10.11.2010

"PHAGERDI CHIB, PHAGERDO ILO" or what is supposed learning rromani for Rroma non rromani speaker’s

By Sarah Carmona

In this such uncertain European geopolitical context a deep reflection on Rromanipen and mutual recognition is more necessary than ever.

The emancipation of our people, understood first as the reaffirmation of its idiosyncrasies getting out of the gadjikane model, and second as a greatest empowerment and participation of the realities in which we live, must be the vector of this reflection.

Throughout the history of Rroma movement, language has undoubtedly played a key role, being largely the backbone of many of the claims and demands of our people.

The main illustration of that idea could be the famous sentence of Peter Mercer: "I Rromani Chib si amaro them'.

However, the relationship experienced by the Rroma non Romani speakers with the language and its learning is not at all idyllic. The Rroma who don’t speak Rromani deposit a considerable emotional burden on what is considered from a linguistic perspective 'broken languages ". These phagerdi chibja are experimented as cultural structuring refuges.

To designate such important element for everyday life and cultural cosmogony as phagerdi chib is without doubt somehow painful.

Various psychological elements make learning rromani difficult for Rroma - non rromani speaker:  stayed out from the rest of the community, from the political organizations and associations remind them in a underlined but recurrent way these difficulties of communication.

As we already mentioned, the relationship experienced by those Rroma with their own languages (Kalo, Anglo Rromani, Manouche ...) is a keystone of their identity. Is a cause of pride and a vector of rromanipen. Therefore, there is an abyss between what these words of Rromani mean, the potential of these "broken languages" as a tool to recover the Rromani for these groups and the perception of the Rromani speakers’s-Rroma have of the different Phagerdi Chibia.

From an unscientific, non linguistic but experimented approach, this intervention aims to open guidelines for reflection on a fundamental recovery work (rather than learning) of the rromani by the Rroma - Non Rromani speakers taking into account psychological and cultural aspects.