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Modern Examples of Sanctuary Granted in Church (2017)

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Modern Examples of Sanctuary Granted in Church (2017)

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NEW HAVEN - Nury Chavarria was to be on a plane to her native Guatemala Thursday evening. Instead, she is seeking sanctuary inside Iglesias De Dios...

NEW HAVEN - Nury Chavarria was to be on a plane to her native Guatemala Thursday evening.

Instead, she is seeking sanctuary inside Iglesias De Dios Pentecostal Church in New Haven.

What is a sanctuary church and is is it legal?

Churches have historically provided refuge for people fleeing oppression. In the 1980s, ministers in Arizona provided a place to stay for people fleeing unrest in Central America. But the precedent of protection goes back further. People involved in the sanctuary movement trace the concept to the Bible. They cite Numbers 35:14-15 which says, "Ye shall give three cities beyond the Jordan, and three cities shall ye give in the land of Canaan; they shall be cities of refuge. For the children of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, shall these six cities be for refuge." The ministers in Arizona were eventually arrested, and convicted, but no one served time in prison for the offense.

The policy of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been to avoid making arrests at "sensitive locations," including places of worship. ICE has said the policy is in place so people can participate in religious activities and services at sensitive places like churches without fear of being taken into custody. However, the policy does not specifically say people can stay at a church or religious site full time to avoid arrest. In some circumstances, with the authorization of officials, the agency will enter the house of worship.

Refugees can seek asylum in the United States for political reasons, if they have a "well-founded fear" they will be persecuted for their race, religion, nationality, social connections, or political opinions in the country they come from and the government there is doing the persecution or has no control over the persecution groups. Historically, those standards have been difficult to meet.

The Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits anyone from knowingly harboring an undocumented immigrant "in any place, including any building." Those convicted of doing so risk years in prison.

Churches all over the country have provided space for people who are in fear of being deported, to spend long periods of time. In addition to New Haven, churches in Chicago, Denver and Cambridge Mass. have either opened their doors to refugees or plan to do so.

Since the election in November, 800 churches have said they are willing to offer sanctuary, an increase of 100 percent, according the Rev. Noel Anderson, national grassroots coordinator at Church World Service, a faith-based organization that helps the less fortunate.
Information from CNN is included in this story.

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What is a sanctuary church and is it legal?

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NEW HAVEN - Nury Chavarria was to be on a plane to her native Guatemala Thursday evening. Instead, she is seeking sanctuary inside Iglesias De Dios...

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international relations and national security

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A 96-day church service to protect asylum seekers ends with government deal | CNN

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After a nonstop, three-month church service, a Dutch church declared victory Wednesday, after a government policy shift allowed refugee family to stay

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Roma, Romany Gypsies, Manuches, Kale and Sinti and people with Roma descent live in various countries across the world.

There are more than 10 million people of Romani descent in Europe alone. Romani is a rich family of languages with an Indo-Aryan root. Romani is the only Indio-Aryan language that has been spoken exclusively in Europe since the Middle Ages and whose vocabulary and grammar are related to Sanskrit.

The language used by Romani people is a source of great pride, facilitating the connectivity and communication between people across the world. Nearly all Romani speakers are multilingual (speak another language) and also use the language of the majority population where they live. It is estimated that there are 4.6 million Romani speakers in Europe. There are many different dialects of Romani spoken and in England alone, there can be differences in words commonly spoken in the North and in the South of the country and differences in spelling between people.

Thank you to Mattey Mitchell, Mihai Bica, Aluna Lepadatu and Martina Stipakova for support with these translations.

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Romani dialects - Friends, Families and Travellers

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Roma, Romany Gypsies, Manuches, Kale and Sinti and people with Roma descent live in various countries across the world. There are more than 10 million people of Romani descent in Europe alone. Romani is a rich ... Romani dialects Read More "

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From the fact that some Roma and Sinti refer to themselves »Gypsy«, outsiders often derive the right to call them the same. However, the term is perceived as an insult by most Roma and Sinti.  

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From the fact that some Roma and Sinti refer to themselves »Gypsy«, outsiders often derive the right to call them the same. However, the term is perceived as an insult by most Roma and Sinti.  

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This dreadful web_ Alienation and Miscommunication in The Hunch

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June is Gypsy, Roma, and Traveler History Month

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June is Gypsy, Roma, and Traveler History Month

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Romani or Gypsies? | Dijana Pavlovic | TEDxBocconiU

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Romani (; also Romany, Romanes , Roma; Romani: rromani ćhib) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to Ethnologue, seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their own. The largest of these are Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Romani (300,000). Some Romani communities speak mixed languages based on the surrounding language with retained Romani-derived vocabulary - these are known by linguists as Para-Romani varieties, rather than dialects of the Romani language itself.

The differences between the various varieties can be as large as, for example, the differences between the Slavic languages.

Speakers of the Romani language usually refer to the language as "the Romani language" or "in a Rom way". This derives from the Romani word , meaning either "a member of the (Romani) group" or "husband". This is also the origin of the term "Roma" in English, although some Roma groups refer to themselves using other demonyms (e.g. 'Kaale', 'Sinti').

In the 18th century, it was shown by comparative studies that Romani belongs to the Indo-European language family. In 1763 Vályi István, a Calvinist pastor from Satu Mare in Transylvania, was the first to notice the similarity between Romani and Indo-Aryan by comparing the Romani dialect of Győr with the language (perhaps Sinhala) spoken by three Sri Lankan students he met in the Netherlands. This was followed by the linguist Johann Christian Christoph Rüdiger (1751-1822) whose book Von der Sprache und Herkunft der Zigeuner aus Indien (1782) posited Romani was descended from Sanskrit. This prompted the philosopher Christian Jakob Kraus to collect linguistic evidence by systematically interviewing the Roma in Königsberg prison. Kraus's findings were never published, but they may have influenced or laid the groundwork for later linguists, especially August Pott and his pioneering Darstellung der Zigeuner in Europa und Asien (1844-45). Research into the way the Romani dialects branched out was started in 1872 by the Slavicist Franz Miklosich in a series of essays. However, it was the philologist Ralph Turner's 1927 article "The Position of Romani in Indo-Aryan" that served as the basis for the integrating of Romani into the history of Indian languages.

Romani is an Indo-Aryan language that is part of the Balkan sprachbund. It is the only New Indo-Aryan spoken exclusively outside the Indian subcontinent.

Romani is sometimes classified in the Central Zone or Northwestern Zone Indo-Aryan languages, and sometimes treated as a group of its own.

Romani shares a number of features with the Central Zone languages. The most significant isoglosses are the shift of Old Indo-Aryan r̥ to u or i ( Sanskrit , Romani 'to hear') and kṣ- to kh (Sanskrit , Romani 'eye'). However, unlike other Central Zone languages, Romani preserves many dental clusters (Romani 'three', 'brother', compare Hindi , ). This implies that Romani split from the Central Zone languages before the Middle Indo-Aryan period. However, Romani shows some features of New Indo-Aryan, such as erosion of the original nominal case system towards a nominative/oblique dichotomy, with new grammaticalized case suffixes added on. This means that the Romani exodus from India could not have happened until late in the first millennium.

Many words are similar to the Marwari and Lambadi languages spoken in large parts of India. Romani also shows some similarity to the Northwestern Zone languages. In particular, the grammaticalization of enclitic pronouns as person markers on verbs ( 'done' + 'me' → 'I did') is also found in languages such as Kashmiri and Shina. This evidences a northwest migration during the split from the Central Zone languages consistent with a later migration to Europe.

In terms of its grammatical structures, Romani is conservative in maintaining almost intact the Middle Indo-Aryan present-tense person concord markers, and in maintaining consonantal endings for nominal case - both features that have been eroded in most other modern Indo-Aryan languages.

Romani shows a number of phonetic changes that distinguish it from other Indo-Aryan languages - in particular, the devoicing of voiced aspirates ( bh dh gh > ph th kh), shift of medial t d to l, of short a to e, initial kh to x, rhoticization of retroflex ḍ, ṭ, ḍḍ, ṭṭ, ḍh etc. to r and ř, and shift of inflectional -a to -o.

After leaving the Indian subcontinent, Romani was heavily affected by contact with European languages. The most significant of these was Medieval Greek, which contributed lexically, phonemically, and grammatically to Early Romani (10th-13th centuries). This includes inflectional affixes for nouns, and verbs that are still productive with borrowed vocabulary, the shift to VO word order, and the adoption of a preposed definite article. Early Romani also borrowed from Armenian and Persian.

Romani and Domari share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second layer (or case marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative. This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari was once thought to be the "sister language" of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent, but more recent research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the Central Zone ( Hindustani) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom therefore likely descend from two different migration waves out of India, separated by several centuries.

The following table presents the numerals in the Romani, Domari and Lomavren languages, with the corresponding terms in Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and Sinhala to demonstrate the similarities.

Linguistic evaluation carried out in the nineteenth century by Pott (1845) and Miklosich (1882-1888) showed the Romani language to be a New Indo-Aryan language (NIA), not a Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA), establishing that the ancestors of the Romani could not have left India significantly earlier than AD 1000.

The principal argument favouring a migration during or after the transition period to NIA is the loss of the old system of nominal case, and its reduction to just a two-way case system, nominative vs. oblique. A secondary argument concerns the system of gender differentiation. Romani has only two genders (masculine and feminine). Middle Indo-Aryan languages (named MIA) generally had three genders (masculine, feminine and neuter), and some modern Indo-Aryan languages retain this old system even today.

It is argued that loss of the neuter gender did not occur until the transition to NIA. Most of the neuter nouns became masculine while a few feminine, like the neuter () in the Prakrit became the feminine () in Hindi and in Romani. The parallels in grammatical gender evolution between Romani and other NIA languages have been cited as evidence that the forerunner of Romani remained on the Indian subcontinent until a later period, perhaps even as late as the tenth century.

There is no historical proof to clarify who the ancestors of the Romani were or what motivated them to emigrate from the Indian subcontinent, but there are various theories. The influence of Greek, and to a lesser extent of Armenian and the Iranian languages (like Persian and Kurdish) points to a prolonged stay in Anatolia, Armenian highlands/Caucasus after the departure from South Asia. The latest territory where Romani is thought to have been spoken as a mostly unitary linguistic variety is the Byzantine Empire, between the 10th and the 13th centuries. The language of this period, which can be reconstructed on the basis of modern-day dialects, is referred to as Early Romani or Late Proto-Romani.

The Mongol invasion of Europe beginning in the first half of the thirteenth century triggered another westward migration. The Romani arrived in Europe and afterwards spread to the other continents. The great distances between the scattered Romani groups led to the development of local community distinctions. The differing local influences have greatly affected the modern language, splitting it into a number of different (originally exclusively regional) dialects.

Today, Romani is spoken by small groups in 42 European countries. A project at Manchester University in England is transcribing Romani dialects, many of which are on the brink of extinction, for the first time.

Today's dialects of Romani are differentiated by the vocabulary accumulated since their departure from Anatolia, as well as through divergent phonemic evolution and grammatical features. Many Roma no longer speak the language or speak various new contact languages from the local language with the addition of Romani vocabulary.

