Documentation of the Gumuțească Cryptolect

Language	Gumuțească
Depositor	Oliver Liebhaber
Location	Romania
Collection ID	0807
Collection Status	Collection online
Landing Page Handle	http://hdl.handle.net/2196/5c393d69-5181-47ba-a025-47d1523e798f

 

Summary of the collection

The Gumuțească language is a highly endangered cryptolect spoken by glaziers in the commune of Mărgău, Cluj County, Romania. This collection seeks to document the Gumuțească language in order to preserve the community’s cultural and linguistic heritage and to further current scholarship on cryptolects. No other documentations of Gumuțească exist and no written materials have been published. The severity of Gumuțească’s situation necessitates prompt and effectual documentation.

 

Group represented

Gumuțească is primarily spoken by glaziers from the commune of Mărgău. The Romanian term for a glazier—geamgiu—refers to someone who both makes and sells glass and glass-related products. Glaziers would be proficient in the production of windows, mirrors, frames, and be able to fit and install them. The technical expertise required limited the trade to those with adequate materials and knowledge; thus the trade became highly localized within this particular commune.

This localization also came as a result of the seasonal trading journeys made by glaziers. They traveled across the Romanian-speaking regions as far as Constanța and Bucharest, and in doing so encountered a number of risks both to themselves and their merchandise, such as bandits, thieves, and corrupt officials. These risks in many ways motivated the development of Gumuțească as a secret language and the localization of craft practitioners into a small, tightly knit and well-connected community.

The use of Gumuțească has been extended from a practical tool to an expression of local identity and culture. Those who were not glaziers, through close (often familial) contact, frequently learned the Gumuțească language. Gumuțească thus occupies a unique role not only for the particular socioeconomic grouping of glaziers, but also for the cultural consciousness of the wider village community.

The Gumuțească speaker base has dwindled steeply and few, if any, younger speakers exist. This decline comes as a consequence of rapid urbanization and industrial modes of glass production, both of which threaten the glassmaking craft and the Gumuțească language. No data is currently available on the exact number or distribution of speakers.

 

Language information

Gumuțească is a rural professional cryptolect which was developed as a means of concealment against outsiders on trading journeys. Its exact origins are unclear; the language is generally believed to have been created over 100 years ago and to have gradually encompassed the entire commune.

Gumuțească, in its phonology, is based on the Mărgău Romanian dialect. As schooling has been proliferated throughout the commune, however, certain features have been selectively replaced with their Standard Romanian counterparts. This dialectal assimilation varies widely between speakers, yet does often include Gumuțească speakers. Since speakers generally articulate Gumuțească within the same phonological parameters as their personal realization of Romanian, features of Standard Romanian have been found to carry over into Gumuțească.

The lexicon of Gumuțească appears to come from a number of sources. Certain words appear to have been invented, others corruptions of dialectal words, and others Hungarian loans. This Hungarian influence aligns with the historic presence of Hungarian-language schooling in the village of Mărgău (the largest village in the eponymous commune) and the longtime trading interactions that took place between glaziers and Hungarians in the nearby trading town of Huedin.

The morphology of Gumuțească is a subject for further research and one which this documentation seeks to clarify. Certain forms have been found which encompass multiple parts of speech with dense and situationally-adapted meanings.

 

Collection contents

This collection contains video, audio, photographic, transcription, and translation data. Each video recording is accompanied by a .wav file, an ELAN transcription and an ELAN translation. Video recordings consist of interviews, elicitations, as well as folk songs from the region. A morphophonological sample of the Mărgău Romanian dialect was conducted; these elicitations are in .wav format. Photographs of a traditional house and of one of the villages in the commune have been taken; these are included in .png format.

 

Collection history

The interviews, elicitations, and photographs were taken during fieldwork conducted in the summer of 2024. Deposits were made during fall 2024. Oliver Liebhaber, as an independent researcher, collected this data. There was no outside funding for this documentation.

 

References

Caragiu Marioțeanu, M., Giosu, Ș., Ionescu-Ruxăndoiu, L., & Todoran, R. (1977). Dialectologie Română, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică.

 

Acknowledgement and citation

All contributors to elicitations, interviews, photographs, or otherwise, should be acknowledged as such. Relevant information is available in the metadata.

To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Liebhaber, Oliver. 2024. Documentation of the Gumuțească Cryptolect. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/b624f029-3156-459e-9cfb-c153f125b65b. Accessed on [insert date here].