The language shift of the Romani people from Romani to majority languages has led to the development of various contact varieties incorporating Romani elements to different degrees. These forms of speech have been described in linguistic literature using various terms, including ‘Para-Romani’, ‘Creole’, a ‘Romani mixed dialect’, a ‘Mixed Language’, a ‘secret language’, and ‘ethnolect’. While well-documented cases such as Anglo-Romani, Scando-Romani, and Caló have been extensively studied, less is known about similar phenomena in Hungary.

This project, run by Zuzana Bodnárová (University of Graz) in collaboration with Márton A. Baló (Hungarian Research Centre for Linguistics) and Mátyás Rosenberg (Eötvös Loránd University), is the first systematic attempt to document the ethnolinguistic repertoire of the so-called Romungros—the language use of the descendants of South Central Romani speakers in Hungary, which includes, but is not limited to, the occasional insertion of Romani-derived vocabulary into colloquial Hungarian. Based on historical sources, as well as newly collected data from social media and semi-structured interviews, the project examines its lexical and morphological features, sociolinguistic functions, and contexts of use. Additionally, it seeks to trace the historical emergence of this repertoire by identifying its earliest written attestations.

Research Team: Zuzana Bodnárová, Márton A. Baló, Mátyás Rosenberg