Dialect differentiation began with the dispersal of the Romani from the Balkans around the 14th century and on, and with their settlement in areas across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The two most significant areas of divergence are the southeast (with epicenter of the northern Balkans) and west-central Europe (with epicenter Germany). The central dialects replace in grammatical paradigms with . The northwestern dialects append , simplify to , retain in the nominalizer / , and lose adjectival past-tense in intransitives (, → 'he/she went'). Other isoglosses (esp. demonstratives, 2/3pl perfective concord markers, loan verb markers) motivate the division into Balkan, Vlax, Central, Northeast, and Northwest dialects.

Matras (2002, 2005) has argued for a theory of geographical classification of Romani dialects, which is based on the diffusion in space of innovations. According to this theory, Early Romani (as spoken in the Byzantine Empire) was brought to western and other parts of Europe through population migrations of Rom in the 14th-15th centuries. These groups settled in the various European regions during the 16th and 17th centuries, acquiring fluency in a variety of contact languages. Changes emerged then, which spread in wave-like patterns, creating the dialect differences attested today. According to Matras, there were two major centres of innovations: some changes emerged in western Europe (Germany and vicinity), spreading eastwards; other emerged in the Wallachian area, spreading to the west and south. In addition, many regional and local isoglosses formed, creating a complex wave of language boundaries. Matras points to the prothesis of in > 'egg' and > 'he' as typical examples of west-to-east diffusion, and of addition of prothetic in > as a typical east-to-west spread. His conclusion is that dialect differences formed in situ, and not as a result of different waves of migration.

According to this classification, the dialects are split as follows:

SIL Ethnologue has the following classification:

Northern Romani

Vlax Romani

Churari (Churarícko, Sievemakers)

Eastern Vlax Romani (Bisa)

Ghagar

Grekurja (Greco)

Kalderash (Coppersmith, Kelderashícko)

Lovari (Lovarícko)

Machvano (Machvanmcko)

North Albanian Romani

Sedentary Bulgaria Romani

Sedentary Romania Romani

Serbo-Bosnian Romani

South Albanian Romani

Ukraine-Moldavia Romani

Zagundzi

In a series of articles (beginning in 1982) Marcel Courthiade proposed a different kind of classification. He concentrates on the dialectal diversity of Romani in three successive strata of expansion, using the criteria of phonological and grammatical changes. Finding the common linguistic features of the dialects, he presents the historical evolution from the first stratum (the dialects closest to the Anatolian Romani of the 13th century) to the second and third strata. He also names as "pogadialects" (after the dialect of Great Britain) those with only a Romani vocabulary grafted into a non-Romani language (normally referred to as Para-Romani).

A table of some dialectal differences:

Some Romanies have developed mixed languages (chiefly by retaining Romani lexical items and adopting second language grammatical structures), including:

Romani is the only Indo-Aryan language spoken almost exclusively in Europe.

The most concentrated areas of Romani speakers are found in the Balkans and central Europe, particularly in Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Slovakia. Although there are no reliable figures for the exact number of Romani speakers, the estimated amount of Romani speakers in the European Union is around 3.5 million, this makes it the largest spoken minority language in the European Union.

The language is recognized as a minority language in many countries. At present the only places in the world where Romani is employed as an official language are the Republic of Kosovo (only regionally, not nationally) and the Šuto Orizari Municipality within the administrative borders of Skopje, North Macedonia's capital.

The first efforts to publish in Romani were undertaken in the interwar Soviet Union (using the Cyrillic script) and in socialist Yugoslavia. Portions and selections of the Bible have been translated to many different forms of the Romani language. The entire Bible has been translated to Kalderash Romani.

Different variants of the language are now in the process of being codified in those countries with high Romani populations (for example, Slovakia). There are also some attempts currently aimed at the creation of a unified standard language.

A standardized form of Romani is used in Serbia, and in Serbia's autonomous province of Vojvodina, Romani is one of the officially recognized languages of minorities having its own radio stations and news broadcasts.

In Romania, a country with a sizable Romani minority (3.3% of the total population), there is a unified teaching system of the Romani language for all dialects spoken in the country. This is primarily a result of the work of Gheorghe Sarău, who made Romani textbooks for teaching Romani children in the Romani language. He teaches a purified, mildly prescriptive language, choosing the original Indo-Aryan words and grammatical elements from various dialects. The pronunciation is mostly like that of the dialects from the first stratum. When there are more variants in the dialects, the variant that most closely resembles the oldest forms is chosen, like , instead of , , instead of , instead of or , etc.

Romani is now used on the internet, in some local media, and in some countries as a medium of instruction.

The overwhelming majority of academic and non-academic literature produced currently in Romani is written using a Latin-based orthography.

The proposals to form a unified Romani alphabet and one standard Romani language by either choosing one dialect as a standard, or by merging more dialects together, have not been successful - instead, the trend is towards a model where each dialect has its own writing system. Among native speakers, the most common pattern for individual authors to use an orthography based on the writing system of the dominant contact language: thus Romanian in Romania, Hungarian in Hungary and so on.

A currently observable trend, however, appears to be the adoption of a loosely English and Czech-oriented orthography, developed spontaneously by native speakers for use online and through email.

The following is the core sound inventory of Romani. Phonemes in parentheses are only found in some dialects:

Eastern and Southeastern European Romani dialects commonly have palatalized consonants, either distinctive or allophonic. Some dialects add the central vowel /ə~ɨ/. Vowel length is often distinctive in Western European Romani dialects. Loans from contact languages often allow other non-native phonemes.

In some varieties such as Slovak Romani, at the end of a word, voiced consonants become voiceless and aspirated ones lose aspiration. Some examples:

Nominals in Romani are nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals. Some sources describe articles as nominals.

The indefinite article is often borrowed from the local contact language.

General Romani is an unusual language, in having two classes of nominals, based on the historic origin of the word, that have a completely different morphology. The two classes can be called inherited and borrowed, but this article uses names from Matras (2006), ikeoclitic and xenoclitic. The class to which a word belongs is obvious from its ending.

The first class is the old, Indian vocabulary (and to some extent Persian, Armenian and Greek loanwords). The ikeoclitic class can also be divided into two sub-classes, based on the ending.

Nominals ending in o/i

The ending of words in this sub-class is -o with masculines, -i with feminines, with the latter ending triggering palatalisation of preceding d, t, n, l to ď, ť, ň, ľ.

Nominals without ending

All words in this sub-class have no endings, regardless of gender.

Examples:

The second class is loanwords from European languages. (Matras adds that the morphology of the new loanwords might be borrowed from Greek.)

The ending of borrowed masculine is -os, -is, -as, -us, and the borrowed feminine ends in -a.

Romani has two grammatical genders (masculine / feminine) and two numbers (singular / plural).

All nominals can be singular or plural.

Nouns are marked for any of eight cases; nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, ablative, and instrumental. The former three are formed by inflections on the noun itself, but the latter five are marked by adding postpositions to the accusative, used as an "indirect root."

The vocative and nominative are a bit "outside" of the case system as they are produced only by adding a suffix to the root.

Example: the suffix for singular masculine vocative of ikeoclitic types is .

Example: The endings for o/i ending nominals are as follows:

There are many declension classes of nouns that decline differently, and show dialectal variation.

Parts of speech such as adjectives and the article, when they function as attributes before a word, distinguish only between a nominative and an indirect/oblique case form. In the Early Romani system that most varieties preserve, declinable adjectives had nominative endings similar to the nouns ending in -o (masculine -o, feminine -i) but the oblique endings -e in the masculine, -a in the feminine. The ending -e was the same regardless of gender. So-called athematic adjectives had the nominative forms -o in the masculine and the feminine and -a in the plural; the oblique has the same endings as the previous group, but the preceding stem changes by adding the element -on-.

Romani shows the typically Indo-Aryan pattern of the genitive agreeing with its head noun.

Example:

Adjectives and the definite article show agreement with the noun they modify.

Example:

Romani derivations are highly synthetic and partly agglutinative. However, they are also sensitive to recent development - for example, in general, Romani in Slavic countries show an adoption of productive aktionsart morphology.

The core of the verb is the lexical root, verb morphology is suffixed.

The verb stem (including derivation markers) by itself has non-perfective aspect and is present or subjunctive.

Similarly to nominals, verbs in Romani belong to several classes, but unlike nominals, these are not based on historical origin. However, the loaned verbs can be recognized, again, by specific endings, which are Greek in origin.

Some words are irregular, like te jel - to be.

The next three classes are recognizable by suffix in 3rd person singular.

The first class, called I., has a suffix in 3rd person singular.

Examples, in 3 ps. sg:

Words in the second category, called II., have a suffix in 3rd person singular.

Examples, in 3 ps. sg:

All the words in the third class are semantically causative passive.

Examples:

Borrowed verbs from other languages are marked with affixes taken from Greek tense/aspect suffixes, including , , and .

The Romani verb has three persons and two numbers, singular and plural. There is no verbal distinction between masculine and feminine.

Romani tenses are, not exclusively, present tense, future tense, two past tenses (perfect and imperfect), present or past conditional and present imperative.

Depending on the dialect, the suffix marks the present, future, or conditional. There are many perfective suffixes, which are determined by root phonology, valency, and semantics: e.g. 'did'.

There are two sets of personal conjugation suffixes, one for non-perfective verbs, and another for perfective verbs. The non-perfective personal suffixes, continued from Middle Indo-Aryan, are as follows:

These are slightly different for consonant- and vowel-final roots (e.g. 'you eat', 'you want').

The perfective suffixes, deriving from late Middle Indo-Aryan enclitic pronouns, are as follows:

Verbs may also take a further remoteness suffix whose original form must have been and which is preserved in different varieties as , , or . With non-perfective verbs this marks the imperfect, habitual, or conditional. With the perfective, this marks the pluperfect or counterfactual.

All the persons and numbers of present tense of the word in East Slovak Romani.

Various tenses of the same word, all in 2nd person singular.

All the persons and numbers of present tense of the word in East Slovak Romani.

Various tenses of the word , all in 2nd person singular.

All the persons and numbers of present tense of the word in East Slovak Romani. Note the added , which is typical for this group.

Various tenses of the same word, all in 2nd person singular again.

Valency markers are affixed to the verb root either to increase or decrease valency. There is dialectal variation as to which markers are most used; common valency-increasing markers are , , and , and common valency-decreasing markers are and . These may also be used to derive verbs from nouns and adjectives.

Romani syntax is quite different from most Indo-Aryan languages, and shows more similarity to the Balkan languages.

Šebková and Žlnayová, while describing Slovak Romani, argues that Romani is a free word order language and that it allows for theme-rheme structure, similarly to Czech, and that in some Romani dialects in East Slovakia, there is a tendency to put a verb at the end of a sentence.

However, Matras describes it further. According to Matras, in most dialects of Romani, Romani is a VO language, with SVO order in contrastive sentences and VSO order in thetic sentences. The tendency of some dialects to put the verb in final position may be due to Slavic influence.

