Language Borders as Borders of Ethnic Identity. Language Use and Ethnic Categorisation Among Eastern Slovak Vlax Roma.

Language Borders as Borders of Ethnic Identity Language Use and Ethnic Categorisation among Vlax Roma in Eastern Slovakia The thesis focuses on the topic of the relationship between language use and the process of ethnic categorization in one municipality in Eastern Slovakia. It presents an extensive case study based on eighteen years of field research among the inhabitants of the Vlach Roma settlement in the village called "Borovany ". The author uses a combination of socio-anthropological and sociolinguistic methods and explores the actors' perspective on the conceptualisation of group boundaries dividing the inhabitants of the village into the Vlach Roma (Vlašika Rom), Non- Vlach Roma (Rumungri) and Non-Roma (Gáže) and the role of language in the whole process. In the anthropological part of her research, the author studied the patterns of social organization within the studied village and analysed the symbolic categories that are relevant for the social space of the group of Vlašika Roma. She discusses the ways in which symbolic boundaries between "us" and "them" are formed and focuses on identifying the boundary markers that shape these symbolic boundaries. She concludes that it is the language that represents one of the most important pillars of the group identity of the Vlach Roma while..