Languages.


The gypsies in this movie do not speak romanian, in spite of what IMDb claims.
They speak kaldarashtika, a romany dialect spoken by kaldarash gypsies, i.e. coppersmiths. However, when Izidor talks to the men in the local bar, the postman and the girls in the city, he speaks romanian, mixed with some romany words. In Romania, using romany words in romanian (a latino language b.t.w.) is considered _very_ low-class.

/Magnus, married to a românca..

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Several language aspects in this movie are interesting. First of all there are 3 languages spoken: French (barely), Romanian (very little) and Romany (most of the film). Watching this film with anything but subtitles would be a big mistake because you couldn't simply see some of the nuances implied by the way the actors speak.
For example, when Izidor is visited by a wealthy gypsy living in Bucgarest to hire him for a wedding (the one in the Mercedes Benz) , after they change some civitilies in Romany, the rich, urbanized gypsy would talk to him in a Romany language extremely contaminated by Romanian words and expressions. He certainly seems to have forgot a lot of his mother language by living in Bucharest, so he makes extensive use of Romanian. To show politeness, Izidor also uses more Romanian worlds than usual, so to please his guest. Most of the words are neologisms.
Adrian, the singer also speaks to the young gypsy (which acts as a translator for Stephane) in Romanian, when mentioning that his father died. This is a little strange, given the solemn moment, implying a dramatic process of forgeting the roots, process which seems unstoppable.

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"Adrian, the singer also speaks to the young gypsy (which acts as a translator for Stephane) in Romanian, when mentioning that his father died."

Adrian Simionescu aka Adrian Copilu' Minune declared on a show that he can't speak Romany. That's probably the reason why he spoke only in Romanian in the movie.

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OMG ...is he Copilu Minune?I had that feeling....but..he sings manele..not gypsy songs...FRAUD.

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Well, I am Romanian too, but I really enjoyed the movie, unlike you, 333.
Your comment should be deleted, the words you use clearly show your education (lack of education).
It is a shame the movie is not better known in our country, because I believe that one has to be Romanian to fully understand it. There is such a mixture of romanes(99%) and romanian(1%) that a foreigner would have a hard time trying to distinguish the languages.
I think the movie is great. I shows one true side of roma people in my country, unfortunately not all sides. 'Cause there is not only singing, dancing and having sex with foreigners, there's also, cheating, stealing, begging in the streats, and they do it also in EU countries, not only in Romania. There should be a film about that too.

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I'm spanish and I enjoyed the movie quite a lot. I felt identified trough Stephan as if I made the trip myself. Great movie.

POST-EDIT: And ye, we have problems here with gypsyes too, but they have been here for so long that they belong to our culture as much as we belong to them (there are many famous spanish gypsyes).

My 2 cents.

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Several language aspects in this movie are interesting. First of all there are 3 languages spoken: French (barely), Romanian (very little) and Romany (most of the film). Watching this film with anything but subtitles would be a big mistake because you couldn't simply see some of the nuances implied by the way the actors speak.
For example, when Izidor is visited by a wealthy gypsy living in Bucgarest to hire him for a wedding (the one in the Mercedes Benz) , after they change some civitilies in Romany, the rich, urbanized gypsy would talk to him in a Romany language extremely contaminated by Romanian words and expressions. He certainly seems to have forgot a lot of his mother language by living in Bucharest, so he makes extensive use of Romanian. To show politeness, Izidor also uses more Romanian worlds than usual, so to please his guest. Most of the words are neologisms.
Adrian, the singer also speaks to the young gypsy (which acts as a translator for Stephane) in Romanian, when mentioning that his father died. This is a little strange, given the solemn moment, implying a dramatic process of forgeting the roots, process which seems unstoppable.



Thanks for the precision.

I'm French, loved the movie, but was quite at a loss as to what the characters were speaking and when... so that was a big help... thanks!


THE FREDRIC MARCH ARCHIVE
http://www.geocities.com/fredric_march/march01.html

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well...i agree that it is a great movie...but i think u kinda mix some gypsies ...because there are the ones who make a living of dancing and singing and another tribe...the low class ones who steal and cheat..it s like this:the Gabor tribe is high class and work in as business man and musicians and there is the Rupi tribe wich is the low class one and they are the ones who cheat for example..i am not saying that tha Gabors are saints but all in all they are the good guys.i don t know any other tribes but there are lot s of them out there...oh and let s not forget about those gypsies who have lost their identity and do not know from wich tribe they com from....i put in a picture of a gypsy palace...




http://www.pixton.org/TomsImages/Romania.Images/casa.tiganeasca.jpg

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[deleted]

i am not sure about the low-class thing...i like to use shukar and gadjo...cool words...plus a lot of gypsy words come from romanian...if you hear gypsies talk than u certainly can recognies a lot of words(if u speak romanian)so u can guess what they are talking about.

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Not so much,actually.The Rromani language is in fact,very complex and meticulous and I can guarantee you'd have a very hard time understanding a native Rromani-speaker,should you be involved in a conversation with him/her.The reason why it seems so intelligible to a Romanian is because the Romanian language is full of Rromani terms transformed to better fit the Romanian pattern(and not the other way around,as bdkarola claimed), e.g. "shucar"<"Sukar",for "beautiful","nasol"<"nasul",for "bad" and/or "ugly","gagiu" and "gagica"<"gadjo","gadjni",for "young boy and girl" etc.
Also,not to be condescendent,but it may be that your source of Rromani language consists of mere Gypsy songs,who do not make an accurate source of true Rromani essence.For instance,I can guarantee that the majority of popular Rromani songs contain the words "shukar","chaje","chavo","muro illo",and the most often heard,"palal la te me merau",meaning "I shall die after her",thus becoming stereotypes of Gypsy language.That doesn't mean that's all the Rromani language comes down to,but that it's the part of the Rromani language that sounds good and consecquently sells.

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