10). The images used in the 1996 primer from Latvia (Mānuš 1996) show

quite a few images with Roma, and the images are rather stereotypical with horse-drawn

carts strolling along rural roads and through forests, with happy Roma dancing around a fire,

and the like. It is as if a disappeared world is shown, strongly romanticized as an idyllic and

ideal world, without the presence of urban centers, non-Roma, motorized vehicles and other

amenities of modern life. Such an image may have an effect on children that their own

situation has worsened since the days described in the book, or that they are not "real" Roma

if they do not live such a life. Other pictures in the same book, however, also show other

aspects of the world. Thus, the same page may show a Roma woman in a traditional dress, and

a couple of bottles of medicine (see ill. 17).

Ill. 17. A page from the Latvian textbook (Mānuš 1996)

The language used is the specific main dialect of Latvia. One specifically Latvian letter

<ļ> is used. The linguistic identity is quite clearly local, and this is also mentioned in the book:

"amé sam Lotfítka Romá" (p. 58), "we are Latvian Roma". Cultural information is also given,

e.g. the Roma flag is discussed, and poems from local poets are included in the textbook, as

well as historical information.

In short, the cultural and linguistic choice in the book is regional, mostly but not

exclusively Romani-specific in the verbal information. Some of the pictures hardly depict a life

close to the realities of the children, whereas others show objects and situations familiar to

the children.

5.5. Lithuania

The number of Roma in Lithuania is quite small, both proportionally and absolutely - around

2000 Roma live in Lithuania, which represents less than 1% of the total population, even

though the real number may be twice or three times as high (Šukevičiūtė & Bakker forthc.).

Ill. 18. The cover of a primer from Lithuania

In 2006, Romani teachers produced the first schoolbook in Romani (ill. 18), mostly for the

small community of Roma living in a neighborhood of the capital city, Vilnius. The contents of

the book clearly depict Roma content, for instance women following the local dress code, a

picture of the Roma flag, etc. Further we can see wagons, family activities, and the like, beside

pictures of family life. In 2006, Roma were living mostly in shantytowns on the outskirts of

Vilnius. There is no clear presence of non-Roma in the imagery, except perhaps for some of

the school children.

Linguistically, the spelling used is based on international conventions, which are close

to the set of letters in use for Lithuanian, where the hacek is used as a diacritical sign. Some

modifications are inspired by Lithuanian, such as the indication of vowel length by a bar on

top of long vowels. When words are used in the textbook, they are given in both Romani and

Lithuanian, facilitating language learning in both directions.

In short, the authors of this primer have an "internal" orientation, focusing on the

Roma only, and the life depicted is influenced by more or less romantic images of Romani life,

combining the past with the present.

5.6. Sweden

In Sweden, an impressive number of schoolbooks and different types of literature has been

published in several Romani varieties, including both translations and original work. Romani

has been a recognized minority language there since 1999.

The first Romani teaching book appeared in 1979, and was reprinted in 1982

(Scherp 1982), as one of the first of its kind. The Swedish state has recognized "Romani Chib"

in all its varieties as one of its minority languages, and provided the possibility for some

television and radio programs. In addition, Skolverket, the National Board of Education, has

facilitated, produced and/or published several dozens of books in a handful of varieties of

Romani. Other Swedish publishing houses, such as Podium , have also published books in

Romani over the years.

An early example of a Romani primer from Sweden is Amare Anglune Betivura

("Our first letters"), published in 1996 (Berta & Kuzhikov 1996). The cover shows the interior

of a building, presumably a school, with a young Romani woman. Five wheels are placed in the

top of the picture as a symbol of the Roma and in order to decorate the cover. The images in

the book consist exclusively of drawings. The drawings show a variety of objects, ranging

from school-related objects to pictures of Royalty and food. Both modern and traditional

objects are shown (see Ill. 20). There are also drawings of events, such as family gatherings. It

also shows a map of Sweden indicating where significant numbers of Roma have settled. One

goal is stated in the book as "te na bistren pengo romanipe", or "in order not to forget their

own language". The book was made for a specific group, namely Swedish Lovari children, and

is to be used in connection with mother tongue education.

In short, the book shows both Romani and non-Romani content, and a mixture of

Romani-specific and more general texts, including traditional Romani stories, and a brief

history. No "Swedish" letters like <å, ö> are used, and a more international spelling is used,

with diacritics as used elsewhere. The language used is the Lovari dialect, with little or no

adjustments.

Ill. 19. The cover of a Swedish primer

Ill. 20. A page from the Swedish primer

5.7. Finland

In Finland, Romani (locally called Kaalo, from the Romani word for "dark, black" ) , is a

constitutionally recognized minority language. Government agencies have assisted in the

publication of dictionaries, educational materials, songbooks, and more. Already in the 1980s,

the first learning materials were produced (Koivisto 1982, 1987), and in the 1990s, many

more materials were published. Among them, an ABC book (Vuolasranta 1995), which will be

discussed in more detail here.

