This has given rise to a great confusion, namely the one between Gypsies and Travellers, in German "Fahrende" and in French "Gens du Voyage". There is a strong distinction. While Gypsies, in a strict interpretation, originated from India and have kept a unified language (albeit with dialectical variations), there are other groups.
These have been assimilated by to them by non-Gypsies such as the Jenische of Switzerland, France, Germany and Austria or the Tinkers of Ireland. These groups have no traces of any Indian roots but rather descend from the migrant European stock. This needs to be further argued: Even in such Gypsy groups that have, to a large extent, lost their language, Rromanes, such as the Cale in Spain, many words of Indian origins were and are still present in their vocabulary. In the XIXth century, these formed a large part of the language. The so-called BejaĊĦa provides another example, a Rroma group found in Hungary, Croatia etc. This group does not speak Rromanes at all but an old Romanian dialect. The interesting fact is that they nevertheless have kept literal translation of Rromanes in their own language, for example the use of "cigan" as husband and "ciganka" as wife.
Jenische, on the other hand, speak a largely German-based language, which varies from region to region and has a few acquired words of Rromanes and mostly of Yiddish ones. This, together with the local dialectical variation, i.e. that the stock of the language is influenced by the local German dialect - Alsatian in France, Southern German Swiss German and Austrian dialects - strongly hints that the Jenische do not have Indian origins.
Contacts and inter-marriages certainly have occurred and are still occurring. While some people have recently argued that Jenische are in fact Gypsies, this has so far not been documented but rather, has been taken as an axiom.
The terminology of Fahrende or Traveller has been the result of a Western European myth, namely that all Rroma were and are nomads. Note that Rromanes word pertaining to travels are not of Indian origins but acquired words while the ones referring to villages and village life are, in fact Indian ones. This points out that the nomadic way of life was not the original one for Rroma.