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- The Romany languages are spoken by more than three million individuals worldwide, and the more remotely related Domari group of dialects (whose speakers seem to have been the ones to have been given the name gypsy, and also Spanish gitano, French gitan, from Greek Aigyptiakós ‘Egyptian’) by another two and a half million throughout North Africa and West Asia.
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Romani (/ ˈ r ɒ m ə n i, ˈ r oʊ-/ ROM-ə-nee, ROH-; also Romany, Romanes / ˈ r ɒ m ə n ɪ s / ROM-ən-iss, Roma; Romani: rromani ćhib) is an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities. According to Ethnologue, seven varieties of Romani are divergent enough to be considered languages of their own.
Jun 6, 2024 · Roma, an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India but live in modern times worldwide, principally in Europe. Most Roma speak some form of Romany, a language closely related to the modern Indo-European languages of northern India, as well as the major language of the country in which they live.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Roma are an ethnic group of traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India and today live worldwide, principally in Europe. Mo...
- The Roma people live principally in Europe, especially in the Slavic-speaking lands of the Balkans and central Europe. Many Roma live in Romania, B...
- The word Roma is the plural form of Rom. Many Roma refer to themselves as Rom, a generic name that means “man” or “husband.”
- Because the Roma are a traditionally nomadic people, they have often been blamed for many evils by local populaces and majority groups and persecut...
In the English language, Romani people have long been known by the exonym Gypsies or Gipsies, which most Roma consider an racial slur. [84] [85] The attendees of the first World Romani Congress in 1971 unanimously voted to reject the use of all exonyms for the Romani, including "Gypsy".
- Origins of Proto-Romani
- Development
- Dialects
- Para-Romani Languages & Cants
- Historical Sources
- History of Romani Linguistics
- Legacy
Romani language did not utilize a system of writing, and its origins have to be reconstructed by linguists. It is believed that speakers of Indo-Aryan, a branch of Indo-European languages, migrated into the Indian subcontinent in the 2nd millennium BCE. The oldest written examples of an Indo-Aryan or 'Indic' language are the Vedas, sacred texts whi...
Linguist Andrea Scala identified four main 'layers' of the Romani vocabulary. The foundational layer of the language is Indo-Aryan. Indo-Aryan words present in modern Romani are primarily those that describe core concepts like the environment, agriculture, food, kinship, emotions, and time. Words related to these topics are less likely to change ov...
The absence of a standardized written form contributed to a great degree of variation between Romani dialects, some of which are not mutually intelligible. These dialects are often broadly grouped according to the geographic area in which they developed and the languages which influenced them. The complex history of Romani migration, which has seen...
A number of Para-Romani languages formed in bilingual communities through the mixing of Romani vocabulary with the grammar of locally spoken European languages. The structure of these diaspora languages and the conditions they developed under are similar to Jewish mixed languages such as Yiddish and Ladino. Para-Romani languages belong to a variety...
Reconstructions of Proto-Romani and its development into the extant Romani dialects are complicated by the scarcity of early written Romani. The oldest known example of written Romani was transliterated into Latin by Johannes ex Grafing, a Benedictine monk living in Vienna c. 1505-1510. The Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, written by En...
Many medieval and early modern European writers mistakenly assumed that Romani was an invented thieves' cant, used to hide criminal activities from outsiders. This assumption was based on negative stereotypes about Romani as a class of criminals rather than a community with a distinct culture. As early as Vulcanius, some scholars began to character...
The study of the Romani language created the framework for the study of Romani history and culture and inspired academic interest in other areas of Romani history. The first works on the Romani migration were published shortly after the discovery of Romani's linguistic origins and created a surge of interest in documenting Romani folklore and custo...
Apr 3, 2023 · The first accounts of Romani in Western Europe describe groups of Gypsies who arrived in the 14th century under the direction of leaders identified as counts or dukes. These groups were much more organized than previous migrations and were typically small, numbering between 40 and 200 people.
- Arienne King
- 'Romani' and 'Roma' are the most widely accepted umbrella terms for groups who speak or historically spoke Romani and have a common origin in the I...
- There was no unified Romani identity or nation. Romani communities are found throughout the world as ethnic minorities.
- Romani Gypsies are usually Christians.
Romani, or Romany, is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about 5-6 million Roma people throughtout Europe and the USA. The largest concetrations of Roma people live in Turkey, Spain and Romania. In English these people are often called Gypsies.
Romani is an endangered minority language in Europe. Geographically, Romani is now mainly spoken in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in some Western European countries. It is estimated that between 1.5 and 4.5 million people speak Romani as their mother tongue.
