| Judeo-Hamadani Judeo-Borujerdi | |
|---|---|
| Judeo-Persian | |
| Native to | Iran |
Native speakers | 8 of Judeo-Hamadani (2001)[citation needed] |
Indo-European
| |
| Hebrew script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | jude1268 |
| ELP | Judeo-Hamadani |
Judeo-Hamadani andJudeo-Borujerdi constitute aNorthwestern Iranian language, originally spoken by theIranian Jews ofHamadan andBorujerd in western Iran. Hamadanis refer to their language asebri "Hebrew" orzabān-e qadim "old language". Though not Hebrew, the termebri is used to distinguish Judeo-Hamadani from Persian.[1]
In 1920, Hamadan had around 13,000 Jewish residents, most can also be found in Israel, New York City, and most predominantly in Los Angeles.[2]
In western Iran, the district of Hamadan is split betweenTuyserkan,Malayer, andNahavand. This district along withBorujerd, further[4] south inLorestan Province, forms a geographic cluster that was inhabited by a good portion of Iranian-Jewish communities until recently when those communities emigrated toTehran,Israel, andNorth America. Already in 1701, Paul Lucas (cited by De Planhol 2003) wrote that Jews were more numerous in Hamadan than elsewhere in Persia. According to Encyclopedia Iranica, the Jewish community had dwindled from around 13,000 souls in 1920 to less than 1,000 by 1969.[2] It is hard to find people who still speak the Judeo-Hamadani language since only people born before the mid-1940s were raised speaking the dialect. Given the large diaspora population, few people today speak the Judeo-Hamadani language; it is unknown whether native speakers under the age of 50 exist.[2] The lack of preservation of Judeo-Hamadani is primarily due to cultural, political, and economic marginalization of the Jewish community. Unlike Judeo-Hamadani, Persian carried prestige as the majority language, and by adopting it, Jews were afforded greater educational and employment opportunities, as well as social status. Persian's influence was not only cultural, but linguistic.[1]
As Habib Borjian points out, Hamadan was once the capital ofMedia, implying that a form of Northwestern IranianMedian must have been spoken here before Southwestern Iranian Persian became the dominant language of the entire Iranian Plateau (Habib Borjian, 121).[4] Habib Borjian explains that these moribund dialects show closest resemblance to the dialects spoken in the areas ofQazvin andZanjan, both north of Hamadan, and further northwest inAzerbaijan (Habib Borjian, 121). This suggests that migration from central Iran led to Jewish dialects in Hamadan.
If we look at the chart above, we can see how Judeo-Hamadani is compared to some of the other Judeo-Median Languages. Judeo-Hamadani appears most similar to Kashani in terms of morphosyntax, evidenced by shared passive and imperfect markers. Judeo-Hamadani also shares many lexical items with Judeo-Isfahani, including "throw", "want", "cat", and "dog". This overlap, though notable and suggests similar origins or contact, is not significant enough for these languages to be mutually intelligible. In fact, due to language contact, dialectal shift, and diaspora, none of the Judeo-Median languages are mutually intelligible. According to Habib Borjian, "Tentative studies reveal that Tuyserkani agrees with Hamadani in all major grammatical points and lexical items (Stilo 2003), and that the dialects of Borujerd and Nehavand15 are close (Yarshater 1989)".[3]
The consonant inventory of Judeo-Hamadani is: /p, b, t, d, č, ǰ, ž, k, g, q~γ, f, v, s, z, š, x, h, m, n, r, l, y/[clarification needed]. There may also be a pharyngeal /ħ/ especially in words borrowed from Hebrew and Arabic.
Its vowel inventory is /i, e, ə, a, u, ō, o, ā/[clarification needed]. Stilo states thatə is probably a variant ofe.[1]
Judeo-Hamadani also has diphthongs, includingāā, ao, uā, ayi, āy, ey, iye, av, andāv. The suprasegmentals of the language, including rhythm, tone, intonation, and stress, are influenced by the Persian Hamadani dialect.[1]
Judeo-Hamadani contains many loanwords from Hebrew, standard Persian, and Hamadani Persian. Loanwords provide insight into language contact and historical cultural overlap. For example, the termvenadig "window glass" appears in Judeo-Hamadani, spelledvenedig in Hamadani, identical to the GermanVenedig "Venice." The Hamadani word likely originally referred to glass imported from Venice and used in windows. Likevenedig, other loanwords were likely transferred to Judeo-Hamadani from Hamadani proper, or through direct contact with speakers of other languages.[1]
Judeo-Hamadani's morphology is similar to Persian's. Below is a list of nominal morphological characteristics of Judeo-Hamadani:
Personal pronouns in Judeo-Hamadani are identical to those inPersian save for two differences: Judeo-Hamadani has the-ā- vowel inmān "I," and uses the formhāmā "we" as opposed to the Persianmā. Clitics in Judeo-Hamadani are mobile, and there is a general tendency for movement forward, to the left. They can also appear inside the verb when it is possible. Like otherIranian languages, Judeo-Hamadani only has one pronominal clitic form for all cases: the oblique.[1]
Judeo-Hamadani commonly uses preverbshe-, vā andvor-. Often, preverbs cause no semantic change in the verb root. However, in cases likevā-ker-ān "I open," there is a meaning change of "ker". In general, preverbs precede any negative particle, clitics, and durative particle, and always occur in the initial position.[1]
he-ne=m-e-gefte PV-NEG=1S.OBL-DUR-take.PP "I have not bought"
Judeo-Hamadani has eight tenses, present, imperfect, subjunctive, imperative, preterit, present perfect, past perfect, and progressive.
| Tense | Formation | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present | by suffixed and unstressede- (durative marker) | e-ker-u "makes, does" |
| imperfect | by suffixed and unstressede- (durative marker) | e-ker-u "makes, does" |
| subjunctive | prefixbe- | be-š-im "we would go" |
| imperative | prefixbe- | be-gir "take it!" |
| preterit | prefixbe- | be=m-vād "I told" |
| present perfect | prefixbe- | be=m-e-šnofte "I have heard") |
| past perfect | prefixbe- | be=m-xorte bo "I had eaten" |
| progressive | on the basis of the colloquial Persian construction with the modal verbdāštan | mān dār-ān bar-gard-ān az kenisā "I am returning from synagogue" |