\doc\web\97\03\roma.txt From: Josef Barton From: TONY GALT Subject: REPLY: Roma: names and spellings There was an inquiry last month about "proper" usage and spelling of Roma and its various singular, plural and adjectival forms. This question is being debated by the International Romani Union and is far from settled. I asked Ronald Lee, Canadian Rom author, musician and activist from the IRU if he would mind my reprinting a recent post on this net. He willingly agreed, as below. Carol Silverman csilverm@oregon.uoregon.edu >From Ron Lee. I just completed an article for Gale Publications, Encyclopedia of the World's Peoples on the Roma. I used the term Roma throughout to refer to the Gypsy people as an ethnic group with worldwide distribution. I used The Roma and Roma people, Roma person. When I referred to specific groups such as Sinte, Cales(Spain) or Romanichals, I used these words as self-ascriptive terms but the umbrella word was Roma. I consider Romanies to be an English word. Rroma is Roma written in the phonetic alphabet which I refuse to use since it cannot be transcribed on a typewriter or a computer and defeats the purpose for which it was intended, to help Roma become literate in the Romani language since it employs ridiculous phonetic markers which could have been avoided. Roma is the plural of Rom, but if we use Rom in the singular we must use Romni for the feminine with its plural, Romnya. Roma includes both sexes, as in the Roma people. We of the Romani Union use Roma as the ethnic definition for Gypsies and Romani as the proper adjective although strictly speaking Romani is for the female gender and Romano for the masculine gender.Thus Romani chib (Romani language) but Romano Drom (Romani road). My suggestion would be to use Roma where others might use Gypsies or Romanies and Romani as the proper adjective as in the Romani nation, Romani language, etc. also Romani for the language. I might also mention that Sinte (Sinti), Spanish Cales ,Welsh Kawle and Finnish Kaale prefer these definitions applied to them, not Roma or Romani. British Romanichals also prefer the term Romanichal pl. Romanichals. Collectively and historically they are all Roma. But since Roma leaders themselves can hardly agree on a common term to define the people as a whole you can be excused for any minor innapropriate definitions of specific groups.