Blasting gipsies since 1998`

Not to be confused with Romanians, an unrelated ethnic group and nation, nor with modern or ancient Romans, also unrelated.
For other uses, see Romani (disambiguation).
"♥♥♥♥♥" redirects here. For other uses, see ♥♥♥♥♥ (disambiguation).

The Romani people (/ˈroʊməni, ˈrɒ-/), also known as the Roma, are an Indo-Aryan people group, traditionally nomadic itinerants living mostly in Europe, as well as diaspora populations in the Americas.

The Romani people are widely known in English by the exonym ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (or Gipsies), which is considered by many Romani people to be pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity as well as its historical use as a racial slur. In many other languages, regarding cognates of the word, such as French: Tzigane, Spanish: gitano, Italian: zingaro and Portuguese: cigano, this perception is either very small or non-existent. At the first World Romani Congress in 1971, it was unanimously voted to reject all exonyms for the Romani people, including ♥♥♥♥♥ for its aforementioned negative and stereotypical connotations.

Linguistic and genetic evidence suggest that the Roma as a people originated from the northern Indian subcontinent. They are dispersed, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Southern France), as well as Western Asia (mainly Turkey). The Romani people arrived in West Asia and Europe around 1007.

Since the 19th century, some Romani people have also migrated to the Americas. There are an estimated one million Roma in the United States and 800,000 in Brazil, most of whose ancestors emigrated in the 19th century from Eastern Europe. Brazil also includes a notable Romani community descended from people deported by the Portuguese Empire during the Portuguese Inquisition. In migrations since the late 19th century, Romani people have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada.

The Romani language is divided into several dialects which together have an estimated number of speakers of more than two million. The total number of Romani people is at least twice as high (several times as high according to high estimates). Many Romani people are native speakers of the dominant language in their country of residence or of mixed languages combining the dominant language with a dialect of Romani; those varieties are sometimes called Para-Romani.

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