Judaeo-Romance languages areJewish languages derived fromRomance languages, spoken by variousJewish communities (and their descendants) originating in regions where Romance languages predominate, and altered to such an extent to gain recognition aslanguages in their own right. The status of many Judaeo-Romance languages is controversial as, despite manuscripts preserving transcriptions of Romance languages using theHebrew alphabet, there is often little-to-no evidence that these "dialects" were actually spoken by Jews living in the various European nations.
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Judaeo-Aragonese was spoken in north-centralSpain from the around the mid-8th century to around the time of theAlhambra Decree, which expelled Jews from Spain. Later, it either merged with the various Judeo-Spanish dialects or fell out of use, to be replaced by the far more influential Judeo-Spanish dialects from Southern Spain, especially in the areas occupied by the modern lands ofValencia,Murcia andAndalucia.
Jewish Brazilian Portuguese is a variety ofBrazilian Portuguese incorporatesHebrew andYiddish phrases.Sephardi communities also borrow fromLadino.[1]
Judaeo-Catalan also known as Catalanic, was a Catalan dialect inCatalonia,Valencia and theBalearic Islands that was spoken before the 1492 expulsion of theAlhambra Decree. It is unknown when Jews abandoned the language. While numerous Catalan texts written in the Hebrew alphabet survive, whether or not they truly represent a dialect is debated. Some scholars, while conceding that the evidence for the language is scarce, still defend Judaeo-Catalan's status as a language,[2] whereas other scholars deny such a language ever truly existed,[3] or, contend that the evidence is too limited to take any position on the matter at all.[4]
Jewish French is anethnolect ofFrench spoken by 200-300French Jews. It unlike most Judeo-Romance language is considered not in decline but instead is doing well.[5] It contains some influence fromYiddish,Israeli Hebrew as well asJudeo-Arabic fromMizrahi Jews who moved toFrance afterbeing expelled from North Africa. Today there is media, both digital and physical in Jewish French.[5] It is not descendent from Zarphatic.
This is a dialect ofFrench spoken by 50-100 Jews in southern France. It contains influence from all three of the Judeo-Occitan languages particularly Judeo-Gascon.[6]
Judaeo-Italian, sometimes called "Italkian", a term coined bySolomon Birnbaum in 1942, has gone extinct except for one variety, now spoken fluently by fewer than 200 people. They speak the last remnant of the widely variant Judaeo-Italian languages spoken throughoutItaly andCorfu and along the eastern shores of theAdriatic Sea and theIonian Sea. The language may have had some influence on the development ofYiddish.[7] The language is not as well preserved as larger Jewish languages like Ladino and much of what is documented was made to preserve the language.[8] It had several varieties which were:
Judaeo-Latin is a hypothetical language covering a range of geographical and register varieties ofLatin. It is postulated to have been spoken in specific Jewish communities of theRoman Empire. A small corpus of Latin texts from theMiddle Ages written in the Hebrew alphabet exist, but they are insufficient to indicate a commonly spoken ethnolect, and thus the existence of a veritable Jewish Latin language is pure conjecture.[9]
Judaeo-Piedmontese was a language spoken by Jews inPiedmont, in North WesternItaly from around the 16th century to theSecond World War. It was based onPiedmontese, aGallo-Italian language close toProvençal, with many loanwords fromClassical Hebrew. Italian authorPrimo Levi, born within the Piedmontese Jewish community, described the language briefly in the opening chapter of his bookThe Periodic Table.[10] It went extinct circa 2015[10]
Bagitto also known as Judeo-Livornese was a dialect or slang used by theJews of Livorno.[11] Though extinct many works in it were written byGuido Bedarida.[12] It contained many loanwords from Spanish, Portuguese, and Ladino.[12]
A now extinct dialect ofSalentino used by Jews inSalento andCorfu. The oldest text in Salentino is in the margin notes of a copy of theMishnah from 1072 to 1073 known asParma A which is in Judeo-Salentinian.[12]
Judeo-Roman is the only variety of Judeo-Italian which is not extinct. It is moribund, and is spoken by 250 elderly people 200 of which are in Italy.[12] There are groups trying to preserve the language. There is a theater groups calledChaimme 'a sore 'o sediaro e 'a moje (Chaim, the sister, the chairmaker and the wife) makes plays in Judeo-Roman, some which are available on YouTube.[13] There are also poems in Judeo-Roman byCrescenzo del Monte.[12]
Judeo-Mantuan was a dialect of Judeo-Italian spoken in and around the Italian city ofMantua. It dropped the Italian e at the end of words (far instead offare). It is attested through several poems by a Jewish physician Annibale Gallico, made from 1876 to 1935.[14]
Other varieties of Judeo-Italian are:[12]
There are few samples of these languages.[12]
Jewish Latin America Spanish is variety ofSpanish spoken by the by 300,000 members of theJewish community of Latin America. It contains loanwords fromAramaic,Modern Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino. Though older varieties have more Aramaic, Ladino, and Yiddish loanwords while the version spoken by younger generations has more Modern Hebrew loanwords.[15]
There exists three distinct, now extinct varieties of theOccitan language spoken by Jews.
