Origin of Roma Gypsy term
The English term Gypsy (or Gipsy) originates from the Middle English gypcian, short for Egipcien. It is ultimately derived from the Greek Aigyptioi, meaning Egyptian, via Middle French and Latin. This designation owes its existence to the belief, common in the Middle Ages, that the Romani, or some related group (such as the middle eastern Dom people), were itinerant Egyptians. According to one narrative they were exiled from Egypt as punishment for allegedly harbouring the infant Jesus] As described in Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the medieval French referred to the Romanies as Egyptiens. The word Gypsy in English has become so pervasive that many Romani organizations use it in their own organizational names. (Soulis G., White K., Fraser, ). However, the word is often considered derogatory because of its negative and stereotypical associations. The Council of Europe consider that ‘Gypsy’ or equivalent terms, as well as administrative terms such as ‘Gens du Voyage’ (referring in fact to an ethnic group but not acknowledging ethnic identification) are not in line with European recommendations. In North America, the word Gypsy is most commonly used as a reference to Romani ethnicity, though lifestyle and fashion are at times also referenced by using this word. Another common designation of the Romani people is Cingane (alt. Tsinganoi, Zigar, Zigeuner), which probably derives from Athinganoi, the name of a Christian sect with whom the Romani (or some related group) became associated with in the Middle AgesThe Spanish term gitano and the French term gitan have a more uncertain origin but could originate from any of the two main designations mentioned above or their conflation and corruption.(Star, Battes, Population Studies)
Origin of Roma population
Most Romani speak one of several dialects of the Romani language, an Indo-Aryan language, with roots in Sanskrit. They also often speak the languages of the countries they live in. Typically, they also incorporate loanwords and calques into Romani from the languages of those countries and especially words for terms that the Romani language does not have. Most of the Ciganos of Portugal, the Gitanos of Spain, the Romanichal of the UK, and Scandinavian Travellers have lost their knowledge of pure Romani, and respectively speak the mixed languages Caló, Angloromany, and Scandoromani. Most of the speaker communities in these regions consist of later immigrants from eastern or central Europe.
There are no concrete statistics for the number of Romani speakers, both in Europe and globally. However, a conservative estimation has been made at 3.5 million speakers in Europe and a further 500,000 elsewhere, although the actual number may be considerably higher. This makes Romani the second largest minority language in Europe, behind Catalan. In relation to dialect diversity, Romani works in the same way as most other European languages
All Romani speakers are bilingual, and are accustomed to borrowing words or phrases from a second language; this makes it difficult when trying to communicate with Romanis from different countries
Romani was traditionally a language shared between extended family and a close-knit community. This has resulted in the inability to comprehend dialects from other countries. This is the reason Romani is sometimes associated as being number of different languages. There is no tradition or example of a literary standard for Romani speakers to use as a guideline for their language use.
Findings suggest an Indian origin for Roma. Because Romani groups did not keep chronicles of their history or have oral accounts of it, most hypotheses about the Romani’s migration early history are based on linguistic theory. There is also no known record of a migration from India to Europe from medieval times that can be connected indisputably to Roma.
According to a legend reported in Shahnameh and repeated by several modern authors, the Sasanian king Bahram V Gor learned towards the end of his reign (421–39) that the poor could not afford to enjoy music, and he asked the king of India to send him ten thousand luris, men and women, lute playing experts. When the luris arrived, Bahram gave each one an ox and a donkey and a donkey-load of wheat so that they could live on agriculture and play music for free for the poor. But the luris ate the oxen and the wheat and came back a year later with their cheeks hollowed with hunger. The king, angered with their having wasted what he had given them, ordered them to pack up their bags and go wandering around the world.
The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in India: the language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of the basic lexicon, for example, body parts or daily routines.More exactly, Romani shares the basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi. It shares many phonetic features with Marwari, while its grammar is closest to Bengali.
Romani and Domari share some similarities: agglutination of postpositions of the second Layer (or case marking clitics) to the nominal stem, concord markers for the past tense, the neutralisation of gender marking in the plural, and the use of the oblique case as an accusative. This has prompted much discussion about the relationships between these two languages. Domari was once thought a “sister language” of Romani, the two languages having split after the departure from the Indian subcontinent—but more recent research suggests that the differences between them are significant enough to treat them as two separate languages within the Central zone (Hindustani) group of languages. The Dom and the Rom therefore likely descend from two different migration waves out of India, separated by several centuries. Numerals in the Romani, Domari and Lomavren languages, with Hindi and Persian forms for comparison. Note that Romani 7–9 are borrowed from Greek. (Hubschova, Matras,Hancock )
History of Roma Population
In 1758, Maria Theresa of Austria began a program of assimilation to turn Romanies into ujmagyar (new Hungarians). The government built permanent huts to replace mobile tents, forbade travel, and forcefully removed children from their parents to be fostered by non-Romani. By 1894, the majority of Romanies counted in a Hungarian national census were sedentary. In 1830, Romani children in Nordhausen were taken from their families to be fostered by Germans. Russia also encouraged settlement of all nomads in 1783, and the Polish introduced a settlement law in 1791. Bulgaria and Serbia banned nomadism in the 1880s.In 1783, racial legislation against Romanies was repealed in the United Kingdom, and a specific “Turnpike Act” was established in 1822 to prevent nomads from camping on the roadside, strengthened in the Highways Act of 1835.
