NORWEGIAN ROMANI – A LANGUAGE ON ITS OWN? (e-paper)

This paper discusses the preliminary findings of a project on metalinguistic discourses on ‘Norwegian Romani’, the Norwegian form of so-called Scandoromani. It is a Para-Romani variety that is based on a dialectal Norwegian grammatical framework. First, a historical overview of its speakers, the Romanifolk/Tater minority, is given focussing on ethnic self-identification and attitudes towards Roma in general. Thereupon it will be shown how Norwegian Romani as a language different from dialectal Norwegian is imagined by speakers, i.e. from an in-group perspective, followed by a discussion of the
definition of Norwegian Romani in Norwegian legal and scientific texts. This paper concludes with an outlook of which problems have to be taken into consideration by the official Norway when actively
engaging in supporting or promoting linguistic projects together with the Romanifolk/Tater minority community.