Ortografii practice pentru graiurile băieșe din Ungaria

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce the orthographies used by Bayash Gypsies in Hungary to render and write down their language varieties. The paper offers a brief historical overview of the places of emergence and use of the orthographic systems, followed by a detailed linguistic analysis, including the choice of graphemes and the representation of elision, liaison and sandhi. Also, a handful of examples are given of the solutions that cause practical problems to the users of the given orthographic system. The paper then looks at several unsolved grammatical and spelling issues that not only affect the future of these orthographies, but may also promote or, on the contrary, hinder the development of the Bayash language varieties. Finally, it evaluates the prevalence of practical writing systems from multiple perspectives, with special regard to the potential ways of their future development, as suggested by current trends.