linguistic:voice_change
Romani-language endonyms

Rom literally means husband in the Romani language, with the plural Roma. The feminine of Rom in the Romani language is Romni/Romli/Romnije or Romlije. However, in most cases, in other languages Rom is now used for individuals regardless of gender. It has the variants dom and lom, which may be related to the Sanskrit words dam-pati (lord of the house, husband), dama (to subdue), lom (hair), lomaka (hairy), loman, roman (hairy), romaça (man with beard and long hair). Another possible origin is from Sanskrit डोम doma (member of a low caste of travelling musicians and dancers). Despite their presence in the country and neighboring nations, the word is not related in any way to the name of Romania.

Romani is the feminine adjective, while Romano is the masculine adjective. Some Romanies use Rom or Roma as an ethnic name, while others (such as the Sinti, or the Romanichal) do not use this term as a self-description for the entire ethnic group.

Sometimes, rom and romani are spelled with a double r, i.e., rrom and rromani. In this case rr is used to represent the phoneme /ʀ/ (also written as ř and rh), which in some Romani dialects has remained different from the one written with a single r. The rr spelling is common in certain institutions (such as the INALCO Institute in Paris), or used in certain countries, e.g., Romania, to distinguish from the endonym / homonym for Romanians (sg. român, pl. români).

In Norway, Romani is used exclusively for an older Northern Romani -speaking population (which arrived in the 16th century) while Rom/Romanes is used to describe Vlax Romani -speaking groups which have arrived since the 19th century.