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Yenish People

Last modified: 2025-10-11 by zachary harden
Keywords: yenish |
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About the Yenish people

Yéniches (in French & Waloon) / Jenische (in German, Allemanisch, Dutch) people are a distinctive ethnic minority in Central and Western Europe with own language, customs and, previously, nomadic lifestyle. They claim to be of Celtic ancestry. Their presence in Europe can be documented back to XVth Century. Most deny any links with the Rom, but on the other hand, they do associate themselves politically with the Roms and Sinti. Only the small minority follows still the nomadic way of life. They are recognized as a an ethnic minority only in Switzerland, but live in several European countries:

  • Germany 412,000
  • France 300,000
  • Italy 293,000
  • Netherlands 81,000
  • Hungary 60,000
  • Belgium 52,000
  • Austria 41,000
  • Belarus 11,000
  • Luxembourg 2,500

(these are their own estimates - other sources vary widely)

Predominant religion is Roman Catholic. The Jenisch language (ISO 629-3 code: yec) "is a variety of German and contains in its vocabulary a mixture of Romani, Yiddish, slang, and various German dialects"
(Wikipedia)

The quite comprehensive description of these people is presented by the German Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenische. The unofficial flag of Yéniches/Jenische can be seen at French Wikipedia site: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yéniches and also at http://membres.multimania.fr/yeniche/les_yeniches_en_europe.htm, http://membres.multimania.fr/yeniche/. The flag of the Swiss Jenische is available at:
http://yeniche.musicblog.fr/1005390/Association-Yenisch-Suisse.

Chrystian Kretowicz, 27 June 2010

Reported Yenish flags

[Flag of Yeniche People]    [Flag of Yeniche People]   [Flag of Yeniche People]
(left) image by Tomislav Todorović, 6 October 2025, originally located by Chrystian Kretowicz, 27 June 2010
(center, right) images reported by "flagdaypodcast", 30 September 2025

 

  1. The first flag is taken from flag taken from French Wikipedia (source). A fire, an accordion, a ‘vardo’ style caravan and a basket appear on this version.
  2. The Facebook page of the European Yenish Union features another flag, this time defaced by a wheel (ala the red wheel in the Romani flag), a triskelion (some Yenish claim Celtic ancestry) and twelve stars.
  3. English Wikipedia displays a flag in the same colours (quartered per saltire light blue, blue, light blue, blue). However this flag does not carry these devices.

Contribution from "flagdaypodcast", 30 September 2025

  1. The flag with the devices, all of them styled differently (most likely, some clipart images inserted into the diagonally quartered field), can be seen on this blog: yeniche.kazeo.com.
  2. The image of the flag without the devices is described as "an abstracted / generalized version of the flag of the Yenish people" by the creator of its image at Wikimedia Commons: consequently, it cannot be considered the representation of a real flag, until at least one with the exact design is seen in use.
  3. A different version of the flag with the wheel, minus the triskelion, can be seen here on Facebook: photo. Being displayed together with the Roma and French flags, it reveals that the wheel clearly differs from the one on the Roma flag. Also there is a world map under all, as if seen through four fields, depicted in slightly different shades of light and dark blue. These details are better visible here on Facebook and here on Tiktok.

Tomislav Todorović, 6 October 2025