The cover shows a Romani extended family enjoying free time (ill. 21). The women are

dressed in the traditional long skirts typical of Finnish Romani women. The men have a less

conspicuous dress code, but recognizable for the close observer, with usually white shirts,

impeccable shoes and a certain hairstyle. Even though non-Roma are also depicted in the

book, the Finnish Roma dominate the visual material, as can be expected.

The environment is close to the reality of Finnish Romani children: modern buildings,

cars, houses, schools, offices, nature, family members, including a woman working in an office

(ill. 22). In rare cases a more romantic picture is shown, with a horse and a wagon. Clearly, the

author and illustrator have opted for a visual imagery with which the Finnish Romani children

can easily identify.

The Finnish Romani language is influenced by Finnish, especially in the phonology (see

e.g. Granqvist 1999a, 1999b), after many centuries of bilingualism. Therefore, there is

considerable overlap between the sound systems of the two languages, and in this book (like

in other publications in the same variety), the spelling system used is close to that of Finnish,

with some adjustments to the <c, h, j, s, z> to which a hajek is added. Like in Finnish (and

some other Romani varieties), vowel length is distinctive in Finnish Romani, and long vowels

are written with two consecutive vowels (e.g. <ee>, <ii>), like in Finnish. As the Finnish Roma

have been fairly isolated from other groups, except from those in Scandinavia, the language

has undergone some developments that, though clearly Romani, make it a quite distinctive

variety of Romani. Also, almost all Finnish Roma reside either in Finland or in Sweden; they

are not spread through a wide geographical area. Therefore, the Finnish-based spelling that

the author has opted for is perfectly justifiable.

Ill. 21. The cover of a textbook for Finnish Romani (Vuolasranta 1995)

Ill. 22. A page from a primer for Finnish Romani (Vuolasranta 1995), showing a Kaalo woman

in an office environment

5.8. Bulgaria

In the 1990s, when it became possible to teach Romani in the public school system, a number

of schoolbooks were produced, some through the Ministry of Education, others through

private foundations. Hristo Kyuchukov was instrumental in the production of most of these.

A small series of schoolbooks were produced under the title Amari Romani Lumja "Our

Romani World" (Kyuchukov 1997, 2000, 2001a, b). The booklets are quite diverse, and we

take the first book in this series as an example. These are not ABC books, but readers,

provid ing texts of a different kind. Kyuchukov (1997) presents a number of very simple

poems or short songs, usually with the name of the author, and if the name is not known, the

country of provenience is given. The alphabet chosen is not the Cyrillic alphabet, the only

alphabet used for the Bulgarian language, but the Latin alphabet. This is a conscious choice for

an international orientation. The spelling used is uniform, in that the same diacritics are used

as in international conventions for the special characters, but they are not used consistently.

Ill. 23. The cover a reader from Bulgaria (Kyuchukov 1997)

The picture of the cover (ill. 23) shows two children watching a building, presumably a school.

The boy's hat and the girl's long skirt suggest that they are Roma children. The back covers

shows a horse-drawn cart and a dancing bear, with Roma musicians and dancers. The pictures

in this richly illustrated book show a completely rural life, with children playing happily in

green fields, surrounded by friendly farm animals. Non-Roma are absent in the book. The only

reference to non-Roma is made in a short story from the Czech Republic, where a child

confesses to a family member that he does not want to go to school because he is bullied by

the non-Roma children.

The book shows a diversity of writing styles. In some texts, the phoneme /x/ is written

as <ch>, as is done in Czech, but in other texts, the letter /x/ is used for the same speech

sound. Similarly, different dialectal variants can be spotted. The word for "flowers" is written

lulugja in some texts, and lulud' a and luludža in others, reflecting dialectal variants or local

spelling conventions from Czechia and elsewhere.

The author does not specify his goal or motives for these choices. In a later book in the

series, he writes: "Adava lil (kliška) si е romane čhavorenge – te sikljon o barvalipe romane

čhibaki. But Roma ladžan е romane č hibatar, thaj bistren, či vorbisaren i romani čhib." "This

book is for Romani children – so that they learn the richness of the Romani language. Many

Roma are ashamed of their language, and they forget it, they do not speak Romani". Obviously,

Kyuchukov's motive is language maintenance through written media.

The preface is written in a non-specific variety, in which elements from different

dialects are used, mainly forms from the Balkan and Vlach dialects. Presumably the chosen

forms are estimated to be more widely understood.

In short, this book series has a rather romantic imagery, removed from the reality of

most Bulgarian Romani children. The language choice shows a diverse range of texts in

different dialects, maintaining much of the original spelling, whereas metatexts are written in

a somewhat artificial variety apparently aimed at maximal understandability. The use of

different spellings for the same words in the same book is not in line with standardization

efforts and normative codification, but it creates an awareness of different varieties and

teaches the children acceptance of wider sets of norms.