was the language that developed inProvence and in the rest of medieval southernFrance.[16] Judaeo-Occitan had several unique phonemic changes in Hebrewloanwords. Use of Judaeo-Provençal began to decline following the expulsion of the Jews from France in 1498[17] and continued with the spread ofFrench language in the southern parts of the country. This decline accelerated with theemancipation of the Jews during theFrench Revolution which enabled Provençal Jews to migrate and settle outside of Provence.[18] it finally died when the last speakerArmand Lunel, died in 1977. But Lunel only remembered a few words of the language.[17]
A subdialect of the Niçard subdialect of Provençal spoken by he Jewish community in and aroundNice. The least attested of the Judeo Occitan dialects, Judeo Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living inNice, descendants of local Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. It is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew.[6]
Judeo-Gascon was asociolect of theGascon dialect of Occitan spoken inGascony it was spoken until the early 20th century.[19] It had influence on Southern Jewish French with about 850 words a some morphological and grammatical changes from various languages being transferred to Southern Jewish French through Judeo-Gascon.[6]
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Judeo-Portuguese was the language spoken by the secret Jewish population ofPortugal until the 16th century when it was extinct. A few vestigial archaism forms survived in secret religious rituals through small, uniqueCrypto-Jewish communities in theBelmonte municipality. While it is extinct as a spoken language it is still used in a limited liturgical sense.
Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino is known by a number of other names. It is found in many varied regional dialects and is the modern descendant of theSpanish that was spoken by theSephardi Jews, the descendants ofSpain's large and influential Jewish population. After the 1492Alhambra Decree mandated the expulsion of Spain's Jewish population of 300,000, Judaeo-Spanish spread throughout Europe and theOttoman Empire, becoming thelingua franca of theAdriatic Sea. In 2017, it was formally recognized by theRoyal Spanish Academy.[20] It is mainly spoken bySephardic Jews by only 133,000 of 1,000,000 Sephardic Jews speak it and it is classified as Definitely Endangered.[21][22] Many of its speakers were killed during the Holocaust and most others would switch into the main languages of their countries.[23] The largest Ladino speaking communities are in Israel (125K) and Turkey (8K) though tiny communities in Greece and Bosnia Herzegovina also exist with 12 and 4 speakers respectively.[22]
Haketia is an endangered dialect of Ladino spoken by 1000North Africa Sephardim down from 30,000 in 1900, historically spoken in several Moroccan cities.[24][25] It is differentiated by other dialects by its presence of Arabic influence. Unlike other Ladino dialects, Haketia does not have a literary tradition.[26]Teutani is asubdialect of Haketia historically spoken in the Algerian city ofOran.[27]
Zarphatic also known as Judeo-French was a Jewish language of Northern France,Norman England, theLow Countries and westernGermany. It was used in a limited sense byRashi.[28] There is a debate over how different Judaeo French was fromOld French, some believe it was asociolect, dialect, or separate language.[28] The termZarphatic, coined bySolomon Birnbaum,[29] comes from theHebrew name for France,Tzarfat (צרפת)
The exact development of the Judeo-Romance languages is unclear. The two predominant theories are that they are either descended from Judeo-Latin, and that their development paralleled that of Latin's daughter languages or that they are independent outgrowths of each individual language community. Another theory adopts parts of both, proposing that certain of the Judeo-Romance languages (variously, Zarphatic, Shuadit, Italkian and Catalanic) are descended from Judeo-Latin, but that others (variously, Zarphatic, Catalanic, Ladino, Judeo-Portuguese) are the product of independent development.
Most Judaeo-Romance languages are extinct or facing serious risks of extinction. Assuming they actually existed, Judaeo-Latin died in ancient times, while Judaeo-French and Judeo-Aragonese died in theMiddle Ages. Judeo-Portuguese ceased being used in Portugal in the 16th century, but survived in theJewish diaspora until the late 18th century.[30] Judaeo-Catalan died sometime between theMiddle Ages and theSecond World War, when most of its speakers would have been exterminated in theHolocaust.[31] Judaeo-Occitan became extinct when its last native speaker,Armand Lunel, died in 1977.[30] Judaeo-Italian is critically endangered, with all of its dialects except 1 being extinct. And the on the last remaining dialect Judeo-Roman being spoken by around 250 individuals in 2022.[32] Judaeo-Spanish is spoken by the remainingSephardic communities of theMaghreb in northernAfrica, in theMiddle East, especially inTurkey andIsrael, which accounts for as many as 160,000 people; however, nearly all of this number speak at least one other language. While Jewish French and Jewish Latin America Spanish break the trend and are described as "Vibrant" and are facing no threat of extinction.[28][15]