Historical perceptions of Norwegian Romani

There are only two older sources dealing with the Para-Romani variety of so-called Scando-Romani (cf. Hancock 1992) spoken by the Tater (or Romanifolk) in Norway to a greater extent: First, Eilert Sundt (1852) discusses the language of the Tater in his book on Norway's travelling people. Second, Ragnvald Iversen's (1944) monograph entitled “The Romany Language in Norway” from the collection “Secret Languages in Norway” represents the only comprehensive source on Norwegian Romani so far. My paper will be based on these two sources with a special focus on how the language is presented by the authors. The examined questions are 1) whether Norwegian Romani, as a Para-Romani with North-Germanic grammar, is seen as a separate language by the authors or not, 2) which (non-linguistic) connotations it received from the authors and 3) to what extent the authors' view on Norwegian Romani is influenced by their affinity to the Tater. I will also discuss to which extent the findings of Sundt have had an influence on the policy making process in Norway. Finally I will compare the concept of Norwegian Romani found in Sundt and Iversen to more recent views on Para-Romani languages (Bakker & Van der Voort 1991 ; Bakker 1998; Boretzky & Igla 1994; Matras 1998; Matras 2010). References Bakker, P. & Van der Voort, H. 1991. Para-Romani languages: An overview and some speculations on their genesis. In: In the Margin of Romani. Gypsy languages in Contact, edited by Bakker, P. & Cortiade, M. Amsterdam: Publikaties van het Instituut voor Algemene Taalwetenschap nr.58. (Studies in Language Contact 1). 16-44. Bakker, P. 1998. Para-Romani language versus secret languages: Differences in origin, structure, and use. In: The Romani Element in Non-Standard Speech, edited by Matras, Y. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 69-96. Boretzky, N & Igla B. 1994. Romani mixed dialects. In: Mixed Languages: 15 case studies in language intertwining, edited by Bakker, P & Mous, M. Amsterdam : IFOTT: 36-68. Hancock, I. F. 1992. The Social and Linguistic development of Scando-Romani. In: Language contact: Theoretical and Empirical Studies, edited by Jahr, E. H. Berlin: Moutn de Gruyter. 37-52. Iversen, R. 1944. The Romany language in Norway. Oslo: I kommisjon hos Dybwad (Secret languages in Norway, Vol. 1). Matras, Y. 1998. Para-Romani revisited. In: The Romani element in non-standard speech, edited by Matras, Y. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 1-27. Matras, Y. 2010. Romani in Britain. The afterlife of a language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Sundt, E. 1852. Beretning om Fante- eller Landstrygerfolket i Norge: Bidrag til Kundskab om de laveste Samfundsforholde.