5.9. Germany

In Germany, not many educational materials have been produced. This may have to do with

the fact that the numerically dominant group, the Sinti, who also constitute the traditional

group with a centuries-long presence in Germany, oppose written forms of their language –

especially after many German Sinti and Roma perished under the Nazi regime. Many Sinti still

associate the German race-hygienic researchers with outside interest in their language. Other

Roma groups in Germany are more relaxed about their language.

In 1996, under the auspices of the Roma National Congress, a German publisher

produced a box containing 12 simple reading books of 20 pages each with illustrations (N.N.

1996). They provide texts in three different dialects, a Polish Romani dialect, a Kalderas-

Lovari variety and a Southern Vlach variety from former Yugoslavia. The texts in the different

varieties on the illustrated pages are invariably short, and they are presented in the same

order throughout each book. They are marked with a distinct symbol for each variety (a sun

for Kalderash/Lovari, a moon for Southern Vlax and stars for the Romani variety from

Poland). A page from one of the booklets can be seen in Ill. 24. The chosen page is from a story

about baking, and the sentence means: "I add raisins (grapes) to it".

The booklets have been translated from German, and neither in the imagery, nor

in the stories, is a specifically Romani world depicted. No attempt has been made to adjust the

original pictures or texts to a more specific or traditional Romani life. The booklets deal with a

range of subjects, from feeling lonely in the home at night, dinosaur bones, optical illusions,

numerals, acrobatics and gymnastics, the planets and an Inuit child. Clearly these subjects are

chosen in that some are recognizable for the child in his or her own environment, and others

are intended to arouse the children's curiosity.

The choice of three varieties can be related to the need and availability of a

market in Germany, more precisely Hamburg, at the time. The linguistic coordinator was

Yaron Matras, who has pleaded for linguistic and dialectal diversity in other contexts (Matras

2005a, b), and this pluralism is clear in that each of the three Roma groups can use their own

varieties when using the book, rather than a single one imposed on all, or a unified form not

well intelligible to any of them. Other groups can presumably use the variety that is closest to

their own. In the meantime, the children cannot avoid noticing that there are also other

varieties of Romani, on a par with their own. The writing systems are all similar, in that the

same symbols are used for the same phonemes in all three varieties, enabling the children to

know to a large extent how the other varieties must be pronounced (except when one of the

varieties uses a unique phoneme, as the vowel written <y> (/ɨ /) in Polish Romani).

In short, the imagery is taken over without adjustments from existing German

materials, whereas the choice of language combines an ideology of pluralism with an element

of unification in that the same symbols are used for the same phonemes for all three varieties.

Ill. 24. A page from a German reader in three Romani varieties

5.10. Austria, Burgenland

In Austria, the main variety for which written norms have been developed from scratch is the

rather marginal variety of the Burgenland, called Roman. A number of publications have seen

the light, among others a book with texts in Burgenland Romani (Halwachs et al, 2000), a

grammar (Halwachs 1998) and a bilingual information journal, Romano Patrin . During a

number of years even a children's magazine was published in the Roman variety. Further , text

collections have been published in other varieties of Romani in Austria: Arli (Cech et al 2009),

Gurbet (Heinschink et al 2006), Kalderash (Fennesz-Juhasz et al. 2012) and Lovari (Cech et al

2001). In addition, audio materials have also been produced (Fennesz-Juhasz et al. 2002a, b,

2003). More information about the educational experience in Burgenland can be found in

Halwachs (1996), Deman & Glaeser (1999), Halwachs (2012a) and Halwachs et al. (2013).

Two Austrian learning materials for Burgenland Romani should be mentioned here.

The first book, Amen Roman Pisinas (Halwachs et al. 1996) , is a primer, more or less like thos e

discussed above. The writing system was developed especially for this variety, following the

wishes of the community who wanted. The writing system is based on German, for instance in

using <tsch> for the phoneme /tʃ/, as can be seen on Illustration 25. The imagery is modern

and includes houses, cars and the like, and here and there also traditional implements such as

a cart are shown. German and Hungarian loans are not avoided.

Ill. 25. A page from the Austrian primer in Burgenland Roman

The second book, Amen Roman Siklojas (Glaeser et al 1998), is different in that a fictional

world is introduced, but integrated as part of the reality of the school environment. Two

aliens, resembling speaking animals, have been delivered into a classroom of earthlings by the

postman, as can be seen in Ill. 26. Elsewhere in the book, polar bears and igloos are depicted,

as well as an alien with different looks. This is all quite unusual in the genre, not only for

Romani, but also for such textbooks in general. It combines word-learning with techniques

from comic books. This was done on purpose, at the request of the children, who wanted to

read about events different from their everyday-life.

Ill. 26. A page from a reader in Burgenland reader with aliens

5.11. General remarks

The choice of schoolbooks in this section is neither exhaustive nor a representative sample.

