Portal:Romani people
The Romani people Portal
The Romani people (as a noun, singular Rom, plural Roma; sometimes Rrom, Rroma) or Romanies are an ethnic group living in many communities all over the world. The Roma are among the best known ethnic groups that appear in literature and folklore, and are often referred to as Gypsies or Gipsies, a term that is generally considered pejorative and is based on a mistaken belief of an origin in Egypt. The Roma are still thought of as wandering nomads in the popular imagination, despite the fact that today the vast majority live in permanent housing. This widely dispersed ethnic group lives across the world not only near their historic heartland in Southern and Eastern Europe, but also Latin America, the United States and the Middle East.
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Ian Hancock (Romani: Yanko le Redžosko) is a renowned linguist, Romani scholar, and human rights advocate. He was born and raised in England.
He is director of the Program of Romani Studies and the Romani Archives and Documentation Center at The University of Texas at Austin, where he has been a professor of English, linguistics and Asian studies since 1972. He has represented the Romani people at the United Nations and served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council under President Clinton, who is himself part Romani. He also represented the Romani people at the 1997 Rafto Prize award ceremony.
Did you know...
...that the Romani language is an officially-recognised minority language of Sweden?
...that Shuto Orizari is the only municipality in the world where Romani people make up a majority of the population?
...that between 200,000 and 2,000,000 Romani people were killed in the Porajmos during World War II?
...that the World Roma Festival takes place every year in Prague, Czech Republic?
