Quagmire
Favorite Answer
No, and these answers are way off. Gypsies originally come from India, and speak a language called Romany (an Indic language similar to Sanskrit or Hindi). During the later medieval times they migrated westward across the Middle East and into Europe, and over the centuries they've largely intermarried with the host European populations and also adopted their religions and even languages in many instances, but most retain at least some trace of their ancient Indian heritage in their appearances. Many almost look like a mix of Indian and European.
Anonymous
Bluntly the word Slave comes from Slav. Eisenstein's great film Alexander Nevsky climaxes with the Battle on the Ice between the people of Novgorod and the Teutonic (German) Knights. The Nazis exactly identified Slavs with Romany and Jews. Though they went after the latter groups first. The hostility between the two groups goes back thousands of years and has left many traces in our languages. Russians are Slavs who speak a language descended from old Slavonic however there is some evidence that the Russian principalities were ruled over originally by Viking Invaders. EDIT: Kaganate I think it's fair to quibble: in fact it's not quibbling. First of all, Persians are mostly descendents of the Indo-Iranians which makes them more Aryan than either Slavs or Germans. The word Aryan was first used to describe Indian elites. Most modern Jews are of Eastern European origin, and therefore thought of as related to the Khazars, a Turkic people who converted to Judaism in Byzantine times. Russians certainly often seem to have Turkic blood so in that sense they may be related to the Jews, and of course it is believed that the Romany were originally Indian Musicians kidnapped by the Moghul Emperors who found their way into Europe. However they have mixed with other groups and like the Jews have a wide variety of skin colors and facial features.
Craig
In India, where there are several tribes of Gypsies still prevalent, the Indians generally claim that their Gypsies come from Israel and the Romany language has persian influences. Does that better confuse things?
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Gypsy Jew
Anonymous
Sliced bread is an ignorant Brit. They are an ethnic group that hasn't been able to gain any recognition because the British demonize them and often put them to death. Hitler was quick to do so as well.