However, they do represent some of the diversity of choice that textbook compilers have

made in different communities. From the point of view of imagery, we have seen examples of

a completely Roma-oriented world, idyllic and romantic, but also depictions of a more

realistic world in which Romani and non-Romani are present. There are also textbooks totally

devoid of Romani content, as they were translated from other languages without any

adjustment, and finally books in which, literally, an alien world is shown, with limited links to

the daily experiences of the children. Both extremes – the romantic past and a science fiction

world – may stimulate the children's f antasy more than a realistic painting of the children's

everyday life.

Some aspects of Romani culture recur in the imagery. Especially clothing of Roma

women seems to be prevalent in the images, and that is true not only in these schoolbooks,

but in general. As Tremlett (2013: 1707) remarked: "Whether evoking Gypsy communities in

fashion, media or literature, 'Gypsy' becomes akin to a fancy-dress costume. " Other recurrent

elements are carts and horses and the Romani flag. These aspects of cultural inheritance are

central for the identity of the Roma.

There is a potential danger, however, in the romantic view of a rural Romani life

referring to a situation that these children quite likely have never experienced, in that a world

with cars, houses, mobile phones may not be seen as truly Romani. Alaina Lemon (2000: 3)

remarked that " it remains commonplace to define 'Gypsy culture' only by features or practices

that seem to isolate Gypsies from a majority". In other words, the Roma are made more exotic

than they are by stressing the differences from the non-Roma.

The choices of the Romani varieties in the textbooks are generally closely

connected to the chosen imagery. Romantic images, however, appear to connect both to quite

local varieties of Romani (e.g. Latvia), and to international orientations, e.g. the Bulgarian

textbooks with texts by authors from many countries.

When Roma communities are aware of the special nature of their variety

compared to other varieties, there seems to be a stronger tendency to use the spelling

conventions of the local majority language (Finland, Burgenland), whereas speakers of

dialects that are more widely used, tend to opt for a more international system (Danish Arli,

Swedish Lovari).

Recent migrations also play a role in deciding against using a spelling based on

the local majority language. Awareness of the possibilities of other writing system will have

played a role here as well, in that the choice is influenced by knowledge of several writings

systems.

6. Discussion and conclusions

A number of international conventions stress the right for minority language children to

receive education in their own language. For instance, article 30 of the Convention on the

Rights of the Child stresses the right of children to use their own language, and Unesco's

Convention against discrimination in education protects the rights of national minorities.

These rights should also include the right for minorities to use, or be taught in, their own

language, of course beside and not instead of the state language.

The concern for teaching Romani in schools goes back to at least the 1930s in the

Soviet Union, when probably the first Romani ABC book was produced (Dudarovea et al.

1928). Activist and academic reflections on Romani in class go back to at least 1975 in Britain

(Acton 1975), the USA (Hancock 2002, referring mostly to the 1970s), 1988 in Italy (Casile

1988, Zatta 2000), the 1990s in Rumania (Sarău 1997, Ză treanu 2003) and Hungary (Szali

1999), to mention just some of them. Educational specialists have also discussed teaching

materials, but rarely from a linguistic point of view (e.g. N.N. 1997, see also Csaba et al 1999-

2001). A recent overview of discussion of Romani education can be found in Halwachs

(2012b).

A variety of strategies can be observed in the choice made by the compilers of

illustrated schoolbooks for Romani children. In some cases, a clearly anachronistic picture of

Romani life was painted, idealized and idyllic (Latvia, Bulgaria). The colorful images of a Roma

way of life are equally found in materials produced by Roma and non-Roma. The

anthropologist Michael Stewart (1997: 31-32) has described the bright and lavish colors of a

so-called 'Gypsy taste', which is part of the stereotype for both Roma and non-Roma.

This has parallels in other minority societies, for instance textbook on Native

Americans often depict these people on horseback and in older periods. In fact, this depiction

also affects the self-image of young Native children, in that they draw similar stereotypes in

their drawings. Native children tend to draw teepees and forests, even though they have lived

in houses all their lives (Fulford 1997). Also in Western societies, certain themes have been

conventionalized.

A train drawn by a child is often a steam train, even though they are vanishingly

rare in the world. Apparently such images are quite persistent. A house will almost always be

a single house, with a door and windows, and a chimney with smoke (Ill. 27). Even Native

children who have grown up on reservations tend to produce such images (Ill. 28, from

Fulford 1994). This suggests that children internalize such imagery and consider it a reality,

perhaps an ideal one.

In the decade of Romani inclusion, international organizations have contributed

to the discussion of the role of language (UNICEF 2011). Overwhelmingly, governmental and

non-governmental agencies stress the importance of language for minorities, sometimes as a

barrier, and sometimes as an asset in connection with the education system.

Romani identity balances between a local identity, influenced by both

geographical and family group constraints (Budilová & Jakoubek 2009), and an international

identity, being part of an international community of Roma. The situation of the Roma is quite

unique in this respect, with regard to the geographical spread, and the cultural and linguistic

diversity of the group, and the interaction with the outside world. The primers discussed here

reflect these tensions, in that the compilers have to balance between Roma and non-Roma,

between local and non-local identities, and a past, present and future, both in linguistic terms

and in terms of visual images.

