Language Consequences of Migration of Romani Speakers from Slovakia to Great Britain and Back: the Change of Paradigm of Town Names in Two Romani Dialects
Abstrakt
The article focuses on language changes in Romani spoken by Slovak emigrants to England and re-emigrants to Slovakia or by people residing alternately in both the countries as the case may be. The changes are monitored separately in two Romani groups: the so called Slovak Roma (speakers of the Northern-Central dialect of Romani) and the Vlax Roma (speakers of the Slovak variety of the Lovari dialect).
I address the way the language is influenced both by the changes of the environment and lifestyle and the changes of the contact language. I mostly focus on adult respondents whose contact language has really changed during their life.
I concentrate on one striking and unexpected change: the change of the system according to which toponyms, spe - cifically town names, are created in Romani. First I submit the survey of the system in the pre-emigration situation that has not been systematically published for either of the examined dialects.
Further on I introduce the changes the described system has gone through in both the dialects due to the influence of migration to Western Europe and I cautiously attempt to suggest interpretation of the examined phenomenon.