Romani people
Indo-Aryan ethnic group
The Romani, also spelled Romany or Rromani ( ROH-mə-nee or ROM-ə-nee), colloquially known as the Roma (sing.: Rom), are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who traditionally led a nomadic, itinerant lifestyle. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Romani originated in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent, particularly within the territories of modern-day Punjab, Rajasthan, and Sindh. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed by historians to have occurred around 1000 CE. Their original name, derived from the Sanskrit डोम (doma), may refer to the Doma, a Dalit caste traditionally associated with musicians and dancers. The Romani population moved west into the Ghaznavid Empire and later into the Byzantine Empire. The Romani arrived in Europe around the 13th to 14th century, via the Balkans. Although they are dispersed, their most concentrated populations are in Europe, especially central, eastern, and southern Europe, as well as western Asia (mainly Turkey and Iran).
In the English language, the Romani are widely known by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which is considered a pejorative by some Romani due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity, as well as its historical use as a racial slur. In the United Kingdom, the term Gypsies (or Romany Gypsies) is preferred by many of the Kale and Romanichal, and is used to refer to them in official documentation. The attendees of the first World Romani Congress in 1971 unanimously voted to reject the use of all exonyms for the Romani, including Gypsy. The exonym Tsigani and its variants are commonly used in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the Balkans.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Romani people” as indo-Aryan ethnic group. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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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 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8060. The Library of Congress control number is sh85058109. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1000 and 1971.
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This entry incorporates text from “Romani people” 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.