Ill. 27. Drawing of houses by children Ill. 28: Cree (Amerindian) drawing

* This work was supported by the European Union under Grant (09-HERA-JRP-CD -FP -030)

for the RomIdent-Project in the HERA-JRP frame.

References

Acton, Thomas A. 1975. Romani in class. Traveller Education 6: 21-27.

Bakker, Peter. 2001. Teaching Romani in school: what material is available? Interface 39: 20-

23.

Bakker, Peter. 2006. Special schools for Roma and Sinti. In: Werner Wiater & Gerda Videsott

(eds.) Schule in mehrsprachigen Regionen Europas. School Models in Multilingual Regions of

Europe. Bern etc.: Peter Lang. 415-433.

Bakker, Peter & Hristo Kyuchukov. 2003. Publications in Romani, useful for Romani language

education. Preliminary and Experimental Edition. November 2003. Publikacie andi Romani čhib

kaj si lačhe andar i edukacia pal i Romani čhib Angluni thaj eksperimentalno edicia. Novembr

2003. (Electronic publication)

http://www.hum.au.dk/lingvist/lokal/pdf/romedu-prefinal-november-20.pdf

Bakker, Peter & Yaron Matras. 2003. Bibliography of Modern Romani Linguistics. Including a

Guide to Romani Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Barthélémy, André. No year.

Kaldêraš). Paris: the author [several editions exist, including an English version, and also

audio material]

Berta, Mihalj & Dragan Kuzhikov. 1996. Amare Anglune Betivura [our first letters] Stockholm:

Skolverket, Vorta Drom & authors.

Budilová, Lenka and Marek Jakoubek. 2009. Anthropological fieldwork, site and Roma

communities: Roma/Gypsies in the Czech and Slovak Republic. Anthropological Notebooks

(Slovenia) 15 (2): 5 –14.

Casile, Francesco Mario. 1988. The Romany language in primary education in Italy .

Ljouwert/Leeuwarden: Fryske Akademy (EMU Project 33/34).

Cech, Petra, Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane, Halwachs, Dieter W., Heinschink, Mozes F. 2001. Te na

dikhas sunende ... Lovarenge paramiči, tertenetura taj gjila. – Fern von uns im Traum ...

Märchen, Erzählungen und Lieder der Lovara. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Cech, Petra, Halwachs, Dieter W., Heinschink, Mozes F. 2009. Momelja hem Limona –Kerzen

und Limone. Arlijengere paramisja -– Märchen der Arlije. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Cioabă, Luminiţa Mihai. 2001. Ghid de conversaţie român -Ţigănesc [Romanian-

Romani conversation guide]. Bucureşti: Teora.

Csaba, Fényes Christina McDonald Anita Mészáros. 1999- 2001. The Roma Education Resource

Book. Educational Issues. Methods and Practice. Language and Culture. Budapest: Open Society

Institute – Institute for Educational Policy. 2 vols.

Courthiade, Marcel, ed. 2009. qi evroputni lavustik [my first

European dictionary of the Romani language] városi Onkormányzat Cigány Ház--

Romano Kher.

Deman, Katharina & Glaeser Ursula. 1999. Roman-Unterricht im Burgenland. Grazer

Linguistische Studien 51: 11-29.

Dudarova, I. & I. Pankov. 1928. Nevo Drom. Bukvarye vaš bare manušenge [New way. Primer for

adults]. Moscow: Centrizdat.

Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane, Wogg, Michael, Wallaszkovits, Nadja. 2002a. Schun so me

phukavav ... Romane pamaristschtscha, phukajiptscha taj gila andar o Burgenland – Hör, was

ich erzähle ... Märchen, Erzählungen und Lieder der Roma aus dem Burgenland. Graz: Romani-

Projekt CD 1.

Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane, Heinschink, Mozes F., Wallaszkovits, Nadja. 2002b . Kodo phende e

Romora ... Lovarenge paramiča taj gjila – Dies erzählten die Rom ... Märchen und Lieder der

Lovara [2 CDs]. Graz: Romani-Projekt CD 2.

Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane, Heinschink, Mozes F., Wallaszkovits, Nadja. 2003. O romnije

zelenije ... Romenge paramisa taj gila – Frau, du grüne ... Märchen und Lieder der Roma [3 CDs].

Graz: Romani-Projekt CD 3.

Fennesz-Juhasz, Christiane, Petra Cech, Mozes F. Heinschink, Dieter W. Halwachs (eds.). 2012.

Baro o djes, cîni e rjat – Lang ist der Tag, kurz die Nacht. Paramiča le Kaldêrašengê – Märchen

und Erzählungen der Kalderaš. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Franzese, Sergio. 1980. Amarí čhib, amaro barvalipé. la nostra lingua, la nostra ricchezza.

sussidiario di lingua romaní (dialetto xoraxanó) [Our language, our richness. Overview of the

Romani language (Xoraxani dialect)]. Torino: Eurostudio.

