Aspects of Language Ideology in a Transylvanian Vlach Gypsy Community

Abstract

The article presents a Kelderash Vlach Gypsy song from Transylvania, which the performer improvised about his ideology of the local variant of the Romani language. In Vlach Gypsy communities, formal speech is differentiated from everyday informal speech. The frames of formal speech are the narratives including songs introduced by formulae of asking permission and greeting at communal events. In the paper, the form, content and music of the song are analyzed, together with some peculiarities of language ideology revealed in the song. In terms of dichotomies the singer separates the language and speakers of his community from other variants of Romani and from other languages and their speakers. The components of speech events have their constant epithets. These are "true", "pure" and "Romani". Language use also implies a value order, and the speech of Gypsy communities whose value system is identical with the singer's is considered "correct". At the same time, the "purely", that is, "correctly" performed narrative is the expression of the ritual purity of the community and the "correctness" of the given value order—the social-economic-cultural construction of Vlach Gypsies.