Examples, from Slovak Romani:

Clauses are usually finite. Relative clauses, introduced by the relativizer kaj, are postponed. Factual and non-factual complex clauses are distinguished.

Romani has lent several words to English such as pal (ultimately from Sanskrit "brother"). Other Romani words in general British slang are gadgie (man), shiv or chiv (knife). Urban British slang shows an increasing level of Romani influence, with some words becoming accepted into the lexicon of standard English (for example, from an assumed Anglo-Romani word, meaning "small boy", in the majority of dialects). There are efforts to teach and familiarise Vlax-Romani to a new generation of Romani so that Romani spoken in different parts of the world are connected through a single dialect of Romani. The Indian Institute of Romani Studies, Chandigarh published several Romani language lessons through its journal Roma during the 1970s.

Occasionally loanwords from other Indo-Iranian languages, such as Hindi, are mistakenly labelled as Romani due to surface similarities (due to a shared root), such as cushy, which is from Urdu (itself a loan from Persian ) meaning "excellent, healthy, happy".

1. ^ "Romany languages | Britannica". www.britannica.com.

2. ^ Romany at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)

3. ^ Romani language at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)

4. ^ "3rd Report of the Republic of Austria pursuant to Article 15 (1) of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" (PDF). Federal Chancellery, Constitutional Service, Austria. 2011.

5. "Reservations and Declarations for Treaty No.148 - European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages".

6. ^ "Four Languages You Didn't Know Were Spoken in Colombia". 24 November 2015.

7. ^ "Romanikieli ja karjalan kieli".

8. ^ "Regional- und Minderheitensprachen" (PDF) (in German). Berlin: Federal Ministry of the Interior. 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 3, 2012.

9. ^ "National and Ethnic Minorities in Hungary" (PDF). Facts About Hungary (in Hungarian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-11.

10. ^ "Assessing Minority Language Rights in Kosovo" (PDF). Sapientia University.

11. ^ Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation (4 June 2018). "Nasjonale minoriteter" [National minorities]. regjeringen.no (in Norwegian). Norwegian Government Security and Service Organisation.

12. Laurie Bauer, 2007, ^ The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh

13. ^ Romanes in Collins English Dictionary; Romanes in Dictionary.com

14. ^ Hancock, Ian (1997). "A glossary of Romani terms" (PDF). The American Journal of Comparative Law. Oxford University Press. 45 (2): 329-344. doi:10.2307/840853. JSTOR 840853.

15. ^ Šebková, Hana; Žlnayová, Edita (1998). Nástin mluvnice slovenské romštiny (pro pedagogické účely) Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Ústí nad Labem: Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem: p. 4. ISBN 80-7044-205-0. "V 18. století bylo na základě komparatistických výzkumů jednoznačně prokázáno, že romština patří do indoevropské jazykové rodiny a že je jazykem novoindickým" ["In the 18th century, it was conclusively proved on the basis of comparative studie that Romani belongs to the Indo-European language family and is a New-Indian language"]

16. Marcel Courthiade, "Appendix Two. Kannauʒ on the Ganges, cradle of the Rromani people", in Donald Kenrick, ^ Gypsies: from the Ganges to the Thames (Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2004), 105.

17. Schrammel, Barbara; Halwachs, Dieter W. (2005). "Introduction". ^ General and Applied Romani Linguistics - Proceeding from the 6th International Conference on Romani Linguistics (München: LINCOM): p. 1. ISBN 3-89586-741-1.

18. ^ Matras 2006, History.

19. ^ Matras (2006), p. [page needed ]. "The morphology of the two languages is similar in other respects: Both retain the old present conjugation in the verb (Domari kar-ami 'I do'), and consonantal endings of the oblique nominal case (Domari mans-as 'man.OBL', mans-an 'men.OBL'), and both show agglutination of secondary (Layer II) case endings (Domari mans-as-ka 'for the man'). It had therefore been assumed that Romani and Domari derived form the same ancestor idiom, and split only after leaving the Indian subcontinent."

20. ^ Hancock, Ian (2007). "On Romani Origins and Identity". RADOC.net. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17.

21. ^ Beníšek, Michael (2020). "The Historical Origins of Romani". In Matras, Yaron; Tenser, Anton (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 18.

22. ^ Norbert Boretzky: Kommentierter Dialektatlas des Romani. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2004 p. 18-26

23. ^ Matras, Yason (2005). Schrammel, Barbara; Halwachs, Dieter W.; Ambrosch, Gerd (eds.). "The classification of Romani dialects: A geographic-historical perspective" (PDF). General and Applied Romani Linguistics - Proceeding from the 6th International Conference on Romani Linguistics. LINCOM.

24. ^ "Coluna | Ciganos no Brasil: Uma história de múltiplas discriminações, invisibilidade e ódio".

25. termcoord. "Romani | Terminology Coordination Unit".

26. ^ Constitution of Kosovo: [1] Archived 2017-10-11 at the Wayback Machine (PDF; 244 kB), page 8

27. Kamusella, T. Language in Central Europe's History and Politics: From the Rule of cuius regio, eius religio to the National Principle of cuius regio, eius lingua? ^ Journal of Globalization Studies. Volume 2, Number 1, May 2011 [2]

28. ^ Matras, Yaron; Tenser, Anton, eds. (10 December 2019). The Palgrave Handbook of Romani Language and Linguistics. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783030281052.

29. E.g. ^ "E ROMAII BIBLIA 2020 (KĂLDĂRĂRIHKO) - Matei 1 - O lill la viçako le Isusohko Xristostosohko". Global Bible.

30. Šebková, Hana; Žlnayová, Edita (1998). ^ Nástin mluvnice slovenské romštiny (pro pedagogické účely) Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Ústí nad Labem: Pedagogická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem: p. 4. ISBN 80-7044-205-0. "U nás k tomu došlo v roce 1971, kdy jazyková komise při tehdy existujícím Svazu Cikánů-Romů (1969-1973) přijala závaznou písemnou normu slovenského dialektu romštiny."

31. Matras 2002, p. [page needed ].

32. ^ Matras, Yaron (11 March 2005). "The Future of Romani: Toward a Policy of Linguistic Pluralism". European Roma Rights Centre.

33. Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 52-54

34. ^ Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 47

35. ^ Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 76-78

36. ^ Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 52

37. Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 38

38. ^ Šebková, Žlnayová 1998, p. 107

39. Hoad, TF (ed.) Oxford Concise Dictionary of Etymology (1996) Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-283098-8

40. ^ Cresswell, Julia (9 September 2010). Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins. p. 372. ISBN 978-0199547937.

41. ^ Lee, Ronald (2005). Learn Romani: Das-dúma Rromanes. Hatfield: University of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 1-902806-44-1.

Iliev, Iv. I. Armak. The System of the Personal Pronouns in the Romani Dialect in and around Kardzhali, Bulgaria, Ivan G. Iliev

Sinclair, Albert Thomas (1915). Black, George Fraser (ed.). An American-Romani Vocabulary (reprint ed.). New York Public Library, 1915. New York Public Library.

Gaster, Moses (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 37-43, see page 40. Origin and Language of the Gipsies....

Walter Simson. A History of the Gipsies: with specimens of the Gipsy language. Edited, with preface, introduction, and notes, and a disquisition on the past, present and future of Gipsydom, by James Simson. London: Sampson Low & Marston, 1865. A History of the Gipsies with Specimens of the Gipsy Language by Walter Simson

Peter Bakker, Milena Hübschmannová. What Is the Romani Language?. Hatfield: University Of Hertfordshire Press, 2000.

The Zincali : or, An account of the Gypsies of Spain; with an original collection of their songs and poetry, by George Borrow (1842)

The Zincali, an account of the Gypsies of Spain (1907)

El gitanismo : historia, costumbres, y dialecto de los gitanos

Embéo e Majaró Lucas

John Sampson. The dialect of the gypsies of Wales : being the older form of British Romani preserved in the speech of the clan of Abram Wood. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1926. xxiii, 230 p. The Dialect of the Gypsies of Wales: Being the Older Form of British Romani Preserved in the Speech of the Clan of Abram Wood

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Romani (; also Romany, Romanes , Roma; Romani: rromani ćhib) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to Ethnologue , seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their own. The largest of these are Vlax Romani (about 500,000 speakers), Balkan Romani (600,000), and Sinte Romani (300,000).

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Some more latin translations (read comments for more clarity and corrections)

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Some more latin translations (read comments for more clarity and corrections)

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Not the most official source, but I found some useful information in this.

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Yesterday I spent a solid amount of time on Google, trying to find Latin to English online translators that weren't complete and utter bullshit (even I, the Mandarin speaker, know that "pacem" does not mean tiger. Holy shit). Anyway, I translated all the Latin I could transcribe from the soundtrack, and after hours of fact-checking with my sheet music and putting the same phrase through four different websites, I got the translations. I did not translate most of the Entr'acte, simply because I had no idea what they were saying and I didn't want to assume. Please enjoy.

OLIM "Olim, olim deus accelere, hoc saeculum splendidum, accelere fiat venire olim" means "Someday, someday let it come, Godspeed this bright millennium"

THE BELLS OF NOTRE DAME "Kyrie eleison" means "Lord have mercy" (Which I started saying about an hour in. But how meaningful for the choir to sing that when Esmeralda is at the pyre? Or when Frollo is about to drown baby Quasimodo?)

"Dies irae; dies illa solvet saeclum in favila" means "Day of wrath; that day shall consume the world in ashes"

TAVERN SONG (THAI MOL PIYAS) "Ándo bírto zhas thai mol piyas; ámare love das thai mol piyas, thai gilaba" means "Into the tavern we go and wine we drink; our money we give and wine we drink, and sing" (This is in Romani-or what the proper name is. I don't know-but it's not Latin. I just looked this one up on YouTube)

HELLFIRE (This one is my personal favorite. The bitter irony is magnificent) "Confiteor Deo omnipotenti" means "I confess to God Almighty

"Beatae Mariae semper virgini" means "To the blessed ever-virgin Mary"

"Beato Michaeli Archangelo" means "To blessed Michael the Archangel"

"Sanctis apostolis, omnibus sanctis, et tibi pater" means "The holy apostles, the holy saints, and to you, Father"

"Quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere" means "I have sinned in thought, word and deed" (Has Frollo never seen a woman before? Has he never been in a sex ed class? Holy shit.)

"Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" means "By my fault, by my fault, by my most grievous fault!" (Stephen Schwartz said he loved writing that part. I don't blame him)

ENTR'ACTE "Et dona nobis, dona nobis pacem" means "And grant us, grant us peace"

"Libera me domine de morte aeterna" means "Liberate me from eternal death" (This is also sung, I think, when Quasimodo saves Esmeralda during the finale, and it's amazing)

"Quando caeli movendi sunt caeli et terra" means "When the heavens are moving with the Earth" (I'm not 100% about the meaning of this one. If you know it, please correct me)

"O salutaris hostia quase caeli pandis ostium" means "O saving victim who opens the gate of Heaven"

"Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi" means "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world"

"Agnus Dei, dona nobis pacem" means "Lamb of God, grant us peace"

FINALE "Judex crederis esse venturus" means "We believe in all that is coming"

"In te domine speravi non confudar in aeturnnum fac populum tuum" means "I put my trust in you, Lord, not confined forever in that dreadful day"

"In die illa tremenda" means "In the day of thy people"

"Dum venere judicare saeculum per ignem" means "Shall come to judge the world by fire"

"Salutaris hostia, bella premunt hostilia sit pemriterna gloria" means "Saving victims, our foes' defeat will be everlasting glory" (I'm not sure about this one either)

"Semper sanctus in excelsis" means "Always in the highest"

"Quantus tremor est futurus quando judex est venturus?" means "What trembling is to be when the judge is to come?" (This line was originally sung during The Bells of Notre Dame, when Quasimodo's mother was running from Frollo. The double entendre here is great: the lyrics could be referencing the literal judge, Frollo, or referencing Frollo's imminent demise...)

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Hunchback of Notre Dame Translation (almost) Masterpost

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Yesterday I spent a solid amount of time on Google, trying to find Latin to English online translators that weren't complete and utter bullshit (even I, the Mandarin speaker, know that "pacem" does not mean tiger. Holy shit).

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"Olim" which appears at numerous points is a Latin translation of a portion of the song "Someday".

"Kyrie eleison" (which appears many times), is from the opening of the ordinary of the Mass (the parts that are said at most every Mass, regardless of the church calendar).  It's actually Greek, not Latin, and it means "Lord, have mercy".

The "Dies irae" (which also appears a few times) comes from the Requiem Mass (the Mass for the Dead), and in this section speaks of Judgment Day.

In "Hellfire" the priests are singing part of the "Confiteor" (which, in modern times, is not sung, but spoken) which is a communal confession of sins.  From it comes the phrase "mea culpa" which is sometimes used in written/spoken English, and means "my fault".

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Sanctuary, a consecrated place giving protection to…

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Feast of Fools started as a clerical tradition--grew until being denounced in the late 15th century--around the time HND is set

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Feast of Fools started as a clerical tradition--grew until being denounced in the late 15th century--around the time HND is set

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The first half of the fifteenth century saw a series of sustained attacks on the Feast of Fools, culminating in its condemnation by the ecumenical council of Basel (1435), the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII of France (1438), and a letter issued by the faculty of theology at the University of Paris (1445). While the liturgical Feast of Fools struggled for survival inside the churches, unrelated festivities of bourgeois confraternities of fools outside the churches burgeoned. Dressed in motley costumes with ass’s ears, secular fools had their own distinct traditions of parades, comic performances, and mimicry. Subsequent scholarship largely confused the two traditions, prompting considerable misreading of the older ecclesiastical records and contributing to the mistaken but widespread view that the Feast of Fools was little more than a disorderly clerical revel.

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Flamenco dance was originated by Romani people living in Spain

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Flamenco dance was originated by Romani people living in Spain

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Flamenco includes much that can be traced to Indian movement as well.

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Flamenco India - exploring the Romani diaspora | Oliver Rajamani | TEDxBermuda

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Breaking "Gypsy" Stereotypes

Why Roma and Not "Gypsies"

The first basic step in separating myths and stereotypes from facts and authenticity is in the use of our terminology. Rom means a human being, person or man in the Romani language. The Roma do not call themselves Gypsies. Historically, the term "Gypsy" came from the mistaken assumption on the part of Anglo-Europeans that Roma originated in Egypt. In fact, the Roma are a distinct ethnic minority, distinguished at least by Rom blood and the Romani, or Romanes, language, whose origins began in the Punjab region of India. Their migration began in the 2th Century, when they traveled through the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Turkey, eventually spreading all over Europe. While Roma are Europe's largest ethnic minority, they remain the least integrated and the most persecuted people of Europe today.

Using the word "Gypsy" is not only inaccurate but perpetuates the continuation of stereotypes that portray Roma as beggars, swindlers, and thieves; thus the phrase: "I've been gypped". The romanticized image of the "Gypsy" is alive and well in song lyrics, novels, costume parties, musical groups, and other forms of cultural imagery: "They are exotic women in colorful skirts, dancing in sensual swirls. They are dark en with smoldering eyes. They are carefree spirits playing the tambourine."(1) They dance by campfires, travel in caravans, tell fortunes with crystal balls or Tarot cards.

But as VOR president Sani Rifati writes:

"I won't play you a sad song on my violin. I do not have a bandana. I do not have a golden tooth. I do not have long hair or a golden hoop in my ear. I am just trying to speak up for my people:

to tell you about their suffering and the persecution they've endured throughout the centuries

to ask you to fight against ignorance, prejudice and stereotypes

Simply put, as a place to start: please call me Rom."

Some important words/terminology in the Romani language:

Rom - Noun: human being, person, man, husband (sing.).

Roma - Noun: people (pl.)

Rroma - Noun: people, alternative spelling (some Romani scholars/activists prefer to write it in this form so that readers will not confuse it with the city of Rome in Italy.)

Romani - Adjective : as in, Romani language, history, culture etc...

Romani/Romanes - Noun: the spoken language of Romani people, derives from the Sanskrit, Punjabi region in East India.

Herdeljezi - Noun: advent of summer, also known as "Saint George Day" celeliation

Mahala - Noun: community, neighborhood, or the district where Roma live

Gadje - Noun, plural: non-Roma, outsiders (Gadjo/Gadji - non-Romani man/woman)

Gadjikane - Adjective: non-Romani, foreign

Porrajmos - "the Devouring", the Holocaust

Opre Roma - Expression: "Rise up, Roma!"

1. From a Boston newspaper article about a Romani family in 1986

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The first basic step in separating myths and stereotypes from facts and authenticity is in the use of our terminology. Rom means a human being, person or man in the Romani language. The Roma do not call themselves Gypsies. Historically, the term "Gypsy" came from the mistaken assumption on the part of Anglo-Europeans that Roma originated in Egypt.

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Bridget Heal, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of St Andrews
As a historian of Reformation Germany, I'm duty bound to say that the medieval period ended on 31 October 1517, the day on which Martin Luther supposedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg. Luther's protest against the practices of the Catholic Church led to the splintering of western Christendom, to more than a century of religious warfare and, via some very circuitous routes, to the rise of religious toleration. Moreover, the German Reformation came of age alongside the printing press.

Of course, things weren't that simple. Luther's protest crystallised resentments that had been brewing for decades and there was much about his Reformation that was profoundly medieval. The deeply conservative Luther did not challenge the social or political status quo; that was left to his unruly spiritual offspring, the radical reformers. And it was not the newly formed Protestant churches but Catholic religious orders that shaped the other defining event of the age: European exploration and conquest.

The intellectual and cultural movement known as the Renaissance perhaps constituted another watershed. Humanist scholars certainly thought themselves to be living in a new age, set apart from the period of darkness that had followed the fall of Rome. Renaissance monarchs introduced new styles of kingship and there was a remarkable flourishing of art, architecture and music. But how much did the Renaissance really transform society? Bound by traditional social and economic structures, the lives of most of Europe's inhabitants changed little. As Lord Blackadder memorably quipped to his servant: 'To you, Baldrick, the Renaissance was just something that happened to other people, wasn't it?'

Ultimately, periodisation is merely a device used by historians to structure their research and teaching. Within Europe the division between medieval and early modern was unclear and, beyond Europe's borders, markers such as 'the Reformation' and 'the Renaissance' meant nothing. In this age of global history perhaps we need, therefore, to worry not about when the medieval period ended, but rather about whether it ever existed at all.

'We cannot associate bigotry and credulousness with a vanished medieval past'
Lucy Parker, postdoctoral researcher at Christ Church, Oxford
The Middle Ages are a chimera, a fantasy, all but impossible to define or date, at least at a global level. The conventional chronological markers used to define them are deeply problematic: a start date of about AD 500, with the 'fall' of the western Roman Empire, and an end date of roughly 1500, with the cultural developments of the Renaissance, the European 'discovery' of the Americas and the religious dynamism of the Reformation. But most of these events took place in western Europe and do not work as chronological boundaries for the rest of the world. If we seek a global definition of the medieval, we cannot look to particular events; rather, we must identify a distinctively medieval character.

The Middle Ages are often defined by what the modern world is not - or, what we would like to believe the modern world is not. Whereas the modern world is global, secular, meritocratic and tolerant, the Middle Ages are seen as isolated, deeply religious, hierarchical and intolerant. None of this, however, straightforwardly characterises the period from 500 to 1500. Long-distance connections existed: take, for example, the Chinese Christian monk Rabban Sawma who in 1287 travelled as envoy of the Mongol khan to Europe, where he met dignitaries including Edward I of England. Persecution and intolerance were rife in some parts of the medieval world - notably Christian Europe from the 12th century onwards - but were not endemic everywhere. In the Abbasid caliphate the Islamic 'Golden Age' saw participation by influential Christians such as the doctor and scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d.873). Hereditary kingship was not universal; the Byzantine emperor Justin I rose from lowly roots in the unfavoured Balkan provinces to become emperor of Constantinople. Religion held great importance, but people were not always unquestioning or gullible. In our modern world, which still sees religious and 'ethnic' conflict, the denial of rights for LGBTQ+ people, the neglect of refugees and the proliferation of misinformation, we cannot associate bigotry and credulousness with a vanished medieval past. If we define the Middle Ages in terms of prejudice and intolerance, then we must accept that we are still living in them today.

'We move from "Old" to "Middle" English somewhere around 1066 or 1100 or 1150 or 1200 ...'
Elaine Treharne, Roberta Bowman Denning Professor at Stanford University
My History A-Level taught me that the medieval era ended on 22 August 1485, when the Welshman Henry VII established the Tudor dynasty. The Anglocentricity of this is all too obvious now, especially as this is really the point at which the 'medieval' emerged: when labels created by Renaissance writers eager to mark themselves out as new and sophisticated were superimposed onto a 1,000-year 'middle age'.

I have worked within these western chronologies throughout my career as an 'Old English' scholar. In my field, categories move us from the 'Old' to the 'Middle' English period somewhere around 1066 (14 October at 4pm) or 1100 or 1150 or 1200 ... It's an arbitrary boundary that has no purchase in the transformation of literature or the experiences of users of language. Within the Humanities, the labelling of periods is an administrative convenience, encouraging bite-sized modules to flesh out degree programmes.

For me, the medieval persists. Its influence and pervasive presence in art, culture, learning and society inform everything that came after. Where would literature be without the sonnet, first brought into English by Chaucer? Where would William Morris have been without the inspiration of the colours, patterns and writing of medieval manuscripts? How enriched contemporary culture is because of the work of Patience Agbabi, Zadie Smith, and Maria Dahvana Headley, each producing brilliant work that weaves new texts from medieval threads.

Such creative adaptations represent clear continuity of earlier traditions and are a far cry from the willfully ignorant appropriation of a false medieval by far-right groups: their distorted tropes of racial and ethnonational purity and misunderstood motifs and events attributed to an imagined past. For many cultures around the world, the 'medieval' never ended because it never existed. Within western culture, it never ended because it never really began.

