The Roma are a traditionally nomadic ethnic group with origins in the Indian subcontinent. Here are ten words common between Romani and Urdu, or other languages in Pakistan, which highlight the shared linguistic heritage of the Roma and Pakistanis.
Romani and Urdu both use the word Rani, which means queen.
Chor in Romani and Urdu means thief.
In Romani, a flag is known as Jhand, whilst in Urdu it is called jhanda.
Baxt (Romani: happiness) is similar to bakhshish in Urdu which means blessing. Bibaxt, its opposite, would be be-bakhshish in Urdu, which means unblessed.
It is important to note the suffix of "be" to denote the absence of something is a trait common to Farsi, Urdu and Pashto.
The word for broken in Romani and Urdu is Tut (also spelt Toot).
Vakht (Romani: Time) is very similar to the word waqt in Urdu, which also means time.
8) Romani, Urdu and Punjabi share the word for pani for water.
9) In Romani, the words for You/Mine, are Tano/Mainde, like Hindko, also similar to Tum/Main in Urdu.
10) Suno means listen in both Romani and Urdu.
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