Boyash

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File:Bayaches faiseurs de cuilleres.png-makers") from Transilvania]]

The Boyash or Băieși (in Romanian) are a branch/caste of the Roma who were forced to settle in the 14th century in the Apuseni Mountains, located in Transylvania, and work as slaves in mining (a regionalism for mine in Romanian: "baie," from Middle Age Slavonic).{{cite book |last1=Orsós |first1=Anna |last2=Kálmán |first2=László |title=Beás nyelvtan |trans-title=Boyash Hungarian Gypsy Language Grammar |publisher=MTA nyelvtudományi Tinta |publication-place=Budapest |year=2009 |isbn=9789639902251|oclc=895419776 |language=hu |page=}}{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

At the end of the 16th century the Boyash started migrating towards the south, in Wallachia, and the east, in Moldavia, where they were held as slaves together with other Romani groups (until the slavery was abolished in 1855–56).{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

Another name for the Boyash, Rudari, comes from the Slavic ruda ("metal", "ore"). As the mines became inefficient, the Boyash people were forced to readjust by earning their living making wood utensils (Lingurari means "spoon-makers" in Romanian; also cf. Serbian ruda, Hungarian rúd, Romanian rudă meaning "relative", but also "rod, pole, stick"). The nickname Kashtale ("wood-workers") was also given to them by the Romani-speaking Roma and it has remained in Romani as a more general word for a Rom who does not speak Romani.{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

After the point at which they began to make wood tools they scattered themselves in isolated communities. The consequence of this is that nowadays they speak a distinct archaic dialect of Romanian, with borrowings from other surrounding languages.{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

File:Bayache portant des petrins.png

After the liberation of the Roma from slavery (by the middle of the 19th century), many emigrated to other countries, especially Hungary and the Balkans, but also as far as the Americas, South Africa and Australia.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3A2bGG3_NAYC&q=gypsy+slavery+australia&pg=PA23 | title=Roma in Europe| isbn=9789287160515| last1=Liégeois| first1=Jean-Pierre| last2=Europe| first2=Council of| date=January 2007| publisher=Council of Europe}}

In 1993, about 14,000 of the 280,000 recorded Hungarian Roma were Boyash.{{Cite book|last=Kenrick|first=Donald|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/263614930|title=Historical dictionary of the Gypsies (Romanies)|date=2007|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6440-5|edition=2nd|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=263614930}}

In Croatia, the Boyash are settled in several small communities along the Hungarian border in the regions of Međimurje, the Podravina, Slavonija and Baranja with an overflow of settlers living in the Apatin county of Vojvodina, Serbia.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M10xAQAAIAAJ&q=boyash |title = Studies about Boyash Gypsies in Hungary|last1 = Bódi|first1 = Zsuzsanna|year = 1997| publisher=Magyar Néprajzi Társaság |isbn = 9789630387828}} 2005 saw the Boyash language of Croatia published in its own alphabet for the first time in the Catholic Catechism, published by the HBK Glas Koncila in Zagreb.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M10xAQAAIAAJ&q=Baranya+boyash | title=Studies about Boyash Gypsies in Hungary| last1=Bódi| first1=Zsuzsanna| year=1997| publisher=Magyar Néprajzi Társaság| isbn=9789630387828}} In 2007, the first Bible—a children's Bible—was published by OM EAST in Austria and facilitated by The Romani Bible Union.{{Cite web|url=http://www.hungarianreview.com/print/20150514_bibles_for_communist_europe_a_cold_war_story_part_1|title=Bibles for Communist Europe – A Cold War Story – Part I - Hungarian Review|website=www.hungarianreview.com|access-date=2019-07-26|archive-date=2021-09-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916154135/http://www.hungarianreview.com/print/20150514_bibles_for_communist_europe_a_cold_war_story_part_1|url-status=dead}}

In English, the commonly accepted name for the ethnic group is Boyash, however in contemporary Bulgaria the terms Ludari and Rudari are in common use, while in Romania both terms are present in some form: Rudari and Băieși.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SyVUCLJsqoEC&q=rudari+B%C4%83ie%C5%9Fi+romania&pg=PA12 |title = The Council of Europe and Roma: 40 Years of Action|isbn = 9789287169457|last1 = Liégeois|first1 = Jean-Pierre|date = January 2012| publisher=Council of Europe }}

For the same ethnic group in Hungary and Croatia the terms Beyash and Bayash (Bajaši) are now officially used.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXUdAAAAQBAJ&q=Bayash+croatia+hungary&pg=PT124 | title=Roma Education in Europe: Practices, policies and politics| isbn=9781136280658| last1=Miskovic| first1=Maja| date=2013-07-18| publisher=Routledge}} The ethnonym Banyash ("miner") in Serbia is known only among the group settled in Bačka region, living along the river Danube, near the border with Croatia and Hungary.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GAxAQAAIAAJ&q=croatia+boyash+Hungarian+border |title = The Gypsies/The Roma in Hungarian Society|isbn = 9789638577467|last1 = Kállai|first1 = Ernő|year = 2002| publisher=Teleki László Foundation }} This term is only sporadically understood, and not used among some other Banyash groups in the Serbian Banat region, e.g. the village of Uljma.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KV8xAQAAIAAJ&q=Banyash+serbian+banat |title = Banjaši na Balkanu: Identitet etničke zajednice|last1 = Sikimić|first1 = Biljana|year = 2005| publisher=Balkanološki institut SANU |isbn = 9788671790482}}

