Standardisation
The Romani language does not have any supra-dialectal form, it also has not been written down for centuries. Those Roma who learnt to write used to write down Romani according to the alphabets and rules of the languages of countries they inhabited. Scholars of the Romani language also would write it using transcription modes they were familiar with.
In 1990, during the IV Congress of the International Romani Union held in Jadwisin, near Warsaw, its delegates accepted a Romani alphabet and spelling rules proposed by Marcel Courthiade. To this day this system is known as the "Warsaw spelling" It was agreed that this system provides a universal mode spelling which can be understood and relatively easily acquired by Gypsies all around the world regardless of the dissimilarity of their dialects.
The proposed alphabet has 31 graphemes:
A B C Ć Ćh D E F G H X I J K Kh L M N O P R Rh S Ś T Th U V Z Ө З
In 1992 the alphabet was expanded by the addition of the long vowels ǎ, ě, i, o and accented vowels à, è, ì, ò, ù.
Although gaining ground in many countries, Romania in particular (where it is taught in schools), the Warsaw spelling system was not accepted in Poland. This stems from the fact that Romani is not taught in schools; even much so, the very idea of teaching it in schools, in whatever limited shape, is met with reluctance from both the conservative Gypsy leaders and the leaders of official Roma organizations alike.
That is why in 2008 MSWiA and MEN (Ministry of Interior and Administration; Ministry National Education) spearheaded a team of experts (both Roma and Polish) to attempt to develop a spelling system for Romani in Poland. The immediate reason behind it was the publishing of the first Polish primer in Romani (in the Polska Roma dialect) in 2007 by Karol Parno Gierliński, as well as the preparations for another edition of the said primer in the Bergitka Roma dialect. During several meetings in Sulejówek near Warsaw a new spelling system was established. Its starting point was the spelling system suggested by Adam Bartosz. The new system was called the "Sulejow spelling" because of the place of the debates. It takes into account the current tendencies of intuitive attempts at writing Romani in Poland and it is based on the Polish alphabet.
"Sulejow" alphabet:
A B C Ć Ćh D Dź E F G H Ch I J K Kh L Ł M N Ń O P Ph R S Ś T Th U W Y Z Ź
It was proposed that for the writing of words of Polish origin the remaining signs, typical for Polish language, will be used: Ą Cz Ę Ó Rz Sz Ż
Although it has been five years since the publishing of the "Sulejow spelling", the Roma communities did not begin any debate connected with the topic.