a variant of the language
Printa variant of the language
In previous literature, Lomavren spoken by Armenian Gypsies (Lom or Bosha) defined as a mixed language consisting of the vocabulary of Indo-Aryan, original words shared by the entire Gypsy dialects, loans from Iranian and especially Armenian grammar (Voskanian 2002; Scala 2014). However, it was determined that a different variant of Lomavren emerged and is still spoken by Poshas in Çankırı in Anatolia under the influence of Turkish. Posha community is known as ‘gypsies’ (cingene ~ Cingan), sieve maker (elekci), or bundler (bohcaci) which are equivalents of ‘gypsy’ in Turkish by the general public but self-identifies as ‘Posha’. Speakers are multilingual, living in partial isolation from the rest of the local monolingual people. This dialect can be defined as a mixed language, but it has a specific system by using Armenian and Turkish linguistic items (Demir & Üzüm 2014; Üzüm & Demir 2017; Demir & Üzüm 2018).
1. Üzüm, Melike, and Nurettin Demir. 2017. Minority Language Education and Policy in Turkey: The Case of Cankiri Poshas. Journal of Universality of Global Education Issues, 4: 1-21.
2. Voskanian, Vardan 2002. The Iranian Loan-Words in Lomavren, the Secret Language of the Armenian Gypsies. Iran and the Caucasus, 6 (1-2): 169-180.
3. Demir, Nurettin, and Melike Üzüm 2014. Çankırı Poşaları. In: Mehmet Özmen Armağanı, Edited by Nurettin Demir, Faruk Yıldırım. Çukurova Üniversitesi Yayınları, pp.137-152.
4. Demir, Nurettin, and Melike Üzüm. 2018. Some remarks on the Poshas of Çankırı. In: Linguistic Minorities in Turkey and Turkic-speaking Minorities of the Peripheries, Turcologica 111, Edited by Christiane Bulut. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, pp. 73-88.
We will add Lomavren (Posha) [rmi] as a language in Turkey, for inclusion in the next edition of the Ethnologue.


Comments
Dear Melile,
Thank you for this information on the Poshas of Cankiri in Turkey.
I have a few questions about the language that the Turkish Poshas speak. Is it intelligible with the Armenian Lomavren (Bosha) variety? Would you consider it to be a dialect/variant of the same language as Lomavren [rmi], which has been classified as a "mixed Armenian-Romani" language? Would you classify the Turkish variety as a "mixed Turkish-Romani" language?
Best regards,
Charles Fennig
Managing Editor, Ethnologue
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