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| Judeo-Arabic | |
|---|---|
| ערבית יהודית | |
 A page from theCairo Geniza, part of which is written in the Judeo-Arabic language | |
| Ethnicity | Jews fromNorth Africa and theFertile Crescent |
Native speakers | 240,000 (2022)[1] |
Early forms | |
| Hebrew alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | jrb |
| ISO 639-3 | jrb – inclusive codeIndividual codes: yhd – Judeo-Egyptian Arabicaju – Judeo-Moroccan Arabicyud – Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabicjye – Judeo-Yemeni Arabic |
| Glottolog | None |
Judeo-Arabic (Judeo-Arabic:ערביה יהודיה,romanized: 'Arabiya Yahūdiya;Arabic:عربية يهودية,romanized: ʿArabiya Yahūdiya(listen)ⓘ;Hebrew:ערבית יהודית,romanized: 'Aravít Yehudít(listen)ⓘ), sometimes referred to asSharh in its high-level translationcalque, is a group of relatedethnolects orreligiolects within the branches of the Arabic language used byJewish communities. Judeo-Arabic is a mixed form ofArabic, in itsformal andvernacular varieties, as it has been used byJews, and refers to both written forms and spoken dialects.[2][3][4] Although Jewish dialectical forms of Arabic, which predateIslam, have been distinct from those of other religious communities, they are not a uniform linguistic entity.[2]
Varieties of Arabic formerly spoken by Jews throughout theArab world have been, in modern times, classified as distinctethnolects.[4] Under theISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as amacrolanguage under the code jrb, encompassing four languages:Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju),Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye),Judeo-Egyptian Arabic (yhd), andJudeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud).[5][4]
Judeo-Arabic is a blend of Arabic, Arabic dialects, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Later forms of Judeo-Arabic particularly express Hebrew and Aramaic elements.
Many significant Jewish works, including a number of religious writings bySaadia Gaon,Maimonides andJudah Halevi, were originally written in Judeo-Arabic, as this was the primaryvernacular language of their authors.
Jewish use of Arabic inArabia predatesIslam.[2] There is evidence of a Jewish Arabic dialect, similar to general Arabic but including some Hebrew and Aramaic lexemes, calledal-Yahūdiyya, predating Islam. Some of these Hebrew and Aramaic words may have passed into general usage, particularly in religion and culture, though this pre-Islamic Judeo-Arabic was not the basis of a literature.[6]: 41–42
There were JewishPre-Islamic Arabic poets, such asal-Samawʾal ibn ʿĀdiyā, though surviving written records of such Jewish poets do not indicate anything that distinguishes their use of Arabic from non-Jewish use of it, and their work according to Geoffrey Khan is generally not referred to as Judeo-Arabic.[2] This work is similar to and tends to follow Classical Arabic, and Benjamin Hary, who calls it Classical Judeo-Arabic, notes it still includes some dialectal features, such as inSaadia Gaon's translation of the Pentateuch. This period includes a wide array of literary works.[6]: 42 Scholars assume that Jewish communities in Arabia spoke Arabic as their vernacular language, and some write that there is evidence of the presence ofHebrew andAramaic words in their speech, as such words appear in theQuran and might have come from contact with these Arabic-speaking Jewish communities.[2]
Before the spread of Islam, Jewish communities inMesopotamia andSyria spoke Aramaic, while those to the West spokeRomance andBerber.[2] With theEarly Muslim conquests, areas including Mesopotamia and the eastern and southern Mediterranean underwentArabization, most rapidly in urban centers.[2] Some isolated Jewish communities continued to speak Aramaic until the 10th century, and some communities never adopted Arabic as a vernacular language at all.[2] Although urban Jewish communities were using Arabic as their spoken language, Jews kept Hebrew and Aramaic, traditional rabbinic languages, as their languages of writing during the first three centuries of Muslim rule, perhaps due to the presence of theSura andPumbedita yeshivas in rural areas where people spoke Aramaic.[2]
Jews in Arabic, Muslim majority countries wrote—sometimes in their dialects, sometimes in a more classical style—in a mildly adaptedHebrew alphabet rather than using theArabic script, often includingconsonant dots from the Arabic alphabet to accommodate phonemes that did not exist in the Hebrew alphabet.
