THE ROMAN PROJECT

The project for a codification and didactization of Roman was initiated by the present chairman of the Roma Association/Oberwart. Contact with co-workers from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Graz was established in the fall of 1993 by Mozes F. Heinschink, who is known as an internationally renowned expert of Romani and who is trusted by the Roma. In 1994, the project was in its trial phase, in the course of which purpose and feasability of the initiative to support the Roma in their attempts to preserve their language were examined. In 1995, work on the codification and didactization was begun.

Project-manager:
Dieter W. Halwachs

sponsored by:
Federal Chancellery
Federal Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs
Federal Ministry of Science and Traffic
Government of the province of Burgenland
Austrian National Bank (1996)
Austrian Association of University Students (1996)
European Union/DG XXII (1995)

Codification and Didactization of Roman

As opposed to similar initiatives that work about/on a group, this project engages academics that are hired as skilled workers and ethnic co-workers in their endeavors for the entire ethnic group.

This principle of cooperation based on trust and personal relations between Roma and scientists, guarantees useful results that are readily applicable for the Roma. In this process, purely scientific results are considered important, yet subordinate, "side-products." Thanks to this procedure of "with people for people", this project can be seen as a paradigm of a meaningful colaboration between science and ethnic groups.

It is the project's final goal to analyze Roman to such an extent that it enables the ethnic group to counteract the threatening death of their language and the resulting loss of identity with the help of the established material. The conditions for such counteraction in the form of a future instruction of Roman that is planned in the Austrian law on ethnic groups, are codification, grammars, dictionaries as well as textbooks and material for instruction.

In addition, project work so far has also had significant effects on the ethnic group itself. These are effects that are not primarily linked to language preservation: Thanks to results and publications, the status of Romani has changed from an unknown intimate variety used by a stigmatized minority to that of an ethnic language considered equal to other ethnic languages by public consciousness. Moreover, interest in Roman has increased self-esteem within the ethnic group and has further helped to decrease the isolation of the Burgenland-Roma within Austrian and European Roma-society.

The project's socio-political relevance is thus exemplified by its support of the group-internal goal of preserving the language and their search for an identity. The project's efforts to help the ethnic group find its own values and thus increase self-esteem and self-confidence within this minority, which up until today has been relegated to the margins of society, thus works to improve chances for social integration.

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Letzte Änderung am 06/01/07