'When historians look for the end of the medieval era, they are really looking for signs of modernity'
Hasan al-Khoee, research associate at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London
The historian Margreta de Grazia argues that the divide between what is considered 'medieval' and what is considered 'modern' has come to signify what is relevant to us today and what is not. When historians look for the 'end' of the medieval era, they are really looking for signs of modernity. Typically, they find it in the 'Renaissance', the imagined birthplace of modernity. I would suggest, though, that our perception of when the medieval period ended will always change as our own 'modern' identity evolves.

Another problem with this question is that 'medieval' commonly refers only to the Christian Latin-speaking lands of western Europe, excluding the Islamic world. The concept of 'medieval' was invented in 19th-century Europe, shaped by ideologies which drew something of an iron curtain between the Christian West and Islamic East.

If anything, the idea of a 'medieval' era demonstrates the danger of periodisation. It warps our perceptions of history. Developments elsewhere are cut adrift: the emergence of Islam as the culmination of Late Antiquity in the seventh and eighth centuries; the centralised Caliphal states that followed; the Graeco-Arabic translation movements of the ninth century; the 'classical' age of the Islamic philosophical and scientific traditions which followed, that of al-Khawarizmi, al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), al-Razi, Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn Rushd (Averroes). From optics to Aristotelianism to astronomy, to architecture, chemistry and the mechanics of mercantile banking, developments in the Muslim world followed distinct histories periodised on their own terms. We now understand that such an approach does not work: the history of the Islamic world is inseparable from European history, especially the 'birth' of the Renaissance. By including the entirety of the Mediterranean in a revised concept of what medieval means, we may perhaps move away from the tired ideas of western culture's death and rebirth. With our current image of the divide between the medieval and the modern, we deny the continuity of history.

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Bridget Heal, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of St Andrews As a historian of Reformation Germany, I'm duty bound to say that the medieval period ended on 31 October 1517, the day on which Martin Luther supposedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.

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Actually wasn't called that until 17th century--was a network of slums within Paris.

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16 Street Laws in Paris Shaped by the Infamous Court of Miracles

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2. The Court Led to the First Modern Police Force The disdain of begging and the sight of poverty led French politicians to take action against the Court of Miracles in the latter half of the 17th century. Jean-Baptiste Colbert presented King Louis XIV with a proclamation that would establish an office of Lieutenant General ...

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The time of day in medieval Paris was announced by the church bells, which rang eight times during the day and night for the different calls to prayer at the monasteries and churches: Prime, for instance, was at six in the morning, Sext at midday, and Vespers at six in the evening, though later in summer and earlier in the winter. The churches also rang their bell for a daily curfew at seven in the evening in winter and eight in summer. The working day was usually measured by the same bells, ending either at vespers or at the curfew. There was little precision in timekeeping, and the bells rarely rang at exactly the same time.

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Paris, like all large medieval cities, had its share of crime and criminals, though it was not quite as portrayed by Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831). The "Grand Court of Miracles" described by Victor Hugo, a gathering place for beggars who pretended to be injured or blind, was a real place: the Fief d'Alby in the Second Arrondissement between the Rue du Caire and Rue Réaumur. Nonetheless, it did not have the name recorded by Hugo or a reputation as a place the police feared to enter until the 17th century. [44]

The most common serious crime was murder, which accounted for 55 to 80 percent of the major crimes described in court archives. It was largely the result of the strict code of honor in effect in the Middle Ages; an insult, such as throwing a person's hat in the mud, required a response, which often led to a death. A man whose wife committed adultery was considered justified if he killed the other man. In many cases, these types of murders resulted in a royal pardon.[45] Petty crime was common; men did not have pockets in their clothing, but instead carried purses around their necks or on their belts. Thieves cut them loose and ran away.

Heresy and sorcery were considered especially serious crimes; witches and heretics were usually burned, and the king sometimes attended the executions to display his role as defender of the Christian faith. Others were decapitated or hanged. Beginning in about 1314, a large gibet was built on a hill outside of Paris, near the modern Parc des Buttes Chaumont, where the bodies of executed criminals were displayed.

The city's main prison, courts and residence of the Provost of Paris were located in the Grand Châtelet fortress, shown here as it appeared in 1800

Prostitution was a separate category of crime. Prostitutes were numerous and mostly came from the countryside or provincial towns; their profession was strictly regulated, but tolerated. In 1256, the government of Louis IX tried to limit the work areas of prostitutes to certain streets, including the Rue Saint-Denis and Rue Chapon on the Right Bank and the Rue Glatigny on the Île de la Cité, but the rules were difficult to enforce. Prostitutes could be found in taverns, cemeteries, and even in cloisters. Prostitutes were forbidden to wear furs, silks, or jewelry, but regulation was impossible, and their numbers continued to increase.[46]

The Church had its own system of justice for the ten percent of the Paris population who were clerics, including all the students of the University of Paris. Most clerical offenses were minor, ranging from marriage to deviations from official theology. The Bishop had his own pillory on the square in front of Notre Dame, where clerics who had committed crimes could be put on display. For more serious crimes, the Bishop had a prison in a tower adjoining his residence next to the Cathedral, as well as several other prisons for conducting investigations in which torture was permitted. The church courts could condemn clerics to corporal punishment or banishment. In the most extreme cases, such as sorcery or heresy, the Bishop could pass the case to the Provost and civil justice system, which could burn or hang those convicted. This was the process used in the case of the leaders of the Knights Templar. The Abbeys of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Sainte-Geneviève were largely responsible for justice on the Left Bank and had their own pillories and small prisons.[47]

Royal justice was administered by the Provost of Paris, who had his office and his own prison in the Grand Châtelet fortress on the Right Bank at the end of the Pont de la Cité. He and his two examiners were responsible for judging crimes ranging from theft to murder and sorcery. Royal prisons existed in the city; about a third of their prisoners were debtors who could not pay their debts. Wealthier prisoners paid for the own meals and bed, and their conditions were reasonably comfortable. Prisoners were often released and banished, which saved the royal treasury money. Higher crimes, particularly political crimes, were judged by the Parlement de Paris, which was composed of nobles. The death sentence was very rarely given in Paris courts, only four times between 1380 and 1410. Most prisoners were punished with banishment from the city. Beginning in the reign of Philip VI, political executions, while rare, became more frequent; In 1346 a merchant from Compiègne was tried for saying that Edward III of England had a better claim to the French throne than Philip VI; he was taken to the market square of Les Halles and chopped into small pieces in front of a large crowd.[48]

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Names and history.

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Notre-Dame Cathedral has twenty-one bronze bells, of which the "bourdon", the bell in a carillon having the lowest pitch, is the oldest. The bells mark the hours and key moments in the life of the cathedral or in the history of Paris. They all have a first name in homage to an important figure of the Church.

The largest of Notre-Dame's bells is located in the south tower. In campanology, it is called "bourdon". It rings for special occasions such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, or All Saints' Day and for events such as the death or election of the Pope. The bourdon of Notre-Dame was cast in 1683 and baptized Emmanuel by its patron Louis XIV. This bell, considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, rings in F sharp. Its diameter at the base is 2.62 meters with a thickness of 21 cm. It weighs 13 tons, including 500 kilos for its clapper.

In the north tower, four bells ensure the daily ringing of the cathedral offices. They weigh between two and three tons each. The ringing of the bells gives rhythm to the life of the faithful and marks the solemnity of the offices. For all Parisians, they give the time according to the number of strokes of the clapper, or to inform them of great moments in the history of France. This tradition continues today.

Each bell is regularly recast. Since 1769, Notre-Dame Cathedral has had a set of twenty bells:

Eight bells in the north tower

Two "bourdon" in the south tower, named Marie (melted in 1378, 1396, 1402, 1430, 1451 and 1472) and Emmanuel (originally named Jacqueline, this bell was melted in the 14th century, then in 1430, 1451, 1480). In 1680, it was baptized Emmanuel and its weight was increased.

Seven bells in the spire

Three bells at the level of the north transept for the ringing the time.

The French Revolution did not spare the bells of Notre-Dame. They were lowered, broken apart and melted down in 1791 and 1792. Only the Emmanuel bourdon, the centerpiece of the ensemble, was spared and replaced in its tower in 1802 by order of Napoleon I. In 1856, four bells were installed in the north tower and in 1867, three more in the spire then three more in the roof. The six bells were connected to the monumental clock installed in the frame.

The poor quality of the metal of the four bells of the north tower generated harmonic discrepancies and poor acoustic quality. They were all replaced in 2013 with the exception of the Emmanuel bourdon, which is recognized for its sound excellence. The Cornille-Havard foundry in Villedieu-les-Poêles, France produced the bells for the north tower, while the Marie bourdon was produced at the Royal Eijsbouts foundry in the Netherlands.

The choice of first names for the new bells pays tribute to figures who have impacted the life of the diocese and of the Church. The south tower houses the Marie bourdon, whose name pays homage to the mother of Christ, protector of Notre-Dame Cathedral, and in memory of the first Marie bourdon that was in place between 1378 and 1792. The north tower houses eight bells, in decreasing order of size:

Gabriel, in homage to the Angel Gabriel of the Annunciation. The largest bell in the north tower already bore this name in the 15th century.

Anne-Geneviève, in memory of Saint Anne, mother of Mary and of Saint Geneviève, patron saint of Paris.

Denis, in honor of Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris.

Marcel, in honor of Saint Marcel, the ninth bishop of Paris in the 5th century,

Étienne, in memory of the old cathedral church of Paris placed under the protection of Saint Stephen.

Benedict-Joseph, in remembrance of Benedict XVI, who pope at the time of the bells' consecration in 2013, during the 850th anniversary of Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Maurice, in memory of the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully who laid the first stone of the cathedral in 1163.

Jean-Marie, in homage to Cardinal Jean Marie Lustiger, who was the 139th Archbishop of Paris, from 1981 to 2005.

Virginie Bassetti is a foundry artist and a graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Rennes and the École Supérieure d'Art et de Design in Havre-Rouen. Bassetti discovered the art of molten metal during a casting in Marcel Dinahet's workshop. Specialized in the design and creation of contemporary bells decorations, she collaborated with the Cornille-Havard foundry that produced the bells of the north tower. The manufacture of bells requires extreme precision in order to obtain the desired tone. The decorations are made in relief on a mold then the molten metal is poured in, taking the exact shape of the bell.

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Discover the Bells of Notre Dame Cathedral

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Notre-Dame Cathedral has twenty-one bronze bells, of which the "bourdon", the bell in a carillon having the lowest pitch, is the oldest. The bells mark the hours and key moments in the life of the cathedral or in the history of Paris. They all have a first name in homage to an important figure of the Church.

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Being an ethnically ambiguous person comes with a lot of privileges; however, answering the constant questions about my identity is not one them. Like many other exoticized women, I am asked on an almost daily basis: "What are you?" and "Where are you from?" followed up with "No really, where are you from?" after I reply "Brooklyn" to their line of questioning.

