It's
my understanding that the big historical grammar and the big historical
dictionary have yet to be written for Romany, and apparently, it's only been in
the past 2 or 3 decades or so that it became commonly known these people came
from India-Pakistan via Iran, and (then-Greek-speaking) Turkey before entering
Europe. The language is definitely in the Indic group, notwithstanding its
massive lexical borrowings.
In
American English 'Gypsy' does not have the pejorative flavor it gets in the UK.
Nor do Gypsies have bad reputation they have in Europe. Rather, they are rather
exotic, and in a stereotypal sense, something encountered in only an
operetta. 'Tzigane' is a very famous violin composition -- as extreme a
virtouso piece as exists.
One
is tempted to use the Gypsies as a template for understanding certain aspects of
the spread of IE. The Bell-Beakers may have been itinerant a la the Gypsies,
bringing some advanced technology and prestige trade goods along their
routes.
Certainly, the extraordinary migration of this people
and their language offers an example of just how fast and how far a people can
travel with just animal-drawn carts.
Piotr writes:
Tzigani
(Polish Cyganie, German Zigeuner, etc.) is comes via French and Hungarian from
Byzantine Greek athinganoi 'untouchables', applied originally to a Manichean
sect in Asia Minor, and by extension to heretics and other suspect people. The
first European reference to the Romani dates from 1378, when the Venetian
governor of Nauplion (Peloponnese) issued an official confirmation of
privileges granted to the local community of Atsigani.
Gypsy is short
for 'Gyptians (Egyptians), as John says. same for Spanish gitanos,
etc.
I remember reading somewhere that Romani (Rroma, Doma, Loma)
derives ultimately from Sanskrit d.ama (with a Dravidian etymology), used of
low-caste musicians. But I haven't checked it yet