LL-L "Ethnonyms" 2002.09.19 (14) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 19.SEP.2002 (14) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Holger Weigelt <platt at HOLGER-WEIGELT.DE>
Subject: LL-L "Language change" 2002.09.18 (09) [E]

>From: R. F. Hahn sassisch at yahoo.com
>Subject: Language change
>
>Holger,
>
>I am by no means an authority in this area, can only give you my personal
>opinion.  I think it is the Rom(a) and Sinte/Sinti communities that ought
to
>be consulted.  They have major (European/world) representation in Hamburg,
>so it ought to be easy to get in touch with them.
>
>For English, I would simply suggest "Rom" or "Roma"* and "Sinti" as
>collectives (singular, plural, male and female).  It gets complicated once
>you get into gender in languages with relatively little inherent gender
>distinction.  For instance, it is perfectly fine to refer to both males and
>females as "Filipino," though some people (some would call them "show-
offs,"
>unless they are in the in-group) will refer to females as "Filipina" in
>English.  You don't make the distinction elsewhere, so I would suggest
>consistent non-distinction.
>
>(* By the way, the native spelling is _rrom_, the _rr_ referring to a
>uvular, "French," /r/, and the _r_ standing for a trill.  _Ghom_ might have
>been a better spelling.)
>
>In German and other gender-distinguishing languages this is more
>complicated.  Using the native male vs. female forms would mean learning
>special forms, and then there are different language varieties ...
However,
>since both of these minorities are pretty much omnipresent and
>well-represented especially in Germany, Austria and Northern Italy (besides
>Slovenia, Croatia, parts of France, etc.), I think we, who have disregarded
>or maligned them for centuries, perhaps now owe them the courtesy of
>learning such special forms, e.g. _Rom_ vs. _Romni_ and _Sinto_ vs.
>_Sinti(t)za_, *if* this is preferable to *them*.
>
>Regards,
>Reinhard/Ron

Hello Ron !
It is quite clear that we best ask the people to whom this concerns most
but this wasn't the point I wanted to discuss. Also I didn't want to
discuss aspects of Romani/Romanes language and phonology. I just wanted to
point out how difficult (linguistically) correct correctness can be for
people who haven't special knowledge and how complicated it might sound if
we try to consider all possible distinctions to avoid hurting anybody.
Sometimes we overdo and what comes out might be goodwill but ridiculous (to
those who know better).

Kumpelment
Holger

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