Names of the Romani people

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The Romani people are known by a variety of names, mostly as Gypsies, Roma, Tsinganoi, Bohémiens, and various linguistic variations of these names. There are also numerous subgroups and clans with their own self-designations, such as the Sinti, Kalderash, Boyash, Manouche, Lovari, Lăutari, Machvaya, Romanichal, Romanisael, Kale, Kaale, Xoraxai and Modyar.

Roma is the primary term used in political contexts to refer to the Romani people as a whole.[1][2] Because all Roma use the word Romani as an adjective, Romani began to be used as an alternative noun for the entire ethnic group.[3] It is used by some organizations such as the United Nations and the US Library of Congress.[4] However, the World Roma Congress, the Council of Europe and other organizations use the term Roma to refer to Romani people around the world, and recommend that Romani be restricted to the language and culture: Romani language, Romani culture.[5][6][7][8]

In the English language (according to the Oxford English Dictionary), Rom is a noun (with the plural Roma or Roms) and an adjective, while Romani is also a noun (with the plural Romanies) and an adjective. Both Rom and Romani have been in use in English since the 19th century as an alternative for Gypsy. Romani is also spelled Romany, or Rommany.[9]

Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., rrom and rromani, particularly in Romania in order to distinguish from the Romanian endonym (români), to which it has no relation. This is well established in Romani itself, since it represents a phoneme (/ʀ/ also written as ř and rh) which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r.[4]

  1. ^ p. 13 in Illona Klimova-Alexander's The Romani Voice in World Politics: The United Nations and Non-State Actors (2005, Burlington, VT.: Ashgate
  2. ^ Rothéa, Xavier. "Les Roms, une nation sans territoire?" (in French). Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  3. ^ Hancock, Ian F (2002). We Are the Romani People, Pg XX. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 978-1-902806-19-8. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  4. ^ a b Hancock, Ian F (2002). We Are the Romani People, Pg XXI. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 978-1-902806-19-8. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  5. ^ Hancock, Ian F (2002). We Are the Romani People, Pg XIX. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. ISBN 978-1-902806-19-8. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  6. ^ Nicolae, Valeriu; Slavik, Hannah (2007-07-01). Roma diplomacy, Pg 16. ISBN 978-1-932716-33-7. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  7. ^ Roma, Sinti, Gypsies, Travellers...The Correct Terminology about Roma Archived 2014-07-19 at the Wayback Machine at In Other WORDS project – Web Observatory & Review for Discrimination alerts & Stereotypes deconstruction
  8. ^ "Roma". www.romarchive.eu. Retrieved 2024-07-28.
  9. ^ * Definition at dictionary.cambridge.org