Romani

About Romani

Romani is the language of the Roma people. It came from northern India about a thousand years ago and is related to Hindi and Punjabi, although centuries in Europe have added many words from Greek, Romanian, Slavic languages and others. Today it is spoken in many countries of Europe and the Americas, especially Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia and Slovakia. Its dialects differ a lot from country to country, so a word from one group of Roma may not be used by another.

Many guides here use the word "Gypsy" in their titles. Many Roma find that word offensive and prefer Rom, Roma and Romani, the names they use for themselves.

FamilyIndo-European, Indo-Aryan
Where spokenEurope (especially Central and Southeastern Europe) and the Americas
Statusdefinitely endangered (UNESCO)
ScriptLatin alphabet, also Cyrillic
Coderom (ISO 639-3)

Classification: Wikidata. Retrieved 26 September 2026.

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