When you tell folks in America that you are Romani, nearly 100 percent of the time they will ask if you mean Romanian. Often times, I will reply "No, Romani, which is gypsy but please don't call us that because it's a slur." I've learned that Americans are familiar with the word "gypsy," using it to describe a vagabond, free-spirited lifestyle, and have a faint idea of us as mythical creatures, but are ignorant to the plight of actual Romani people.

So, who are Romani? More importantly, why do we need to remove the word gypsy from our vocabulary?

Simply put, Romani are the largest ethnic minority in Europe, originating from northwest India, migrating through the Middle East, and some through North Africa, to Europe. There are Romani living around the world, with estimates of 10 and 12 million living in Europe and another million in the US . Europeans imposed the word "gypsy" on Romani when they came to Europe, believing that we originated from Egypt because of our dark features . Romani have a history of persecution in Europe; it is estimated by Roma historians that over 70 to 80 percent of the Romani population was murdered in the Holocaust , a fact that is little known or recognized. Even lesser known, Romani experienced chattel slavery in Romania for over 500 years ending in 1860.

Although it is rarely talked about, the situation for Romani has not improved much; we are still victims of hate crimes , receive inadequate health care and housing, experience segregated education , and die in prison . While policies in the US systematically discriminate in covert ways, many of the policies against Romani in Europe are overt, which is apparent through opinions from political officials. In 2013, Zsolt Bayer, co-founder of the Fidesz Party in Hungary, said , "A significant part of the Roma are unfit for coexistence. They are not fit to live among people. These Roma are animals, and they behave like animals. When they meet with resistance, they commit murder. They are incapable of human communication. Inarticulate sounds pour out of their bestial skulls. At the same time, these Gypsies understand how to exploit the 'achievements' of the idiotic Western world. But one must retaliate rather than tolerate. These animals shouldn't be allowed to exist. In no way. That needs to be solved - immediately and regardless of the method."

These ideas are not reduced to words; according to a study by the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups and Anglia Ruskin University, 9 out of 10 Roma children have suffered racial abuse in the UK. In Hungary, 60 percent of Romani live in secluded rural areas, segregated neighborhoods, and settlements. The fact that 90 percent of Romani in Europe live below the poverty line is an even more extreme illustration of current living conditions for Romani.

We cannot have a conversation about the use of "gypsy" without mentioning what it specifically means to be Romani and a woman facing racism, classism and sexism, excluded from traditional feminist and Romani activist movements. Romani women experience particularly disparate treatment in the areas of education, reproductive health care, and in the labor market. Only 1.6 percent of Romani women attend college in Romania, while 90 percent of Romani women are unemployed in Hungary . Romani women in Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were victims of forced sterilization , a practice that ended less than 10 years ago. Romani infant mortality remains an issue; it is double the national average in the Czech Republic . These policies that impact actual lives of Romani women are upheld by cultural attitudes, some of which people don't notice they are perpetuating.

"Her complexion was dark ... She danced, whirled, turned around ... Her large, black eyes flashed lightning ... With her smooth bodice of gold, her colorful dress that swelled with the rapidity of her motions, with her bare shoulders, her finely turned legs that her skirt now and then revealed, her black hair, her flaming eyes, she was a supernatural creature...'In truth,' thought Gringoire, 'she is a magical creature, a nymph, a goddess, a bacchanae of Mount Menelaeus!' At that moment one of the magical creature's tresses came loose, and a piece of yellow brass that had been fastened to it fell to the ground. 'But no,' he said, 'she is a gypsy!' The illusion was shattered."-Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

The media offers two stereotypes of Romani women: the beggar, who is dirty and exploiting social welfare, and a hypersexualized magical being who threatens the patriarchy. So, while the use of the word "gypsy" seems innocent, it is dangerous to Romani women. It conjures up a romanticized image of poverty and sexualization, which doesn't acknowledge that there is nothing romantic about being a victim of institutionalized racism. There is nothing romantic about the link between perceived uncontrollable sexuality and forced sterilization. There is nothing romantic about being a victim of domestic violence but afraid to speak out because law enforcement won't believe you or it will further oppress your community. There is nothing romantic about lacking political power and representation, and being left out of both anti-racist and feminist politics.

However, that doesn't stop the rampant consumerism and pop culture references associated with "gypsy." Just to name a few examples: Shakira's song "Gypsy," Fleetwood Mac's song "Gypsy," Cher's song "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves," and the latest, Netflix's original series Gypsy . There are over 2,000 "gypsy" costumes on Amazon and over 250,000 "gypsy" items for sale on Etsy. When folks unknowingly or knowingly profit off of the word "gypsy," claim they have a "gypsy soul," or use "gypsy aesthetic" for a day at Coachella, they are reinforcing racist stereotypes of Romani women and dehumanizing us. People in the US must recognize the link between the language we use and how cultural depictions inform public policy for marginalized groups. Beyond language and the word gypsy, this is about how gypsies are struggling for liberation, and how Romani women suffer while gadje (non-Romani) profit off of our likeness. So before you put on that coin skirt and scarf, or proclaim your "free-spirited gypsy-ness," remember that we already exist and will be always be gypsies and Romani.

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The "G" Word Isn't for You: How "Gypsy" Erases Romani Women | National Organization for Women

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Being an ethnically ambiguous person comes with a lot of privileges; however, answering the constant questions about my identity is not one them. Like many other exoticized women, I am asked on an almost daily basis: "What are you?" and "Where are you from?" followed up with "No really, where are you from?"

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Louis XI’s Conspiratorial Reign: Who Was the Universal Spider?

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Discover the events which shaped King Louis XI’s reign.

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illustration from about 1500, the Bishop of Paris  in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

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Table of Contents

Feast of Fools, popular festival during the Middle Ages, held on or about January 1, particularly in France, in which a mock bishop or pope was elected, ecclesiastical ritual was parodied, and low and high officials changed places. Such festivals were probably a Christian adaptation of the pagan festivities of the Saturnalia. By the 13th century these feasts had become a burlesque of Christian morality and worship. In spite of repeated prohibitions and penalties imposed by the Council of Basel in 1431, the feasts did not die out entirely until the 16th century.

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Feast of Fools, popular festival during the Middle Ages, held on or about January 1, particularly in France, in which a mock bishop or pope was elected, ecclesiastical ritual was parodied, and low and high officials changed places. Such festivals were probably a Christian adaptation of the pagan festivities of the Saturnalia.

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The ‘Gypsy’ stereotype and the sexualization of Romani women

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The ‘Gypsy’ stereotype and the sexualization of Romani women

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To appear in
Valentina Glajar, ed.
Gypsies in Literature and Culture.
Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007.

Ian Hancock

The Gypsy women and girls . . . are capable of exciting passion of the most ardent description, most particularly in the bosoms of those who are not of their race, which passion of course becomes the more violent when the almost utter impossibility of gratifying it is known.
(Borrow, 1841:I:88)

The fact that the representation of people of colour-and women of colour in particular-has been exoticized and sexualized in the Western perception is nothing new (cf. Burney, 1988, Grant, 2004, Jan Mohamed, 1985, Jiwani, 1992, Lalvani, 1995, Negra, 2001, Parmar, 1984 and Shohat & Stam, 1994). The Romani people, or "Gypsies," have not escaped this portrayal and the literature that examines it is growing rapidly ( cf. Awosusi, 2000, Briel, 1989, Champagne, 2002, Charnon-Deutsch, 2004, Esplugas, 1999, Gabor, 2003, Gordon, 2004, Hancock, 1996, 2002, 2004, Hund, 2000, Iordanova, 2003, Lemon, 1996, Malvinni, 2002, Mayall, 2003, McLaughlan, 2004, Needham, 1920, Nord, 1998, 2001, 2007, Pellegrino, 1998 and Schrevel, 2003).

Romanies are a people originating in Asia, whose ancestors left the north-west of India at the beginning of the 11th century in response to a series of successful Islamic incursions led by Mahmud of Ghazni. The Ghaznavids were defeated in turn in AD 1040 by the Seljuqs-another Muslim people-and their militia and prisoners of war taken into Armenia, which the Seljuqs defeated in AD 1071. The Indian troops and their camp followers were settled in semi-autonomous areas known as beyliks and over the next two centuries crystallized into an ethnic population inhabiting both the Seljuqs' Sultanate of Rûm and the adjoining Byzantine Greek territories. With the westerly expansion of Islam, Anatolia was increasingly encroached upon by the Ottoman Turks and by AD 1300 different groups of Romani people had been pushed up into south-eastern Europe. Here, perhaps half of that population was held in the Balkans in slavery (a condition lasting until 1864) while others were able to move on and spread out into the rest of Europe. There are today some 12 million Romanies throughout the world, with between two and three million living in the Americas and elsewhere, and ca. eight million throughout Europe-thus constituting the largest and most widely dispersed of its many minority peoples. There are nearly twice as many Romanies as there are Danes or Swedes.

When Romanies first appeared in Europe, they were assumed to be a part of the Islamic spread into Christendom, and were identified with the Ottoman Turks. "Turks" as an exonym referring to Romanies is still found today in some places. Other misnomers that have stuck are "Egyptians," resulting in such erroneous labels as Gypsies (earlier 'gypcians), (E)gitanos, Gitans, &c., and the Byzantine Greek nickname z!JF\(("<@4, "(the) don't touch (people)," which has given rise to Zigeuner, Cigan, Tsigane, &c.

While there are mediæval and Renaissance references to an actual Indian origin this fact did not become generally known, and was eventually forgotten even by the Romanies themselves. As a consequence a great many incorrect, and sometimes bizarre, hypotheses were put forward. These included an origin inside the hollow earth, or on the Moon or in Atlantis, that Gypsies were the remnants of a prehistoric race, were Nubians, or Druids, or else were Jews coming out of hiding after the mediæval pogroms, or even that they were a conglomerate drawn from the fringes of European society that artificially dyed their skin and spoke a made-up jargon for the purposes of plotting criminal activity; it is the very existence of this nebulous identity that has contributed to the ease of its manipulation. The real origin was discovered fortuitously in the 1760s when a student at a Dutch university who had learnt some Romani from labourers on his family's estate in Hungary overheard some students from India discussing their own language. Recognizing similarities, he passed the information along and eventually it became public knowledge through the first book ever written on the subject (Grellmann, 1783).

The publication of Grellmann's book during the Enlightenment, and which appeared in an English edition in 1807, coincided with the emergence of a number of scientific disciplines, including botany and zo`logy. The need to categorize the plants and animals being encountered in the new European colonies overseas quickly extended to the classification of non-European human populations as well, and the 19th century saw a plethora of dissertations dealing with "race" and the ranking of human groups-not only in terms of their perceived genetic, social and technological advancement, but in terms of gender as well. Even Charles Darwin employed clearly biased language when he referred to "the uniform appearance in various parts of the world of Gypsies and Jews . . . contrast[ing] sharply with all the virtues represented by the territorially settled and 'culturally advanced' Nordic Aryan race;" he maintained further that "man is more courageous, pugnacious and energetic than woman, and has a more inventive genius" (Darwin, 1871:557).

