Language yéniche

The language yéniche (German: Jenische Sprache ) is the Sociolecte or cryptolecte of the Yéniche S, i.e. certain marginalized groups which carried out since several generations a wandering life or seminomad in Germany and in the neighbouring countries, and which, although socially close to the Rrom S, is of a different origin which would be to determine rather in social terms that in ethnic terms.

This language is characterized by a German grammar and a lexicon made up which derives its elements from German (especially of the dialects of the German superior), of the Yiddish (of the Western alternative which was not subject to the slavic influence yet), and of the Rromani, with a minor number of loans of other languages Europeans (especially French and Italian). From the linguistic point of view, the yéniche by its structure and its lexicon is identical to, or is a late alternative of " Rotwelsch ", traditional and older term (attested since 1250) to indicate the alternatives of the Slang " classes dangereuses" in the countries of German language. The name Rotwelsch is challenged besides by certain representatives of the yéniches which look it like discriminatory and inappropriate for what, in their opinion, would be an own language of nobler and old origins, according to some even of Celtic origin.

The word " Jenisch" is attested for the first time in 1714, in a text which quotes " jenische Sprach" as the name which certain criminals in the gastronomical mediums of Vienna (Austria) had given to their slang (" eine gewisse Rendens-Arth…, welche sy die jenische Sprach nennen"), slang which, according to this document, was useful to them with better hiding their secrecies (" ihre Schelmereien desto besser zu verbergen"), and which, to consider other examples quoted, was other thing only one alternative of traditional Rotwelsch. Like etymology of the word " jenisch" one had initially proposed Yiddish roots or Hebraic (of jônêh " frauduleux" , or of jedio " science, conaissance"), while aujourd' today one derives it from Rromani džan- (" to know, connaître"): the language yéniche is thus the language of those " who savent" , i.e. initiates, according to the same logic which gave birth to " Kochemerloschen" (attested since the 19th century, of Yiddish chochom " wise, intelligent" and loschon " langue") like one of the names of Rotwelsch.

With 18th and 19th centuries, the word " jenisch" is adopted in the official documents and the criminological literature like synonym of " gaunerisch" or " jaunerisch" (hooligan), while in slang this word (with phonetic alternatives like " jännisch" , " jähnisch" , " jennisch") is attested with the direction " scientist, intelligent" and like car-designation of the speakers and to speak to them. It is especially during the critical reflection on the persecution suffered by the yéniches at the time of the Nazism and, in a different way, in Switzerland until the years 1970, that the word " jenisch" and the language yéniche played a big role in the attempts to build or recover an cultural identity and linguistics of what, from this point of view, appears as the people yéniche.

Writers yéniches

The yéniche Swiss Peter Paul Moser (1926-2003) published under his own edition an autobiography in three volumes with reproductions of documents of the period when it was victim of the Hilfswerks Kinder der Landstrasse . The yéniche Swiss Venanz Nobel (born in 1956) publishes in German language of the articles on the history yéniche and the current life of the yéniches.

Examples of words in language yéniche

Lex following examples were indicated by speakers or familiar of the language yéniche, but were not checked by means of the linguistic literature.

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