They are also known by many appellations based on trades; in addition to Rudari/Ludari ("miners", from Serbian and Bulgarian ruda "ore, metal") they are known as Kopanari ("cradle-makers", from Serbian and Bulgarian kopanja "wooden box"), Koritari ("trough-makers"), Lingurara ("spoon-makers", cf. Romanian lingură "spoon") and Ursari (cf. Romanian urs "bear") or Mechkara ("bear-trainers").{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lpBHAM3qafwC&q=Mechkara&pg=PA330 |title = Between Past and Future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe|isbn = 9781902806075|last1 = Guy|first1 = Will|year = 2001| publisher=Univ of Hertfordshire Press }}

Education in the Romanian language is available only for the Banyash living in Romanian villages in the Serbian Banat, as well as in Hungary, in the subdialect of the Romanian language spoken by Boyash communities in (central and western) Hungary.Cf. a (.pdf) paper issued by the Hungarian ministry of education (as of May 25, 2006) containing the official schools curriculum for Boyash pupils, reading, writing and the type of tests and examinations in their language, which is based on the Romanian subdialects spoken in western Transylvania (esp. in Crișana) and Banat, containing numerous borrowings from the Hungarian language; the script is an adaptation based on Hungarian and Romanian graphems :{{cite web|title=Beás nyelv emelt szintű írásbeli vizsga, 2006|url=http://www.oh.gov.hu/letolt/okev/doc/erettsegi_2006/e_beas_06maj_fl.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317013907/http://www.oh.gov.hu/letolt/okev/doc/erettsegi_2006/e_beas_06maj_fl.pdf|archive-date=2012-03-17|access-date=2011-03-29}} .

During the last few years there have been several attempts on behalf of local non-governmental organizations in East Bačka region to introduce optional classes in Romanian.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XYQfAAAAQBAJ&q=boyash&pg=PA17 |title = Gypsies: The Hidden Americans|isbn = 9781478610410|last1 = Sutherland|first1 = Anne|date = July 1986}} According to 2004 field research data, only two such projects are still going on there: optional classes in Romanian in the village of Vajska, and kindergarten in the local Ardeal dialect in Bački Monoštor, attended by 20 pupils altogether.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-m3HfFHv1dUC&q=boyash&pg=PA308 |title = Language, a Right and a Resource: Approaching Linguistic Human Rights|isbn = 9789639116641|last1 = Kontra|first1 = Mikl¢s|date = January 1999| publisher=Central European University Press }}

Notes

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

• [http://epa.oszk.hu/00400/00476/00001/pdf/05.pdf Kemény, István: The Structure of Hungarian Roma Groups in Light of Linguistic Changes]
• Biljana Sikimić, Linguistic Research of Small Exogamic Communities: the Case of Banyash Roumanians in Serbia
• Hancock, Ian. [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027175222/http://geocities.com/~Patrin/pariah-contents.htm The Pariah Syndrome] 1987.
• Kahl, Thede. "The Rudari in Greece." Sorescu-Marinković, Annemarie, Kahl, Thede; Sikimić, Biljana (eds.). Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”. Frank & Timme: Berlin 2021, Forum: Rumänien 40: 193-212.
• Marushiakova et al. [http://212.72.210.78/sr-www/virtuallibraryen.html Identity Formation among Minorities in the Balkans: The cases of Roms, Egyptians and Ashkali in Kosovo]
• Orsós, Anna. "The Boyash in Hungary: Linguistic Situation, Language Education and Teacher Training." Sorescu-Marinković, Annemarie, Kahl, Thede; Sikimić, Biljana (eds.): Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”. Frank & Timme: Berlin 2021, Forum: Rumänien 40: 215.
• Orsós, Anna, and Eszter Gergye. "The linguistic situation of the Boyash language in Hungary." Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrabiensia: Revue publiée par les Sections romane, italienne et anglaise de la Faculté des Lettres de l’Université de Zagreb 66 (2021): 169-176.
• Orsós, Anna and László Kálmán Beás nyelvtan (Boyash Grammar [in Hungarian]) Tinta Publishing 2009 {{ISBN|9789639902251}}
• Kahl, Thede; Sikimić, Biljana; Sorescu-Marinković, Annemarie (eds.). Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”.'' Frank & Timme: Berlin 2021, Forum: Rumänien 40.
• Orsós, Anna and Eszter Gergye. 2021. "The Linguistic Situation of the Boyash Language in Hungary." Studia Romanica et Anglica Zagrebiensia LXVI 161-168.

[https://books.google.com/books?id=M10xAQAAIAAJ&q=boyash+gypsies Studies about Boyash Gypsies in Hungary] Studies about Boyash Gypsies in Hungary book

[https://books.google.com Google Books Zsuzsanna Bódi - 1997]

• [https://www.oeaw.ac.at/vlach/collections/romanian-varieties/boyash/rudar Boyash/Rudari Collection] at the "Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage" Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences" with recordings by Thede Kahl and Ioana Nechiti
• [https://www.austriaca.at/?arp=0x003af7eb Kahl, Thede: Nechiti, Ioana 2019: The Boyash in Hungary: A Comparative Study Among the Argeleni and Munceni Communities (pdf download)]
• [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41699073 Kovalcsik, Katalin 1996: Roma or Boyash Identity? The Music of the "Ard'elan" Boyashes in Hungary]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ou8WEAAAQBAJ&dq=boyash+hungary&pg=PA217 Orsós, Anna: Boyash in Hungary; in Sorescu-Marinkovic; Kahl, Thede; Sikimic, Biljana 2022: Boyash Studies: Researching “Our People”]
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=4GAxAQAAIAAJ&q=boyash+hungary The Gypsies/The Roma in Hungarian Society]

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