| Knaanic | |
|---|---|
| Region | Europe |
| Ethnicity | Czech Jews |
| Extinct | Late Middle Ages |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | czk[note 1] |
czk | |
| Glottolog | west3000 |
Knaanic (also calledCanaanic,Leshon Knaan,Judaeo-Czech,Judeo-Slavic) is a tentative name for a number ofWest Slavic dialects or registers formerlyspoken by the Jews in the lands of theWestern Slavs, notably theCzech lands, but also the lands of modernPoland,Lusatia, and otherSorbian regions. They became extinct in theLate Middle Ages. Very little is known about their difference from the surrounding Slavic languages. The largest number of samples of Knaanic written in Hebrew script are in Czech;[1][2] therefore, most commonly Knaanic is associated withOld Czech.
The name comes from the "land of Knaan", a geo-ethnological term denoting the Jewish populations living principally in Czechia, though sometimes applied to all Jewish populations east of theElbe River (as opposed to theAshkenazi Jews, living to its west, or theSephardi Jews of the Iberian Peninsula).[3] As such, the land is often translated as simplySlavonia orSlavic Europe.[4]
The term is derived from ancientCanaan (Hebrew:כנען,kəna'an).
The language became extinct some time in theLate Middle Ages, possibly because of the expansion of theAshkenazi culture and its ownYiddish language, descended from earlyMiddle High German. That hypothesis is often backed by the large number of Yiddish loanwords of Slavic origin, many of which were no longer in use inSlavic languages at the time of the Ashkenazi expansion. They are believed to come from Knaanic rather than fromCzech,Sorbian orPolish. The linguistPaul Wexler has hypothesised that Knaanic is actually the direct predecessor of Yiddish and that the language later becameGermanised.[5] In other words, the Knaanim, that is, the people speaking the Judaeo-Slavic languages, were the main cause of changes in Yiddish.[6] That view has been dismissed by nearly all mainstream academics, however, and contrasts with the more widely accepted theories ofMax Weinreich, who argued that Slavic loanwords were assimilated only after Yiddish had already been fully formed.[7][8]The Jewish commentatorRashi was aware of this language.[9]
A possible early example of Knaanic is a 9th-century letter for a Jewish community ofRuthenia.[3] One of the very few commonly accepted examples of Knaanic is inscriptions onbracteate coins issued underMieszko the Old andLeszek the White, twoPolish rulers of 12th and 13th century. The last evidence of usage of the language (written with theHebrew script) comes from the 16th century.
The reason that Knaanic inscriptions, which use Hebrew letters, appear on coins minted for a Polish duke is that at the time, he leased some mints to Jews. The mint masters were responsible for collecting bullion and striking coins as well as periodically taking in and restriking existing coins.[10]
The inscriptions on the coins range widely. Some are Hebrew names, possibly those of the mintmasters. Some are the names of the towns in which the mint operated, for instanceKalisz, the burial place of Mieszko the Old. Some have the duke's name. One in theNational Bank of Poland's numismatic collection bears the wordbracha, Hebrew for blessing.[10]
| Inscription (Knaanic) | משקא קרל פלסק |
| Transcription | mškʾ krl plsk |
| Interpretation (Polish) | Mieszko, król Polski |
| Translation | 'Mieszko, king of Poland' |
In the 15th edition ofEthnologue (2005) assigned code czk to it and said that the termKnaanic is used primarily forJewish Czech, possibly also for other Jewish variants of West Slavic languages, extinct in the Middle Ages. The 16th edition (2009) no longer listsKnaanic among the West Slavic languages. It mentioned it only as an "extinct or artificial" language without further specification and refers to the Linguist List portal.
As of 2023[update]Ethnologue once again lists Knaanic as a Czech–Slovak language.[11]
Media related toKnaanic language at Wikimedia Commons