National languages have seldom been a restful issue in History. In this respect, the Rromani language is by no means an exception and one can observe a very complicated system of polemics about the various aspects of its affirmation: as a language and as a national one, as a mean of in-group and trans-frontier communication, as a written vehicle, etc… The main subjects of dispute are the following:
· Is Rromani a language or not?
· How many Rromani language(s) exist in Europe?
· How many dialects does this represent?
· What kind of relationship is there between these dialects?
· Do Rroms want to use their mother tongue?
· Can it be used as a modern language or not?
· Can it be standardized or not?
· Can it be written or not? If it can, how to spell it?
· One dialect? All dialects? Nonsense question if one understands
the structure itself.
· Are Rroms able to write it or not?
· In my village, should I use an European norm?
· Is it difficult to write in Rromani? And implicitly, where does the
difficulty lie?
Even a shallow investigation shows that most people raising these questions lack any conceptual instrument which could enable them to realize that, in most cases, the answer is easy and clear.
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