Cover not available

Article published In: Language Ecology
Vol. 4:2 (2020) ► pp.133–150

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Contact-induced change and mobility

A cross-disciplinary approach to Romani in Latin America

 | SUNY Plattsburgh
 | Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
 | Institut Convergences Migrations (ICM)
Published online: 7 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/le.20006.cab
Abstract
This paper takes as its starting point a contact-induced grammatical innovation at the level of attributive predications that has been reported for various Romani speakers, in Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and the United States. Adopting a cross-disciplinary approach, we present evidence both from a historical study that documents individual and family itineraries in the Americas during the first half of the twentieth century and from a multi-sited ethnographic study on biographical narratives. These studies reveal the existence of close links among individuals from geographically distant localities. We suggest that, in the absence of normative linguistic institutions, complex multilingual practices seem to have modified grammar at the level of the bilingual speaker and ultimately of the network as a whole. More generally, by considering a less-studied population engaged in transnational mobile practices, we seek to illustrate how mobility allows for linguistic change to spread rapidly and widely.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The use of a non-verbal copula in Romani in contact with Spanish
  • 3.A historical perspective: Romani migration and mobilities in the Americas in the early twentieth century
    • 3.1Aims
    • 3.2Methodology
      • 3.2.1Background
      • 3.2.2Dataset
    • 3.3Results
      • 3.3.1The trajectories of the Ciuron family
      • 3.3.2The trajectories of the Perez family
      • 3.3.3The trajectories of the Costello family
    • 3.4Discussion
  • 4.An ethnographic approach: Romani mobilities and networks in the Americas through the study of translocal life stories
    • 4.1Aims
    • 4.2Methodology
      • 4.2.1Background
      • 4.2.2Dataset
    • 4.3Results
      • 4.3.1The story of Uncle Rodolfo
      • 4.3.2The story of Isaiah
      • 4.3.3The story of David
    • 4.4Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Sources (Archives)
  • References
References (27)
Sources (Archives)
National Archives Records Administration, INS, RG 85, file 46 584, 1904.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
National Archives Records Administration, INS, RG 85, file 53798/905, 1914a.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
National Archives Records Administration, INS, RG 85, file 53676/178, 1914b.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
National Archives Records Administration, INS, RG 85, file 54438, 1918.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
References
Acuña Cabanzo, Esteban. 2017. Tracing trans-Atlantic Romani im/mobilities. Doing ethnography in a hyper-mobile field. In Malene Freudendal-Pedersen, Katrine Hartmann-Petersen and Emmy Laura Perez Fjalland, eds. Experiencing Networked Urban Mobilities: Practices, Flows, Methods, Vol. 21. London: Routledge. 52–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Tracing the Romani Atlantic: An Ethnography of Trans-Local Interconnections and Mobilities among Romani Groups. Doctoral dissertation. University of Freiburg, Germany.
Acuña Cabanzo, Esteban and Evangelia Adamou. 2013. How did linguistic innovations spread in the Romani varieties of the Americas? A social interconnection approach. International Conference on Romani Studies. Glasgow.
Adamou, Evangelia. 2013. Replicating Spanish estar in Mexican Romani. Linguistics 51(6): 1075–1105. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adamou, Evangelia, Stefano De Pascale, Yekaterina García-Márkina and Cristian Padure. 2019. Do bilinguals generalize estar more than monolinguals and what is the role of conceptual transfer? International Journal of Bilingualism 231: 1549–1580. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bernal, Jorge. 2005. Le Paramícha le Trayóske. Buenos Aires: Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bunker, Brian and Samuel Otterstrom. 2013. Genealogy, migration, and the intertwined geographies of personal past. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 103(3): 544–569. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deman, Katharina. 2005. Untersuchung zur Grammatik der Romani-Varietät der Kumpanja in Bogotá/Kolumbien. Doctoral dissertation. University of Graz, Austria.
Elšík, Viktor and Yaron Matras. 2006. Markedness and Language Change. Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hancock, Ian. 1995. A Handbook of Vlax Romani. Columbus, Ohio: Slavica Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irizarri van Suchtelen, Pablo. 2018. Chilean Xoraxane: Fieldwork notes. 13th International Conference on Romani Linguistics. Paris.
Kusenbach, Margarethe. 2003. Street phenomenology. The go-along as ethnograhic research tool. Ethnography 41: 455–485. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Larsen, Jonas, and John Urry. 2008. Networking in mobile societies. In Jørgen Ole Bærenholdt and Brynhild Granas, eds. Mobility and Place. Enacting Northern European Peripheries. Aldershot: Ashgate. 89–102.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marcus, George E. 1995. Ethnography in/of the world system. The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology 241: 95–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matras, Yaron. 2002. Romani: A Linguistic Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Padure, Cristian, Stefano De Pascale and Evangelia Adamou. 2018. Variation between the copula si “to be” and the l-clitics in Romani spoken in Mexico. Romani Studies 281: 263–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pathirage, Jagath and Michael Collyer. 2011. Capitalizing social networks: Sri Lankan migration to Italy. Ethnography 12(3): 315–333. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair and Emi Otsuji. 2014. Metrolingual multitasking and spatial repertoires: ‘Pizza mo two minutes coming’. Journal of Sociolinguistics 18(2): 161–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pickett, W. David. 1962. Prolegomena to the Study of Gypsies of Mexico. MA thesis. Syracuse University, United States.
Ripka, Štěpán. 2007. Informe de avances de investigación: gitanos pentecostales en México. MA thesis. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic.
Ryan, Louise. 2011. Migrants’ social networks and weak ties: Accessing resources and constructing relationships post-migration. The Sociological Review 59(9): 707–724. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schapendonk, Joris. 2015. What if networks move? Dynamic social networking in the context of African migration to Europe. Populations, Space, and Place 21(8): 809–819. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sutre, Adèle. 2017. Du parcours du monde à son invention. Géographies tsiganes en Amérique du Nord des années 1880 aux années 1950. Doctoral dissertation. Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue