March 29, 2006

It was Romany I chose

Heard a great story from the BBC (via the World's Technology Podcast, which is a great review of tech issues around the world) about efforts to revitalize the Romani language with the help of a British linguist and the Internet.

The World Techology site says "Romani is the language of the Roma, or gypsies. The language has many dialects an is oral, rather than written. But the Internet is giving some clearer shape to Romani." Their blog points to more resources, including links to Romani media sites from the Romani Linguistics and Romani Language Projects in Manchester. These links include radio & tv in Romani, and a cool map so you can see where Romani is spoken.

Quoting Al Stewart,
"Torn between the Gypsy and the Rose /
It was Romany I chose"

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