Friedman, Victor A. 1995. Romani standardization and status in the Republic of Macedonia. In:

Romani in contact. The History, Structure, and Sociology of a Language ed. by Yaron Matras.

Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. 177-188.

Friedman, Victor A. 1997. Linguistic form and content in the Romani-language press of the

Republic of Macedonia. In: The Typology and Dialectology of Romani ed. by Yaron Matras,

Peter Bakker & Hristo Kyuchukov. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. 183-198.

Friedman, Victor A. 1999. The Romani language in the Republic of Macedonia: status, usage,

and sociolinguistic perspectives. Acta Linguistica Hungaria 46: 317-339.

Fulford, George Taylor. 1994. Children's Drawings in a Mashkeko Cree Community. Open

Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2284. Hamilton, Ont., McMaster University.

http://digitalcommons.mcmaster.ca/opendissertations/2284

Fulford, George. 1997. What Cree Children's drawings reveal about words and imagery in the

Cree language. In: D. Pentland (ed.), Papers of the Algonquian Conference/ Actes du Congrès des

Algonquinistes 28: 162-180. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba.

Glaeser, Ursula et al. 1998. Amen Roman Siklojas. Oberwart: Verein Roma.

Gonzalez, Nicolas Jiménez & Araceli Cañadas Ortega. 2011. Sar San? Como estas? [how are

you?]. Madrid: Fundación Instituto de Cultura Gitana.

Granqvist, Kimmo. 1999a. Notes on Finnish Romani phonology. GLS 51: 47-63.

Granqvist, Kimmo. 1999b. Vowel harmony in Finnish and Finnish Romani. SKY Journal of

Linguistics: 27-44.

Grigore, Delia. 2000. Siklioven Rromanes. Curs audio de limba şi cultura rromilor

în 15 lecţ ii ş i 15 cîntece rrome internaţ ionale [learn Romani. Audio course of the Romani

language and culture in 15 lessons and 15 international Romani songs]. Bucureş ti:

Centrul Rromilor Pentru Politici publice 'Aven Amentza'.

Halwachs, Dieter W. 1996. Roma und ihre Sprache. Kodifizierung und Didaktisierung des

Roman. In: Netzwerk Interkulturelles Lernen, ed. by J. Gartner. Eisenstadt: PIB - Pädagog. Inst.

d. Bundes für d. Burgenland. 171-187.

Halwachs, Dieter W. 1998. Amaro vakeripe Roman hi – Unsere Sprache ist Roman. Texte,

Glossar und Grammatik der burgenländischen Romani-Variante. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Halwachs, Dieter W. 2012a. Romani teaching in Austria. Journal of Ethnic Studies, 68: 34-51.

Halwachs, Dieter W. 2012b. Romani teaching in Europe: some general considerations based

on model cases. European Yearbook of Minority Issues, Volume 9/2010: 249-269.

Halwachs, Dieter W., Horvat, Erika, Ambrosch, Gerd, Sarközi, René. 1996. Amen Roman Pisinas

– Wir schreiben Roman. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Hermagoras.

Halwachs, Dieter W., Gärtner-Horvath, Emmerich, Wogg, Michael. 2000. O rom taj o beng.

Romane pamaristscha, phukajiptscha taj gila andar o Burgenland, Der Rom und der Teufel.

Märchen, Erzählungen und Lieder der Burgenlandroma. Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Halwachs, Dieter W. , Schrammel-Leber, Barbara, Klinge, Simone. 2013. Romani: Education,

Segregation and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Graz: GLM.

Hancock, Ian. 2002. The schooling of Romani Americans: an overview. In: New aspects of

Roma children education ed. by H. Kyuchukov. 30-51.

Heredia, Juan de Dios Ramirez. 2001. Angluno Pustik pa Vakeripen Romano-Kalo [first book

on the Romano-Kalo language]. Barcelona: Union Romani.

Heinschink, Mozes F. & Daniel Krasa. 2004/2009. Romani Wort für Wort. (Kauderwelsch).

Bielefeld: Reise Know-How Verlag Rump.

Heinschink, Mozes F. & Daniel Krasa . 2009. Romani Wort für Wort. Audio CD. Bielefeld: Reise

Know-How Verlag Rump.

Heinschink, Mozes F. & Daniel Krasa (adapted by Medo Gurbetovski). 2010. Le Rromani de

poche [pocket Romani]. Chennevières-sur-Marne: Assimil. [French adaptation of Heinschink

& Krasa]

Heinschink, Mozes F., Hübschmannová, Milena, Rader, Astrid, Halwachs, Dieter W. 2006. E

Čoxanenďi. Gurbetonde Paramiča. Cidija len o Rade Uhlik – Von den Hexen. Märchen der Gurbet

Roma. gesammelt von Rade Uhlik., Klagenfurt/Celovec: Drava.