The notion that "race mixing" was dangerous both genetically and socially became to an ever-increasing degree the focus of such studies-not only because those born of unions between Europeans and colonized peoples of colour were thought to have aspirations of political equality that could eventually challenge European dominance overseas, but because it was already believed that the product of "race mixing" resulted in the worst traits of both parents emerging in their offspring; thus describing their "bastard brood," Smith (1744: 213) said "whatever is bad among the Europeans and the Negroes is united in them, so that they are the sink of both." Founder-gypsilorist R.A. Scott Macfie, writing about "pure Gypsies" (1913: 73) said "half-breeds-posh-rats as they are called-combine the vices of both nations, and by some malignant law of nature, shed the good qualities." Bartels & Brun cautioned that "nothing good has come from a crossing between a Gipsy and a white person" (1943: 5). In the American South the reaction to racial integration and the inevitability of intermarriage was most forcefully voiced by a judge who in a 1955 court case ruled that the state's purpose was "to prevent the corruption of blood (and . . . ) the creation of a mongrel breed of citizens'' (Naim vs. Naim, in Sollors, 2002: 15; see also Zack, 1933, especially pp. 77, 83-4).

That non-European blood would contaminate the gene-pool of Hitler's envisioned Aryan "master race" was the underlying rationale for the intended extermination of Romanies and Jews during the Holocaust (Hancock, 2002: 34-52). The small African and Afro-European population in Nazi-controlled Europe was eradicated even before the Holocaust began.

Because of its forbidden nature, miscegenation acquired an attraction that journalists were quick to exploit; depictions of sexual encounters between colonized or enslaved women of colour and white males in their position of control found a ready place in Victorian literature. The erotic photography of the late 19th century consisted largely of naked African or Asian women (Stenger, 1931). That magazines such as National Geographic have traditionally never included photographs of unclothed white women merely helped carry that double standard into the 20th century.

The oldest organization devoted to the study of the Romani people was the Gypsy Lore Society, established in 1888 and still in existence. Some of its male members-all non-Romanies-referred to themselves as ryes, a self-designation interpreted to mean one who had gained privileged entrée into the Romani world, but which in Romani itself (as rai) means a person in a position of authority, including "lord" and "policeman." For some ryes at least, it seems to have had a more specific in-group meaning: managing to bed a Romani woman. Thus in a letter dated November 6th, 1908 Augustus John wrote to fellow gypsilorist Scott Macfie

I have recently taken it upon myself to confer the title of Rai upon a friend of mine-one Percy Wyndham Lewis, whose qualifications, the having coupled and lived in a state of copulation with a wandering Spanish romi in Brittany, seemed to me upon reflection to merit the honourable and distinctive title of our confraternity.

* * *

Westerners were (and still are) much more familiar with the enslavement of Africans in the Americas than they were with the enslavement of Romanies in Europe, and because of this, inaccurate portrayals of Gypsies relied upon the literary clichés of the period, describing in stereotypical terms the kind of slave a Victorian audience was more likely to have encountered in the literature. Ozanne wrote that the Romani slaves in Wallachia had "crisp hair and thick lips, with a very dark complexion, [and . . .] a strong resemblance to the negro physiognomy and character" (1878: 62, 65); St. John wrote that "the men are generally of lofty stature, robust and sinewy. Their skin is black or copper-coloured; their hair, thick and woolly; their lips are of negro heaviness, and their teeth white as pearls; the nose is considerably flattened, and the whole countenance is illumined, as it were, by lively, rolling eyes" (1853: 140). An anonymous writer three years later wrote "on a heap of straw in the middle, in the full heat of the blazing sun, lay four gipsies asleep. They were all four tall, powerful men, with coal-black hair as coarse as rope, streaming over faces of African blackness" ( Anon., 1856: 273).

Sexual preoccupation also fixated on non-white men, believed to be consumed with lust for white women. That not all of the latter seemed quite so bothered by such a notion must simply have compounded this male insecurity; in contrast to Smith's dim view of the "mulattoes" in West Africa (above), one 19th century visitor to the same region named Mrs. Bowdich found them "handsome, generally tall and gracefully formed, and very elegant" (Mahoney, 1965: 126). The early 20th century practice of castrating African Americans by racist mobs directly underscored a sexual fear, and male Romani slaves in the Balkans were likewise seen as a threat to white womanhood. Among them there was a category called the skopitsi ( scopi Û i), men who had been castrated as boys and whose job it was to drive the coaches of the women of the aristocracy without their being in fear of molestation. This was reflected in the Moldavian Civil code at that time, which stated that "if a Gypsy slave should rape a white woman, he would be burnt alive" (Section 28), but if a Romanian should "meet a girl in the road" and "yield to love . . . he shall not be punished at all" (Section 39; Panaitescu, 1928: 14, see also Hancock, 1987).

Perhaps related to this emasculation of the non-white male is the literary tradition of having white men, in Gayatri Spivak's words, "saving brown women from brown men" (1988: 294; see also Cooke, 2002). Shehrezade Ali (1996: 2) has strongly criticized Disney's film The Hunchback of Notre Dame for creating a subliminal racial bias in the developing social attitudes of children:

To date, none of Disney's white female characters have been mated with Black or non-white suitors, yet the animated women-of-color are exclusively tied to white men, embracing them and ignoring their own races. Is this Disney's attempt to be inclusive? . . . Why does Disney put women-of-color in romantic situations with white men instead of men of color?, and what kind of subliminal message do you think it sends to little Black or Gypsy girls by repeatedly implying that the only hero or savior they have is a white male?, and what about little Black or Gypsy boys who have yet to see themselves in a strong hero role in a Disney film? What about their self-esteem?" [it . . .] makes visual a continuing racist myth that every woman on the planet, whether Black or white, has only one everlasting hero-a white man.¹

One recurrent feature in plots of this type is that the love interest turns out not to be a Romani after all, but a high-born white girl who was "stolen by Gypsies" as a child and subsequently rescued, thus making the romantic attraction acceptable as well as admirable. The folk ballad The Whistling Gypsy tells of a young woman leaving her home to follow her roaming Romany; societal fears are allayed in the last verse: "but he is no Gypsy my father dear, he's lord of these lands all over" (Quinn, 2001). This is in fact a literary cliché: the hidden identity revealed, thereby legitimizing the union (Shakespeare's Fawnia in The Winter's Tale comes to mind, or Cervantes' Preciosa in La Gitanilla).

Populations of colour were seen furthermore as unclean, both spiritually and physically. Hoyland repeated the Elizabethan belief that the Romanies' dark skin was simply due to dirt: "Gypsies would long ago have been divested of their swarthy complexions, had they discontinued their filthy mode of living" (1816: 39-40). Celia Esplugas, in her grossly misinformed essay (which claims, for instance, that "whether Gypsies originate in either Egypt or India is a matter that has not been settled") explains that "the Gypsies' cleanliness and hygiene failed to meet English standards" (1999: 148).

Kenrick and Puxon believe that the present-day hatred of Romanies is a folk memory that dates from their earliest appearance in Europe, and stems from the mediæval conviction "that blackness denotes inferiority and evil, [which] was well rooted in the western mind. The nearly black skins of many Gypsies marked them out to be victims of this prejudice" (1972: 19). European folklore contains a number of references to the Romanies' complexion: a Greek proverb says "go to the Gypsy children and choose the whitest," and in Yiddish, "the same sun that whitens the linen darkens the Gypsy," and "no washing ever whitens the black Gypsy." A widespread self-ascription in Romani is Kalé, which means 'Blacks', while Caucasian gadjé (non-Romanies) are referred to in the same language as parné or parnorré "whites," even by fair-skinned Romanies who might now be physically indistinguishable from them. The latter were remarked upon by the French traveller Félix Colson, who visited a slave-holding estate in Romania in the 1830s: "Their skins are hardly brown; some of them are blonde and beautiful;" and while this resulted from the established practice of offering female Romani slaves as unwilling sexual entertainment to visitors, they were given such degrading house-names as Bronze, Dusky, Dopey, Toad, Witch, Camel, Dishrag or Whore by their owners (Colson, 1839: 49). In her novel set in the time of Romani slavery Prince of One Summer, Roberte Roleine (1979: 111) described this scenario:

In the evening, the master makes his choice among the beautiful girls- maybe he will offer some of them to the guest-whence these light-skinned, blonde-haired Gypsies. The offspring from these unwelcome sexual unions automatically became slaves. It was this exploitation which was largely responsible for the fact that many Gypsies are now fair-skinned.

While she could be thus used, a Romani woman could not become the legal wife of a white man. Performing such a marriage was considered "an evil and wicked deed," and a priest doing so was excommunicated, as stated in an anti-miscegenation proclamation issued in 1776 by Constantin, Prince of Moldavia:

[I]n some parts Gypsies have married Moldavian women, and also Moldavian men have taken in marriage Gypsy girls, which is entirely against the Christian faith, for not only have these people bound themselves to spend all their life with the Gypsies, but especially that their children remain forever in unchanged slavery . . . such a deed being hateful to God, and contrary to human nature . . . any priest who has had the audacity to perform such marriages, which is a great and everlasting wicked act . . . will be removed from his post and severely punished (Ghibanescu, 1921: 119-120).

Those who have written about the treatment of the slaves have believed, probably as a salve to their own consciences, that Romanies were actually well-disposed to such barbarity: Lecca (1908: 181) maintained that "once they were made slaves . . . it seems that they preferred this state," and Paspati (1861: 149) wondered whether Romanies didn't in fact "subject themselves voluntarily" to bondage because of the "mild treatment" from their owners. Emerit (1930: 132) believed that "despite clubbings which the slave-owners meted out at random, the Gypsies did not altogether hate this tyrannical regime, which once in a while took on a paternal quality."

Together with imagined uninhibited pagan ( i.e. non-Christian) behaviour, the pathologized, Janus-faced image that emerged both fascinated and at the same time repulsed; George Borrow was said to have both "despised yet intimately loved" Gypsies (Thomas, 1924: vij). The Augustinian phrase inter urinam et fæces sedet amor well reflects this paradox, which in the case of people of colour might also allude to skin pigmentation. Reference to the same two-way attraction but attributed this time to Gypsy men finds a place on the cover of Connie Mason's new novel Gypsy Lover (2005): "The arrogant gypsy had swept [the 'lovely Lady Esme Harcourt'] into his arms at a county fair, awakening both her desire and her disdain."

