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Language purism and social hierarchies: Making a Romani standard in Prizren

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2018

Amelia Abercrombie
Amelia Abercrombie*
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, UK
*
Address for correspondence: Amelia Abercrombie, 47 Brook Avenue, Manchester, M19 3DQ, UK[email protected]
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Abstract

This article takes an ethnographic approach to language standardisation. My research focuses on Romani language use in Prizren, Kosovo, which has a tradition of multilingualism. Moving away from approaches to standardisation that focus only on linguistic processes, I look more broadly at the social processes behind language standardisation. I explore discussions, debates, and attitudes towards me as a language learner to show how a Romani standard is being produced and legitimised in Prizren. Applying theories of purism and standardisation, I examine how certain speech practices are made inferior and how social hierarchies legitimise this. I relate this more broadly to the politics of Romani language and to theories of sociolinguistics and anthropological linguistics. (Romani, Kosovo, standardisation, purism, language ideology)*

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 47 , Issue 5 , November 2018 , pp. 741 - 761
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the UK Economic and Social Research Council for funding the research that led to this article. I would also like to thank everyone in Prizren who helped with my fieldwork, my supervisors Stef Jansen and Yaron Matras for their guidance, and the two anonymous reviewers for their comments.

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