Hill, Eric. 1994a. O Rukun źal and-i Skòla. Paris: Interface. <Interface Collection, Rukun Series>

Hill, Eric. 1994b. Kaj si o Rukun Amaro? Paris: Interface. <Interface Collection, Rukun Series>

Hill, Eric. 1995. I Bari Lavenqi Pustik e Rukunesqiri. Paris: Interface.

Horváthová, F., Horváth, J., & Brázdová, Z. 1998 . Chaben andal romaňi kuchiňa. Recepty romské

kuchyně food from the Romani kitchen]. Praha; Brno: Státn zdravotni ústav Praha; Vladimir

Smrčka.

Hübschmannová, Milena. 1995. Trial and error in written Romani on the pages of Romani

periodicals. In: Romani in contact. The history, structure and sociology of a language ed. by

Yaron Matras. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 189-205.

Husic, Geoff . 2011. The Romani language: cataloging ramifications for a language in the

process of standardization. Slavic and East European Information Resources 12(1): 37-51.

Husic, Geoff . 2012. Tracking the history of Romani publications: challenges presented by flawed

data. Slavic & East European Information Resources 12(4): 230-234.

Jovanović, Z. 2000. Da li znaš romski? Džanes rromane? Do you speak romany? Srpsko -romsko-

engleski razgovornik [Serbian-Romani-English conversation guide]. Beograd: Nezavisna

Izdanja/Slobodan Mašič.

Knauer, Georg Nicolaus. 2010. The earliest vocabulary of Romani words (c. 1515) in the

Collectanea of Johannes ex Grafing, a student of Johannes Reuchlin and Conrad Celtis. Romani

Studies 20(1): 1-15.

Koçi, Ferdinand. 2002?. E Roma. Paris: CCFD.

Kovacheva, Lilyana. 2001. O Rom dzhanel o drom [The Rom knows the way]. No place, no

publisher.

Koivisto, Viljo. 1982. Drabibosko ta rannibosko byrjiba. Vaaguno Dielos [beginning to read and

write. First part]. Helsinki: Ammattikasvatushallitus - Kouluhallitus.

Koivisto, Viljo. 1987. Rakkahava Romanes. Kaalengo Tšimbako Sikjobosko Liin [I speak

Romanes. Learning book for the Language of the Kaalo]. Helsinki: Ammattikasvatushallitus/

Valtion Painatuskeskus.

Krasnići, Ali. 2001. Devl!a, ker man kir. Rromane Paramiča andar-e Kósova ta e Metohia.

Beograd: Centar za stvaralaštvo mladih. Edicia Mogucé.

Kruezi, Selahetin, 2003a . Matematika 1. Vash funduni shkola [Mathematics I. For elementary

school]. København: EUROMA.

Kruezi, Selahetin. 2003b . Siklova hramipe thay drabaripe [we learn to write and to read].

København: EUROMA.

Kruezi, Selahetin. 2009. O kamipe na puqela & Euroma. Drame pi Romani qhib. Prizren: Shtëpia

Botuese – Shtypshkronja BERATI.

Kyuchukov, Hristo et al. Ca. 1993. Romano ABC Lil/ Romski Bukvar . 67 pp. Sofia: Piramida.

Kyuchukov, Hristo et al. Ca. 1995. Romano Alfabeta/ Romska Azbuka. 88 pp. Sofia: Bulvest

2000.

Kyuchukov, H. 1997. Amari romani lumja. 1 kotor. romane poeme e tikne havorenge [our

Romani world. First Part. Romani poems for the small children]. Sofia: Izdatelstvo "Biznes

Bridj".

Kyuchukov, H. 2000. Amari romani lumja. 2 kotor. romane paramisa tikne havorenge [our

Romani world. Part Two. Romani Stories for small children]. Sofia: Tilia.

Kyuchukov, H. 2001a. Amari romani lumja. 3 kotor romane gilja e tikne havorenge la i gili

šužarel o ilo [our Romani world. Part Three. Romani songs for little children. A good song

cleans the heart]. Sofia: Iktus.

Kyuchukov, H. 2001b. Amari romani lumja. 4 kotor. romane giogjaver thaj garavde lava [our

Romani world. Part Four. Proverbs and riddles]. Sofia: Iktus.

Lee, Ronald. 2005. Learn romani. Das-dúma rromanes. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire

Press.

Lemon, Alaina. 2000. Between Two Fires and Romani Memory from Pushkin to Postsocialism .

Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Manuš, Leksa. Romani ib . The author.

Manuš, L. 1996. Romani ib. Ā beca . Eksperiment ls m c bu l dzeklis. atl vusi lietot LR IZM.

Matras, Yaron. 1999. Writing Romani. The pragmatics of codification in a stateless language.

Applied Linguistics 20(4): 481-502.

Matras, Yaron. 2005a. The future of Romani: Toward a policy of linguistic pluralism. Roma

Rights Quarterly 1: 31-44.

Matras, Yaron. 2005b. The status of Romani in Europe. Report submitted to the Council of

Europe's Language Policy Division. Unpublished report.

