Sinti or Sinta or Sinte (sing. masc. Sinto; sing. fem. Sintisa) is the name of a Romani The Romani are an ethnic group living mostly in Europe, who trace their origins to medieval India or Gypsy population in Europe.^[1] Traditionally nomadic Nomadic people are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in industrialized countries. Nomadic cultures are discussed in, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled. In earlier times, they frequently lived on the outskirts of communities, generally in squalor.

The Sinti speak a dialect of the Romani language Romani or Romany, Gypsy or Gipsy is the language of the Romani people. It is an Indo-Aryan language, sometimes included in either the "Central" or the "Northwestern" group, sometimes treated as a branch of its own called "Romanes", which has a primarily Romani vocabulary A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge but some grammatical In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use the differences, and exhibits strong German influence.

The origin of the name "Sinti/Sinte" is uncertain. It can be shown to have been adopted in the 18th century, possibly from a German-based secret language. It is often compared to the name of the Sindhi Sindhis are a Sindhi speaking socio-ethnic group of people originating from Sindh, a province of Pakistan. Today Sindhis that live in Pakistan belong to various religious denominations including Muslim, Zorastrian, Hindus and Christians. After the Partition of India in 1947, a large number of Indian Muslim refugees (Muhajirs) flocked into Pakistan of South Asia South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east. Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as the Indian subcontinent south of the, a notion popular among the Sinti themselves, but there is no basis for this comparison.^[2]

History

The Sinti arrived in Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, and Austria Austria /ˈɒstriə/ or /ˈɔːstriə/ (German: Österreich (help·info)), officially the Republic of Austria (German: Republik Österreich), is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and in the Middle Ages The Middle Ages is a period of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The period followed the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and preceded the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period in a three-period division of history: Classical, Medieval, and Modern. The term "Middle Ages" (medium aevum) was coined in, eventually splitting into two groups: Eftavagarja ("the Seven Caravans") and Estraxarja ("from Austria"). These two groups then expanded, the Eftavagarja into France France (pronounced /ˈfrænts/ frantss or /ˈfrɑːnts/ frahnts; French pronunciation (help·info): [fʁɑ̃s]), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced: [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a state in Western Europe with several of its overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian,, where they are called "Manouches", and the Estraxarja into Italy Italy (pronounced /ˈɪtəli/ ; Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a country located partly on the European Continent and partly on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine and Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and even volatile, as there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region". A related UN paper adds that "every assessment of spatial identities is essentially a social and cultural construct&, mainly what are now Croatia Croatia (pronounced /kroʊˈeɪʃə/ , kroe-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska listen (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest, Slovenia Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on, Hungary Hungary /ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)), officially the Republic of Hungary (Magyar Köztársaság listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a, Romania Romania (pronounced /roʊˈmeɪniə/ roe-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta, the Czech Republic The Czech Republic (pronounced /ˈtʃɛk/ chek; Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The Czech Republic has been a and Slovakia The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakia /sloʊˈvɑːkiə/ ; Slovak: Slovensko (help·info), long form Slovenská republika (help·info)) is a state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). Slovakia is a landlocked country bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria, eventually adopting various regional names.

In Italy they are present mainly in Piedmont Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,399 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys. Franco-Provençal is also spoken by another minority in the alpine heights of the region, with some communities in Veneto Veneto , is one of the 20 regions of Italy. Its population is about 4.8 million. Having been for a long period in history a land of mass emigration, Veneto is today one of the greatest immigrant-receiving regions in the country, with 454,453 foreigners (9.30% of the regional population) in 2008, the most recent of which are the Romanians and the as well.

Other theories

Another theory holds that the Roma differ from the Sinti in that the former converted to Islam in the Seljuq Empire The Seljuq were a Turco-Persian Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and the Middle East from the 11th to 14th centuries. They set up an empire, the Great Seljuq Empire, which at its height stretched from Anatolia through Persia and which was the target of the First Crusade. The dynasty had its origins in the Turcoman tribal, thus acquiring citizenship and escaping slavery. The Sinti, on the other hand, allegedly refused to convert to Islam and thus remained in slavery.^[3]

The Holocaust

Sinti and Roma had migrated to Germany in the late 15th century via India India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with 1.18 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Mainland India is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the and converted to Christianity. Nonetheless, they were still generally accused of being beggars and thieves, and by 1899, the police kept a central register on Gypsies. Considered by the National Socialists to be racially inferior (see Nazism and Race Nazism developed several theories concerning races. The Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy among "human race"; at the top was the "Nordic race" or "Aryan race", followed by lesser races), Sinti and Roma were persecuted throughout Germany during the Nazi period - the Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were anti-Semitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from three or four Jewish grandparents. A person of 1935 often being interpreted to apply to them as well as the Jews. Adolf Eichmann Otto Adolf Eichmann , sometimes referred to as "the architect of the Holocaust", was a Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer (equivalent to Lieutenant Colonel). Because of his organizational talents and ideological reliability, he was charged by Obergruppenführer (General) Reinhard Heydrich with the task of facilitating and managing the recommended that the Gypsy Question be solved simultaneously with the Jewish Question The so-called Jewish question was an issue discussed and debated, particularly in western and central Europe, during the French Revolution and into the nineteenth century by societies, politicians and writers on issues of Jewish legal and economic disabilities, emancipation and assimilation. The term became closely associated with the rise of, resulting in the deportation of the Sinti to clear room to build homes for ethnic Germans.^[4] Some were sent to Poland Poland /ˈpəʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of, or elsewhere (including some deported to Yugoslavia by the Hamburg police in 1939^[5]), others were confined to designated areas, and many were eventually gassed.