Bayle St. John (1853: 142), who based his anonymously-written account wholly on Grellman and who (like Carmen's creator Bizet) had never met an actual Romani in his life, wrote that Gypsies were "a very handsome race, the women especially. These bold, brown, beautiful women only make one astonished to think how such eyes, teeth and figures can exist in the stifling atmosphere of their tents." It was furthermore his painful duty to admit to his prudish Victorian readership that he was "sorry to be obliged to add that both men and women are, as a rule, exceedingly debauched"-bongobongoistic editorializing ex-pressly calculated to titillate and shock, as well as being a claim safe from academic challenge (Douglas, 1970: 15-16). Esplugas writes that "distrust of the Gypsies' moral standards extended to their sexual behavior," and that non-Gypsy men were "attracted to the mystery of this roaming race, to the beauty of the Gypsy women, or to their free lifestyle . . . [their] refusing to be tamed" ( op. cit., 148-9, 152). Helbig (2004: 1) elaborates:

The alleged lack of morals among the Gypsies was vehemently applied to the critique of their sexual practices and their disregard for decency and respect toward the body, especially by Gypsy women. In much of the art, music, and literature of the 19th century, the female Gypsy in particular was characterized and stereotyped as free-spirited, strong, deviant, demanding, sexually arousing, alluring, and dismissive. This romantic construct of the Gypsy woman may be viewed in direct opposition to the proper, controlled, chaste, submissive woman held as the Victorian European ideal. This 'oriental' fascination with the forbidden and taboo world of the Gypsy other in music is best characterized in the opera Carmen.

Judith Okely, who makes it abundantly clear how hygiene-conscious and conservative Romani culture actually is, points to George Borrow as being largely responsible for this pervasive stereotype, both in his books about English Romani life (1851, 1857), and particularly in his influential description of the Calé in Spain (1841). This latter, together with Carmen's enticing appearance in 1875 made that of the Spanish Gitana the default image. She writes that "in England, a stereotype of the Spanish Gypsy is often thought to be typical, and is often depicted in popular paintings: a black-haired girl in dJcolletage, with flounced skirts and swaggering walk, hand on hip . . . sexually available and promiscuous in her affections" (1983: 201). An illustrated novella about Romanies in Romania has the women in flamenco attire complete with castanets (shown here -- Labois, 1954: 18. See also Charnon-Deutsch, 2004).

Male attitudes such as those of St. John and others are still with us. In 1981 an article appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine written by martial arts specialist Dave Lowry entitled "What it's like to be a Gypsy Girl." A clue to the motivation for a grown white man to tackle the topic in the first place is in his references to "male libido" and "endless erotic fantasies" in his very first paragraph, and while he claims to have allowed a young Romani girl "Sabinka" to speak for herself, it's clear that Sabinka is Dave Lowry, who had gathered bits and pieces for his highly misleading story from the then easily-available sources-probably Gropper or Sutherland or Wood, all of which appeared during the previous decade.

It will be a while yet before an accurate depiction of Romanies-and Romani women-is the one that comes first to mind; The New Yorker magazine recently referred in its pages to "assertive women-'female scholars, priestesses, gypsies, mystics, nature lovers'" (Boyer, 2006:36), as though all those categories were behaviours or occupations. The pervasiveness of this exotic image is nowhere more in evidence than on the eBay Internet auction site, where "sexy gypsy-wicca blouses" and the like account for almost all of the over two thousand "gypsy" offerings posted there daily. Another site, "The Gypsy," informs the visitor that "Gypsies are normally dark skinned with bold flashing eyes; however it is not unusual to find golden or crimson haired Gypsies . . . most Gypsies live in traveling wagons called vardos . . . the campfire is the center of Gypsy family life." Two other sites providing details of Romani culture belong to Morrghan Savistr'i-Lovara, an "American born Rom woman in her Mid 20's" and Allie Theiss, a "descendant of Rom gypsies of Transylvania." On her website Ms. Savistr'i-Lovara says she is "a practicing Chaos Mage as well as Shuvani (think Romani Shaman) [who is] currently working to devise some Roma rituals for cleansing and purification that are newer and less complex that the traditional ones . . . most Rom do not do them because of the scarcity of materials as well as the amount of time they take to properly perform. [She is] owned by two cats names Fuzzface and Mr. Pants." Allie Theiss in her books on Gypsy love magic (2005a, 2005b) tells the reader that that "no one knows where the Roma originated," but

no matter their original origins, Gypsies, or Romas, are prized for their remarkable psychic abitilites and the gift to attract good fortune or upset a life with a curse. All are born with such gifts, but what makes their powers so innate is their relationship with nature. Their bond with the spirits of the outdoors allow[s] their gifts to evolve naturally . . . no longer do they wander the earth in a horse-drawn caravan, but are modernized and travel by car, bus and plane. The very definition of "free spirits" . . .

Three titles recently-acquired by the Romani Archives at The University of Texas are Sasha White's Gypsy Heart ("Can a man bent on settling down convince a free-spirited woman that doesn't believe in 'happily ever after' to risk her Gypsy Heart? Warning: this book contains explicit sex explained in graphic detail with contemporary language"), Isabella Jordan's Gypsies, Tramps and Heat: An Anthology of Erotic Romance ("Lose yourself in the dark eyes and crystal ball of a gypsy lover")and Alison Mackie's series The Gypsy Chronicles ("Upon each matrimonial bed that Tzigany de Torres makes, he bestows a potent charm, one which guarantees a lifetime of pleasurable love making . . . with his matchmaker wife, Gitana"). She adds "What qualifies me to write about Gypsies? . . . I had an Andalusian Gypsy nanny by the name of Ahalita" 2006: 182), a justification not unknown among white writers about the black experience (see for example Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees). Thus Romani identity still remains to a great extent controlled by the non-Romani world, by Hollywood and by novelists and journalists like those exemplified here.

That an ethnic label might be applied metaphorically is not necessarily offensive, but it often can be. Stereotypes need not be malicious as long as they are recognized as just that-stereotypes. We know that Hollywood gangland Mafiosi don't represent all Italians and we learn in school at the same time about the contributions of Botticelli, Leonardo and Michelangelo. Today, with increased media coverage and access to informative websites such as Patrin and Radoc, ignorance can no longer be used as an excuse if writers do their homework. The general public is coming to understand that the literary "Gypsies" (or more usually "gypsies") are something quite different from the actual Romanies, whose real story is both complex and moving-so reasons for the relentless perpetuation of the myth must be sought elsewhere, and the consequences of so doing examined. We don't want to say goodbye to Carmen and Esmeralda and their fictional sisters, but we should recognize them for who and what they really are.

Note

1. For Disney, the message is there even where non-human females are involved. The mermaid Ariel rejects her "merman Talassio who's so boring he'll put you to sleep" and grows legs in order to be with Prince Alex, "tall, dark-haired and incredibly handsome . . . the most beautiful human she'd ever seen!" (McLain, 2003: 26, 31). It was Disney too who perpetuated the "Gypsies steal children" myth with the character Stromboli in his Pinocchio, and the image of Gypsies as robbers and cheats in his version of Robin Hood. Gypsies as thieves and sorcerers have also been stock material in such children's cartoons and movies as Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, The Simpsons, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Daddy Daycare, Corsican Brothers, etc.

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Ian Hancock
xulaj@mail.utexas.edu
http://www.radoc.net
April 2007

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To appear in Valentina Glajar, ed. Gypsies in Literature and Culture. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007. Ian Hancock The Gypsy women and girls . . . are capable of exciting passion of the most ardent description, most particularly in the bosoms of those who are not of their race, which passion of course becomes the more violent when the almost utter impossibility of gratifying it is known.

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Throughout history to the present day, the Roma people have frequently been deprived of their basic human rights, dignity, and freedoms. They contend with the long-term impacts of a stigmatized identity as well as current and transgenerational trauma.

The mission of the Roma Peoples Project (RPP) - launched five years ago, on November 14, 2017, at the Center for Justice at Columbia University - is to bring the field of Roma Studies to the forefront of academic and public consciousness. Roma Studies are missing from most of the universities in the United States and worldwide. The RPP has created a space for research and new narratives, where questions of Roma identity, diversity, and representation are addressed. The RPP seeks to empower marginalized groups who have suffered from discrimination, stigma, and lack of inclusion within mainstream society.

The Roma: A Brief Description

The Roma are a global population of approximately 12 million people, constituting the largest ethnic minority in Europe. An estimated one million Roma live in the United States, one of the largest populations outside of Europe. New York, a city that has long been a hub of migration and culture, has an especially high density of Roma residents.

The Roma do not have their own state. As a dispersed people, they don't have a narrative of a collective homeland or of a return to one. Most Roma have been settled in their countries of citizenship for generations, but they are often unable to access formal structures of governance and have few institutions that represent them.

Some Roma migrate from their countries of origin to seek freedom from discrimination or to find seasonal work. Only certain Roma subgroups have gone through periods of nomadism. However, the public perception and externally-created identity of a peripatetic lifestyle continue to marginalize the Roma.

In fact, the pejorative slur of "Gypsy" in its various European guises has come to signal this misunderstanding of the way most Roma live. Many Roma prefer to hide their ethnic identity for fear of discrimination or social exclusion.

Evidence suggests that Roma began an overland migration out of northern India about a thousand years ago, eventually making their way to Europe. They suffered a long history of slavery, and, like the Jewish population of Europe, were targeted by the Nazis for racial persecution and annihilation. Throughout history to the present day, Roma have been forcefully assimilated, scapegoated, and regarded through the lens of prejudice and stereotype.

Historical stigma, statelessness, racism, mobility, and marginalization has shaped the Roma condition over many centuries. Investigating these issues does not only serve the Roma themselves but also helps other groups facing similar challenges due to war, climate change, economic precarity, and other forms of oppression.

The Roma Peoples Project: Our Vision and Mission

We envision a world where Roma people can reach their full potential and be respected as equals.

Our mission is to advance innovative scholarship, including nuanced and accurate representations of Roma, to make these studies accessible to the Columbia University community and to a wider audience, within the United States as well as abroad.

The Roma Peoples Project was founded by Cristiana Grigore, an internationally recognized Roma scholar since 2010, conducting research at Columbia University for the past eight years. RPP has a team of academic advisors, core collaborators and volunteers, a board of mentors, and supporters and participants in our programs and activities.

We welcome and appreciate your support.

If you wish to donate to the Roma Peoples Project, please use the button below and follow the instructions on the Columbia Giving donation portal.

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Throughout history to the present day, the Roma people have frequently been deprived of their basic human rights, dignity, and freedoms. They contend with the long-term impacts of a stigmatized identity as well as current and transgenerational trauma.

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The Struggle for Survival of the Roma People: Europe's Most Hated

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Although the word "sanctuary" is often traced back only as far as the Greek and Roman empires, the concept itself has likely been part of human cultures for thousands of years. The idea that persecuted persons should be given a place of refuge is ancient, perhaps even primordial, deriving itself from basic features of human altruism. In studying the concept across many cultures and times, anthropologists have found sanctuary to be a highly universal notion, one which appears in almost all major religious traditions and in a variety of diverse geographies. "Cities of refuge" as described by the Book of Numbers and Deuteronomy in the Old Testament, as well as the Bedouin idea of nazaala, or the "taking of refuge", indicate a strong tradition of sanctuary in the Middle East and Northern Africa. In the Americas, many native tribes shared similar practices, particularly in the face of invading European powers. Despite tensions between groups, many tribes still offered and received sanctuary, taking in those who had fled their tribal lands or feared persecution by the Spanish, English, and French.[2]