The Romani (also spelled Romany, ), or Roma, are a traditionally itinerant ethnic group, living mostly in Europe and the Americas and originating from the northern Indian subcontinent, from the Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and Sindh regions of modern- day India and Pakistan.
The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym Gypsies (or Gipsies), which some people consider pejorative due to its connotations of illegality and irregularity. They are a dispersed people, but their most concentrated populations are located in Europe, especially Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (including Turkey, Spain and Southern France ). The Romani originated in Northern India and arrived in Mid- West Asia, and Europe around 1,000 years ago. They have been associated with another Indo-Aryan group, the Dom people : the two groups have been said to have separated from each other or, at least, to share a similar history. Specifically, the ancestors of both the Romani and the Dom left North India sometime between the sixth and eleventh century.
Since the 19th century, some Romani 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 nineteenth century from eastern Europe. Brazil also includes some Romani descended from people deported by the government of Portugal during the Inquisition in the colonial era. In migrations since the late nineteenth century, Romani have also moved to other countries in South America and to Canada.