Moormann, J.G.M. 2002. De Geheimtalen. Het Bargoense standaardwerk, met een nieuw,

nagelaten deel. Bezorgd door Nicoline van der Sijs, met een inleiding van Enno Endt. [The secret

languages. The Bargoens standard work, with a new, posthumous part. Edited by Nicoline van

der Sijs, with an introduction by Enno Endt]. Amsterdam/Antwerpen: L.J. Veen.

N.N. 1996. Jekh, duj, trin... Romanes. Hamburg: Verlag für Pedagogische Medien.

N.N. 1997. Education of Gypsies. Development of Teaching Material. Education des Tsiganes.

Développement du Matériel Didactique. Athens: Ministry of National Education and Religious

Beliefs; General Secretariat for Adult Education.

-Plopşor, D. C. Ş. 1997 Paramìsă haj

gilă rromané. poveşti şi cântece rrome. Bucureşti: Editura Kriterion.

Oláhová, L. 2000. Nején romska kuchařka. Na ba romani kucharka

aha: Fortuna.

Pavlović, B. 1995. Dand dandorro. Zub zubić . Zagreb: Hrvatski Crveni Kriñ/Kulturako Romano

Centro ande Kroacija.

Proctor, Edward. 2008. :

.

Sară u, Gheorghe. 1997. Observations regarding methods of teaching the Romany language.

International Symposium, Athens, April 6-9, 1995. Education of Gypsies. Development of

Teaching material. Athens. 235-242.

Sară u, Gheorghe. 2000. Ghid de conversaţie român-rrom [conversation guide Rumanian-

Romani]. Bucureşti: Editura Kriterion.

Sară u, Gheorghe & Camelia Stănescu. 2002. Alfabetizaciaqo lil an θ- i rromani śhib

vaś e ć have, terne thaj baremanu ś a. Manual de alfabetizare în limba rromani pentru copii,

tineri şi adulţ i [Alphabetization book in the Romani language for children, adolescents

and adults]. Bucureşti: Editura Vanemonde.

<http://gheorghesarau.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/>.

Scherp, Lambert (ed.), with E. Ljungberg. 1982. Amari Ś ib [our language]. Stockholm:

Skriptor/The National Swedish Board of Education. (first edition 1979).

Stewart, Michael. 1997 . Time of the Gypsies. Oxford: Westview Press.

Šukevičiūtė, Kristina & Peter Bakker. Forthc. Roma and Romani in Lithuania in the 21st

century.

Szali, Andrea. 1999. Linguistic human rights problems among Romani and Boyash speakers in

Hungary with special attention to education. In: Language: A Right and a Resource.

Approaching Linguistic Human Rights ed. by Miklós Kontra, Robert Phillipson, Tove Skutnabb-

Kangas & Tibor Várady. Budapest: Central European University Press. 297-315.

Tremlett, Annabel. 2013. 'Here are the Gypsies!' The importance of self-representations and

how to question prominent images of Gypsy minorities. Ethnic and Racial Studies 36:11, 1706-

1725.

UNICEF. 2011. The right of Roma children to education: position paper .

http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/UNICEF_ROE_Roma_Position_Paper_Web.pdf

Union Romani. NO YEAR. Tiknida Themeske. Konferenzia e Techaripen thaj

Hadipoen ande Europa [National minorities. Conference of Security and Cooperation of

Europe]. Barcelona: Union Romani.

Valentin, Dimitri. 2009 [2011]. Romska läromedel. Uppdrag till Språkrådet att kartlägga

läromedelsresurser för undervisning i romska språk på grundskola och gymnasium [Romani

teaching materials. Mandate for the Language Council to identify educational resources for

Romani language teaching in primary and secondary education]. Stockholm: Språkrådet.

(Updated version 2011).

http://modersmal.skolverket.se/romani/images/stories/romani/Uppdaterad_romska_lrome

delslistan__111010.pdf

Vasiliadou, M. & M. Pavli-Korre. 1992. Διδακτικο ϒλικο για τςιγγανοπαιδα . Μαθαινω

γραμματα [teaching material for the Gypsy child. Learn letters]. Athens 1992: GGLE.

Vuolasranta, Miranda. 1995 [second printing 1996]. Romani Tšimbaki Drom [the way for the

Finnish language]. Kavitus, Taitto ja Nuottigrafikaat Valfrid Akerlund. Helsinki: Opetushallitus.

Ză treanu, Mihaela. 2000. ABĆ. Anglutno Lil [First ABC book]. Bucureşti/Bucharest:

Veritas/Center Education 2000+.

Ză treanu, Mihaela. 2003. Education and Romani in Romania. In: M. Zătreanu, D. W. Halwachs.

eds. Romani in Europe . Strasbourg: Council of Europe: 29-37.

Zatta, Jane Dick. 2000. The use of Romanes in an Italian school. In: Language, Blacks and

Gypsies. Languages without a Written Tradition and Their Role in Education ed. by Thomas

Acton & Morgan Dalphinis. London: Whiting & Birch. 187-211.