In 1538, the first anti-ziganist (anti-Romani) legislation was issued in Moravia and Bohemia, which were under Habsburg rule. Three years later, after a series of fires in Prague which were blamed on the Romani, Ferdinand I ordered them to be expelled. In 1545, the Diet of Augsburg declared that “whoever kills a Gypsy, will be guilty of no murder”. The massive killing spree that resulted prompted the government to eventually step in and “forbid the drowning of Romani women and children”. In 1710, Joseph I ordered that “all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever.” In addition, they were to have their right ears cut off in the kingdom of Bohemia and their left ear in Moravia. In 1530, England issued the Egyptians Act which banned Romani from entering the country and required those living in the country to leave within 16 days. Failure to do so could result in confiscation of property, imprisonment and deportation. The act was amended with the Egyptians Act 1554, which ordered the Romani to leave the country within a month. Non-complying Romanies were executed.In 1660, Romanies were prohibited from residence in France by Louis XIV.In 1685, Portugal deported Romani to Brasil.
In 1879, a national meeting of Romanies was held in the Hungarian town of Kisfalu (now Pordašinci, Slovenia). Romanies in Bulgaria set up a conference in 1919 to protest for their right to vote, and a Romani journal, Istiqbal (Future) was founded in 1923.In the Soviet Union, the All-Russian Union of Gypsies was organized in 1925 with a journal, Romani Zorya (Romani Dawn) beginning two years later. The Romengiro Lav (Romani Word) writer’s circle encouraged works by authors like Nikolay Aleksandrovich Pankov and Nina Dudarova. A General Association of the Gypsies of Romania was established in 1933 with a national conference, and two journals, Neamul Tiganesc (Gypsy Nation) and Timpul (Time). An “international” conference was organized in Bucharest the following year.In Yugoslavia, Romani journal Romano Lil started publication in 1935.During World War II, the Nazis murdered 220,000 to 1,500,000 Romanies in an attempted genocide referred to as the Porajmos. Like the Jews, they were sentenced to forced labor and imprisonment in concentration camps. They were often killed on sight, especially by the Einsatzgruppen on the Eastern Front.
In Communist Central and Eastern Europe, Romanies experienced assimilation schemes and restrictions of cultural freedom. The Romani language and Romani music were banned from public performance in Bulgaria. In Czechoslovakia, tens of thousands of Romanies from Slovakia, Hungary and Romania were re-settled in border areas of Czech lands and their nomadic lifestyle was forbidden. In Czechoslovakia, where they were labeled as a “socially degraded stratum,” Romani women were sterilized as part of a state policy to reduce their population. This policy was implemented with large financial incentives, threats of denying future social welfare payments, misinformation and involuntary sterilization. In the early 1990s, Germany deported tens of thousands of migrants to central and Eastern Europe. Sixty percent of some 100,000 Romanian nationals deported under a 1992 treaty were Romani.During the 1990s and early 21st century many Romanies from central and Eastern Europe attempted to migrate to western Europe or Canada. The majority of them were turned back. Several of these countries established strict visa requirements to prevent further migration. In 2005, the Decade of Roma Inclusion was launched in nine Central and Southeastern European countries to improve the socio-economic status and social inclusion of the Romani minority across the region. Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015 has been not success at all. The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 is coming to the end of its originally defined term. It initiated crucially important processes for Roma inclusion in Europe, and provided the impetus for an EU-led effort covering similar subject matter, the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies up to 2020 (EU Framework).
The International Romani Day (April 8) is a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people.The day was officially declared in 1990 in Serock, Poland, the site of the fourth World RomaniCongress of the International Romani Union(IRU), in honour of the first major international meeting of Romani representatives, 7-12 April 1971 in Chelsfield near London.
International Week against Racial Discrimination
The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid pass laws. Proclaiming the day in 1966, the United Nations General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination.
Human Rights Day – 21 March
In South Africa, Human Rights Day is a public holiday celebrated on the 21st of March each year. This day commemorates the lives that have been lost to fight for democracy and equal human rights in South Africa during the Apartheid regime (a regime which embraced racial discrimination). The Sharpeville Massacre during Apartheid on 21 March 1960 is the particular reference day for this public holiday.21 March is a special day, proclaimed by the General Assembly in October 1966 as International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.