Dolenjska Romani
The dialect of the Dolenjski Roma in Novo Mesto and Bela Krajina, Slovenia
Petra Cech
Dolenjska Romani as presented here is spoken by a group of Roma in the Dolenjska region and Bela Krajina in Slovenija. It is basicly a dialect of the Southern Central group, but shows remarkable connections to Southern Balkan dialects as well as a number of interesting innovations unknown in other dialects. It gained some attention by linguists, as the scholar Rade Uhlik observed very few structures and lexemes of Greek origin in this dialect and assumed, the Dolenjski Roma's ancestors had never or hardly touched Greek territory in the past. Thus data and recordings of Dolenjska Romani were evaluated in several publications during the last decade, focussing on the degree of Greek influence on this dialect.
With the integration of Slovenia into the EU, the codification of the various minorities' dialects in Slovenia became urgent. In respond to this demand, a codification of Dolenjska Romani is presented, based on a wide range of texts, recordings and printed material of spontaneous codifications by Dolenjski Roma themselves. It begins with a survey of historical traces and references on the group's origin, followed by a comprehensive description of the dialect's phonology, morphology and syntax, including variants spoken in Southern Slovenija. Although the book does not comprise a text appendix or a glossary, all features discussed are illustrated by various examples of recordings or written texts for an optimal documentation of this fascinating Romani dialect.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Sources, material and codification
3. Phonology
3.1. Vowels
3.2. Consonants
3.3. Metatheses
3.4. Elisions, protheses
3.5. Stress
4. Morphology
4.1. Verbal inflection
4.2. Negation
4.3. Nominal inflection
4.4. Adjective inflection
4.5. Pronouns
4.6. Case functions
4.7. Prepositions
4.8. Adverbs
4.9. Numerals
4.10. Conjunctions, particles
4.11. Derivation
5. Syntax
5.1. Verbal aspect and aktionsart
5.2. Passive
5.3. Subjunctive
5.4. Modal expressions
5.5. Object complements
5.6. Adverbial clauses
5.7. Word order
6. References
ISBN 9783895867729. Languages of the World/Materials 457. 73pp. 2006.
