Romanichal
Romani subgroup in the UK
The Romanichal (UK: US: ; also known as English Gypsies) are a Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom. Many Romanichal speak Angloromani, a mixed language that blends Romani vocabulary with English syntax. Romanichal residing in England, Scotland, and Wales are considered part of the Gypsy (Romani), Roma, and Traveller community.
Genetic, cultural, and linguistic findings indicate that the Romani people trace their origins to South Asia, likely in the regions of present-day Punjab, Rajasthan, and Sindh.
Etymology
The word "Romanichal" is derived from Romani chal, where chal is Angloromani for "fellow".
Distribution
Nearly all Romanichal in Great Britain live in England, with smaller communities in South Wales, Northeast Wales, and the Scottish Borders.
In Great Britain, there is a sharp north–south divide among Romanichal. Southern Romanichal live in the South East, South West, Midlands, East Anglia, and South Wales; Northern Romanichal live in the North West, Yorkshire, Scottish Borders, and northeastern Wales. The two groups' dialects differ in accent and vocabulary.
Language
The Romani people in England spoke traditional Romanes—an Indo-Aryan language—until it was largely replaced by English and Angloromani in the 19th century.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Romanichal” as romani subgroup in the UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as romani subgroup in the UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1780828. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Romanichal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.