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History of the Romani people
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<p>The <a href="/facts/Romani_people/HAj6w0kU">Romani people</a>, also referred to as the Roma, are an <a href="/facts/Indo-Aryan_peoples/Tjrybz3d">Indo-Aryan</a> ethnic group that primarily lives in Europe. They may have migrated north from present-day <a href="/facts/Rajasthan/rC0MvrRD">Rajasthan</a> to present-day <a href="/facts/Punjab/gyyuKVSp">Punjab</a> around 250 BC. They may also have come from the modern state of <a href="/facts/Sindh/1cbCeMv8">Sindh</a> and <a href="/facts/Pakistan/cbIsvJy1">Pakistan</a>. Their subsequent westward migration out of <a href="/facts/South_Asia/7gTqe3hY">South Asia</a> is believed to have occurred in waves, beginning in the 5th century. It has been suggested that a wave of emigration from India may have taken place during the raids by <a href="/facts/Mahmud_of_Ghazni/zt8JEwo3">Mahmud of Ghazni</a>. As these soldiers were defeated, they were moved west with their families into the <a href="/facts/Byzantine_Empire/njEELXWF">Byzantine Empire</a>. </p><p>The author <a href="/facts/Ralph_Lilley_Turner/0l0zRlQ8">Ralph Lilley Turner</a> has theorised a central Indian origin of the Romani, followed by a migration to northwest India, as the Romani language shares a number of ancient <a href="/facts/Isogloss/5BA2RsAr">isoglosses</a> with <a href="/facts/Central_Indo-Aryan_languages/tqFfSMIU">Central Indo-Aryan languages</a> in relation to realization of some sounds of <a href="/facts/Indo-Aryan_languages/hm2N7fYp">Old Indo-Aryan</a>. This is lent further credence by its sharing exactly the same pattern of northwestern languages such as <a href="/facts/Kashmiri_language/b35X0L3H">Kashmiri</a> and <a href="/facts/Shina_language/qK3ohRsE">Shina</a> through the adoption of <a href="/facts/Oblique_case/wdP3tVlm">oblique</a> <a href="/facts/Clitic/4A00CTek">enclitic</a> pronouns as person markers. The overall morphology suggests that Romani participated in some of the significant developments leading toward the emergence of <a href="/facts/Indo-Aryan_languages/hm2N7fYp">New Indo-Aryan languages</a>, thus indicating that the proto-Romani did not leave the Indian subcontinent until late in the second half of the first millennium. </p>