In concentration camps, the Sinti were forced to wear either a black triangle, indicating their classification as 'asocial',^[6] or a brown triangle, specifically reserved for Romani people.

Notable Sinti

Perhaps the most famous (and influential) Sinti musician is the guitar virtuoso A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa. Virtuosi are often musical composers as well. During the age of Baroque music many composers were Django Reinhardt Jean "Django" Reinhardt was a Gypsy jazz guitarist, who fused traditional dance hall musettes with American jazz of the day (1930s and 40s) and, along with Stéphane Grappelli Stéphane Grappelli was a French jazz violinist who founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934. It was one of the first (and arguably the most famous) of all-string jazz bands and the other members of the Quintette du Hot Club de France Quintette du Hot Club de France was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli, and active in one form or another until 1948, founded the style of music known as “Gypsy Jazz Gypsy jazz is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources. Django was foremost among a group of Gypsy”. (Reinhardt's recordings refer to him as a Gypsy.)

Other notable Sinti musicians include Drafi Deutscher and the jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree guitarists The guitar is a plucked string instrument, played either with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number but sometimes more, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with either nylon or steel strings Jimmy Rosenberg and Paulus Schäfer. The Sinto Häns'che Weis produced a record in Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, in the 1970s in which he sang about the Poraimos (Romani Holocaust) The Porajmos is a Romani term introduced by Romani scholar and activist Ian Hancock to describe attempts by the regime in Nazi Germany and its allies to exterminate most of the Romani people of Europe as part of the Holocaust in his own language. Many younger Germans first learned about this part of Holocaust The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah (Hebrew): השואה,[citation needed] Romanized ha'shoah; Yiddish: חורבן, Romanized churben or hurban is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany history as a result of this recording. Titi Winterstein and several members of Reinhardt's clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if actual lineage patterns are unknown, clan members may nonetheless recognize a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be merely symbolical in nature, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a symbol of the still play traditional and modern Gypsy jazz all over Europe. The jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian jazz keyboardist and composer was also of Sinte (Sintenghero) descent.

One of the most notable Sinti is Johann Trollmann, the 1933 boxing champion of Germany A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state,, who was killed by the Nazis.[1]

Oto Pestner is a notable Slovenian Slovenia /sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija] (help·info)), is a country in Central Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on Sinti singer. He is known for his involvement with the New Swing Quartet, which sang mostly jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree and swing Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and became a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Swing uses a strong rhythm section of double bass and drums as the anchor for a lead section of brass instruments such as trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including classics. Pestner also sings gospel A gospel is a writing that describes the life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The word is primarily used to refer to the four canonical gospels: the Gospel of Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Luke and Gospel of John although it is also used for non-canonical writings such as the Gospel of Thomas. The term "Gospel" and Slovenian folk music.

Andrea Pirlo Andrea Pirlo, Cavaliere Ufficiale OMRI , is an Italian footballer with Sinti Roma origins, winner of the World Cup and the Champions League who currently plays for Serie A club Milan and the Italian national team, a soccer player who plays for A.C. Milan Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as A.C. Milan and as just Milan in Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. The club was founded in 1899 by English lace-maker Herbert Kilpin, Alfred Edwards, and four other Englishmen and has since spent most of its history in the top flight of Italian football and won the 2006 FIFA World Cup with the Italian national team The Italy national football team represents Italy in international football competition and is controlled by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio . They are the current World Champions, having won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, is also of Sinti origin.

See also

• Romani people by country

Notes

1. ^ Martha Verdorfer: Sinti & Roma (German)
2. ^ Yaron Matras, 'The Role of Language in Mystifying and Demystifying Gypsy Identity' in: Nicholas Saul, Susan Tebbutt, The Role of the Romanies: Images and Counter-images of "Gypsies"/Romanies in European Cultures, Liverpool University Press (2004), ISBN 9780853236795, p. 70.
3. ^ Marco D. Knudsen. "Roma Frühgeschichte (1000–1400). Freedom by joining the Islam". RomaHistory.com. http://www.romahistory.com/en/1-8.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-14.
4. ^ Burleigh, The Racial State, p122.
5. ^ Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wipperman, The Racial State: Germany 1933–1945 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 117.
6. ^ Shapiro, Paul A.; Ehrenreich, Robert M. (2002). Roma and Sinti: under-studied victims of Nazism : symposium proceedings. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum,: Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies. p. 24. http://books.google.ie/books?ei=hvAlTO7uEIqLOPf39a0C&ct=result&id=93rzAAAAMAAJ&dq=sinti+%22brown+triangle%22&q=+%22brown+triangle%22#search_anchor. Retrieved 26/06/2010.

Further reading

• Walter Winter, Struan Robertson (Translator). Winter Time: Memoirs of a German who Survived Auschwitz. Hertfordshire Publications, (2004), ISBN 1-902806-38-7.
  • Reviewed by Emma Brockes "We had the same pain" in The Guardian November 29, 2004.
• Open Society Institute: The Situation of Roma in Germany (2002)

External links

• Wege nach Ravensbrück (Ravensbrück concentration camp: Memories of surviving female Sinti) (German)

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