Domari

language

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Last updated

July 21, 2026

Quick Summary

The Domari group of dialects is related to the Indo-Aryan languages and is spoken by approximately two and a half million people across North Africa and West Asia. Linguistic evidence suggests that the speakers of Domari migrated from India to the Arab world around the 13th and 14th centuries.1

Domari shares linguistic roots with the Romany languages, which are spoken by over three million individuals globally. While Romany languages have been extensively studied and classified, scholarly analysis of Domari is less detailed. The language has a grammatical system similar to modern Indic languages, with variations in vowels and consonants influenced by contact languages. Historically, Domari has been primarily an oral language, though efforts are underway to standardize its orthography and promote its use in written and media forms.1

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Romany languages
…and the more remotely related Domari group of dialects (whose speakers seem to have been the ones to have been given the name gypsy, and also Spanish gitano, French gitan, from Greek Aigyptiakós ‘Egyptian’) by another two and a half million throughout North Africa and West Asia. About a million…
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…and the more remotely related Domari group of dialects (whose speakers seem to have been the ones to have been given the name gypsy, and also Spanish gitano, French gitan, from Greek Aigyptiakós ‘Egyptian’) by another two and a half million throughout North Africa and West Asia. About a million…
Read More