• Skip to content (access key 1)
  • Skip to search (access key 7)
FWF — Austrian Science Fund
  • Go to overview page Discover

    • Research Radar
    • Discoveries
      • Emmanuelle Charpentier
      • Adrian Constantin
      • Monika Henzinger
      • Ferenc Krausz
      • Wolfgang Lutz
      • Walter Pohl
      • Christa Schleper
      • Anton Zeilinger
    • scilog Magazine
    • Awards
      • FWF Wittgenstein Awards
      • FWF START Awards
    • excellent=austria
      • Clusters of Excellence
      • Emerging Fields
    • In the Spotlight
      • 40 Years of Erwin Schrödinger Fellowships
      • Quantum Austria
    • Dialogs and Talks
      • think.beyond Summit
    • E-Book Library
  • Go to overview page Funding

    • Portfolio
      • excellent=austria
        • Clusters of Excellence
        • Emerging Fields
      • Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects
        • Principal Investigator Projects International
        • Clinical Research
        • 1000 Ideas
        • Arts-Based Research
        • FWF Wittgenstein Award
      • Careers
        • ESPRIT
        • FWF ASTRA Awards
        • Erwin Schrödinger
        • Elise Richter
        • Elise Richter PEEK
        • doc.funds
        • doc.funds.connect
      • Collaborations
        • Specialized Research Groups
        • Special Research Areas
        • Research Groups
        • International – Multilateral Initiatives
        • #ConnectingMinds
      • Communication
        • Top Citizen Science
        • Science Communication
        • Book Publications
        • Digital Publications
        • Open-Access Block Grant
      • Subject-Specific Funding
        • AI Mission Austria
        • Belmont Forum
        • ERA-NET HERA
        • ERA-NET NORFACE
        • ERA-NET QuantERA
        • ERA-NET TRANSCAN
        • Alternative Methods to Animal Testing
        • European Partnership Biodiversa+
        • European Partnership ERA4Health
        • European Partnership ERDERA
        • European Partnership EUPAHW
        • European Partnership FutureFoodS
        • European Partnership OHAMR
        • European Partnership PerMed
        • European Partnership Water4All
        • Gottfried and Vera Weiss Award
        • netidee SCIENCE
        • Herzfelder Foundation Projects
        • Quantum Austria
        • Rückenwind Funding Bonus
        • Zero Emissions Award
      • International Collaborations
        • Belgium/Flanders
        • Germany
        • France
        • Italy/South Tyrol
        • Japan
        • Luxembourg
        • Poland
        • Switzerland
        • Slovenia
        • Taiwan
        • Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino
        • Czech Republic
        • Hungary
    • Step by Step
      • Find Funding
      • Submitting Your Application
      • International Peer Review
      • Funding Decisions
      • Carrying out Your Project
      • Closing Your Project
      • Further Information
        • Integrity and Ethics
        • Inclusion
        • Applying from Abroad
        • Personnel Costs
        • PROFI
        • Final Project Reports
        • Final Project Report Survey
    • FAQ
      • Project Phase PROFI
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Project Phase Ad Personam
        • Accounting for Approved Funds
        • Labor and Social Law
        • Project Management
      • Expiring Programs
        • FWF START Awards
  • Go to overview page About Us

    • Mission Statement
    • FWF Video
    • Values
    • Facts and Figures
    • Annual Report
    • What We Do
      • Research Funding
        • Matching Funds Initiative
      • International Collaborations
      • Studies and Publications
      • Equal Opportunities and Diversity
        • Objectives and Principles
        • Measures
        • Creating Awareness of Bias in the Review Process
        • Terms and Definitions
        • Your Career in Cutting-Edge Research
      • Open Science
        • Open Access Policy
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Peer-Reviewed Book Publications
          • Open Access Policy for Research Data
        • Research Data Management
        • Citizen Science
        • Open Science Infrastructures
        • Open Science Funding
      • Evaluations and Quality Assurance
      • Academic Integrity
      • Science Communication
      • Philanthropy
      • Sustainability
    • History
    • Legal Basis
    • Organization
      • Executive Bodies
        • Executive Board
        • Supervisory Board
        • Assembly of Delegates
        • Scientific Board
        • Juries
      • FWF Office
    • Jobs at FWF
  • Go to overview page News

    • News
    • Press
      • Logos
    • Calendar
      • Post an Event
      • FWF Informational Events
    • Job Openings
      • Enter Job Opening
    • Newsletter
  • Discovering
    what
    matters.

    FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

    SOCIAL MEDIA

    • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
    • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
    • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window

    SCILOG

    • Scilog — The science magazine of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
  • elane login, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Scilog external URL, opens in a new window
  • de Wechsle zu Deutsch

  

Documenting Zargari. A missing link in understanding Romani

Documenting Zargari. A missing link in understanding Romani

Ioana Aminian Jazi (ORCID: 0000-0001-9663-6545)
  • Grant DOI 10.55776/PAT8895923
  • Funding program Principal Investigator Projects
  • Status ongoing
  • Start February 1, 2024
  • End January 31, 2028
  • Funding amount € 523,609
  • E-mail

Disciplines

Other Humanities (20%); Linguistics and Literature (80%)

Keywords

    Zargari Romani, Language documentation, Contact linguistics, Variation in Romani, Digital humanities, Endangered Languages

Abstract

This project aims to document the highly endangered and undocumented Romani variety, Zargari, spoken by less than 500 people in the Zargar village of northwest Iran. Zargari is perhaps the most curious of all Romani varieties. Zargaris presence in Iran is the result of eastwards migration of speakers of a European variety of Romani originating in the Balkans during the Ottoman period. Zargari is in unique simultaneous contact with Azeri Turkish and Persian, both of which have had a considerable impact on Zargaris lexicon and grammar. To achieve our aim of a comprehensive language documentation, we developed a collaborative and comparative approach that brings together complementary disciplines and linguistic theories, including Romani dialectology, contact linguistics, and sociolinguistics. This project aims to address 3 key research questions about Zargari`s fine-grained contact layers: What are the shared linguistic features between Zargari and Balkan Romani varieties? What is the distribution of multi-layered contact influence across Zargari grammar? Which factors have contributed to language maintenance and shift? The novelty of this approach consists in the combination of comprehensive linguistic analysis with community-driven, in-depth language documentation. The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of academic experts and the local language community to address gaps in knowledge and resources. We propose sustainable annotation workflows that prioritize technological inclusion and data migration, allowing for open and easily accessible multimedia documentation of a diverse range of spoken genres. Leveraging the data and structure of the Dialects of Romani Database (DRD), the most extensive online resource for documenting Romani, we aim to develop a new digital resource for Zargari. To encourage interaction between the scientific and civic communities, we are utilizing various output strategies ranging from scientific articles, video clips, a community dictionary and a documentary film. The documentation outcome will be secured in ARCHE data repository run by Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage (ACDH-CH) and published on the projects website and Youtube. The project brings together a team of experienced individuals and institutions to conduct the first in-depth language documentation of Zargari: Ioana Aminian Jazi (PI) with extensive experience in language documentation; scientific mentor, Prof. Yaron Matras, an expert in Romani studies and language contact; three national collaboration partners, ACDH-CH (host), Vanishing Languages and Cultural Heritage Commission (VLACH), Institute of Iranian Studies (IFI); three Iranian linguists and two local community assistants. The combined expertise of this diverse team will provide a deeper theoretical understanding of the hierarchies of language contact beyond Romani linguistics and set a precedent in endangered language documentation.

Research institution(s)
  • Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften - 100%
Project participants
  • Thede Kahl, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena , national collaboration partner
  • Florian Schwarz, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften , national collaboration partner
International project participants
  • Thede Kahl, Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena - Germany
  • Saeed Rezaei, Sharif University of Technology - Iran
  • Yaron Matras, Aston University - United Kingdom

Discovering
what
matters.

Newsletter

FWF-Newsletter Press-Newsletter Calendar-Newsletter Job-Newsletter scilog-Newsletter

Contact

Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Georg-Coch-Platz 2
(Entrance Wiesingerstraße 4)
1010 Vienna

office(at)fwf.ac.at
+43 1 505 67 40

General information

  • Job Openings
  • Jobs at FWF
  • Press
  • Philanthropy
  • scilog
  • FWF Office
  • Social Media Directory
  • LinkedIn, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Twitter, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Facebook, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Instagram, external URL, opens in a new window
  • YouTube, external URL, opens in a new window
  • Cookies
  • Whistleblowing/Complaints Management
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Data Protection
  • Acknowledgements
  • Social Media Directory
  • © Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF
© Österreichischer Wissenschaftsfonds FWF