Identificación y diferenciación lingüísticas de los gitanos boyash de Hungría

Abstract

There are thousands of gypsies in Hungary and its neighboring countries, living mainly in small settlements or villages speaking varieties of so called Boyash/Bayash. The varieties in question have been regarded both as dialects of the Romanian language, and as dialects of an Ausbau language. They are also known as “Vlach”, “Rudari”, “tub-makers” or “spoon-carvers”, with reference to their language and by their traditional occupation, respectively. According to earlier research, the Boyash were divided by researchers into various ethnic subgroups, each of them self-identifying as Boyash, forming a relatively coherent community, and speaking clearly related language varieties. Relying on my fieldwork data, my recent research suggests that the linguistic situation of the communities using dialects related to Romanian as their mother tongue are much more heterogeneous and complex. In my paper, I discuss some of the language-related questions.