For centuries, Jews residing in Islamic lands used Judeo-Arabic for daily communication and written works, leading to significant literary output. This linguistic variety emerged with theArab conquests in the seventh century, blending classical, postclassical, and dialectal Arabic features, as a variety within the cluster ofMiddle Arabic. It became prevalent among urban populations starting with the lower strata. While some scholars suggest its use reflected a desire to elevate non-Arab cultures,Shu'ubiyya, over pan-Arabization,Arabiyya, others view it as a pragmatic choice. Jewish communities, lacking the same theological necessity for Classical Arabic, adopted dialectal forms more readily, and exhibited diverse approaches to Arabic literary conventions.[7]
By around 800 CE, most Jews within the Islamic Empire (90% of the world's Jews at the time) were native speakers of Arabic like the populations around them. This led to the development of early Judeo-Arabic.[8] The language quickly became the central language of Jewish scholarship and communication, enabling Jews to participate in the greater epicenter of learning at the time, which meant that they could be active participants in secular scholarship and civilization. The widespread usage of Arabic not only unified the Jewish community located throughout the Islamic Empire but also facilitated greater communication with other ethnic and religious groups, which led to manuscripts like theToledot Yeshu, being written or published in Arabic or Judeo-Arabic.[9] By the 10th century Judeo-Arabic would transition from Early to Classical Judeo-Arabic.[citation needed]
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Inal-Andalus, Jewish poets associated with thegolden age of Jewish culture in Spain, such asJudah Halevi, composed poetry with Arabic. Themuwaššaḥ, an Andalusi genre of strophic poetry, typically includedkharjas, or closing lines often in a different language. About half of the corpus of the more than 250 knownmuwaššaḥāt inHebrew havekharjas in Arabic, compared to roughly 50 with Hebrewkharjas, and about 25 with Romance.[11]: 185 There are also a fewkharjas with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.[11]: 185
During the 15th century, as Jews, especially in North Africa, gradually began to identify less with Arabs, Judeo-Arabic would undergo significant changes and become Later Judeo-Arabic.[8] This coincided with increased isolation of Jewish communities and involved greater influence of Hebrew and Aramaic features.[6]: 42
Some of the most important books of medieval Jewish thought were originally written in medieval Judeo-Arabic, as were certainhalakhic works and biblical commentaries. Later they were translated intomedieval Hebrew so that they could be read by contemporaries elsewhere in the Jewish world, and by others who were literate in Hebrew. These include:
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Sharch (šarḥ, pl.šurūḥ,šarḥanim) is a literary genre consisting of the translation of sacred texts, such asBible translations into Arabic, theTalmud orsiddurim, which were composed in Hebrew and Aramaic, into Judeo-Arabic, prevalent starting in the 15th century, and exhibiting a number of mixed elements.[15] The termsharḥ sometimes came to mean "Judeo-Arabic"[16][17] in the same way that"Targum" was sometimes used to mean theAramaic language.[citation needed] The texts of thesharh are based on and dependent on Hebrew.[15]
The significantemigration of Judeo-Arabic speakers in the 1940s and 1950s to Israel, France, and North America has led to endangerment or near-extinction of the ethnolects.[18]: 63 Judeo-Arabic was viewed negatively in Israel as all Arabic was viewed as an "enemy language".[19] Their distinct Arabic dialects in turn did not thrive, and most of their descendants now speakFrench orModern Hebrew almost exclusively; thus resulting in the entire group of Judeo-Arabic dialects being consideredendangered languages.[6]: 44 [20][18] There remain small populations of speakers in Morocco,[18] Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen, the United States,[citation needed] and Israel.[18]
The 19th century rediscovery of theCairo Geniza gave the study of Judeo-Arabic prominence withinJudaic Studies, leading to publications such asShelomo Dov Goitein's seriesA Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza.[4]
Cultural criticElla Shohat notes that modern Jewish speakers of Arabic did not refer to their language as 'Judeo-Arabic' but simply as 'Arabic'.[4] In the period of 'massive dislocation' from the late 1940s through the 1960s, Jewish speakers of Arabic in diaspora and their descendants gradually adopted the term 'Judeo-Arabic' and its equivalents in French and Hebrew.[4] Shohat's criticism is a recent intervention that challenges the conventional wisdom, though she stipulates that she excludes the medieval context from her discussion.[7]
Shohat identifies linguistYehoshua Blau as a key figure in the development of the notion of Judeo-Arabic, within what she describes as aZionist linguistic project invested in prioritizing the uniqueness and separateness of isolatable 'Jewish languages'.[4] Shohat cites the first issue of the Israeli journalPe'amim, which featured a "Scholars' Forum" (בימת חוקרים) on "The Jewish Languages – the Common, the Unique and the Problematic" (הלשונות היהודיות – המשותף, המיוחד והבעייתי)[21] with articles fromChaim Menachem Rabin "מה מייחד את הלשונות היהודיות" ('What Distinguishes the Jewish Languages')[22] andYehoshua Blau "הערבית-היהודית הקלאסית" ('Classical Judeo-Arabic').[23] This project explicitly sought to describe the Arabic of Jews as a distinct, Jewish language, equating it withYiddish.[4] According to Esther-Miriam Wagner, the case of Judeo-Arabic reified a Zionist 'Arab vs. Jew' dichotomy.[24]
Judeo-Arabic can be seen as many different mixed forms incorporating different aspects ofClassical Arabic, Arabic dialects, Hebrew and Aramaic.[15][7] Judeo-Arabic, particularly in its later forms, contains distinctive features and elements of Hebrew and Aramaic.[15]: 125 [6]: 35
The Arabic spoken by Jewish communities in the Arab world differed from the Arabic of their non-Jewish neighbors. Particularly in its later forms, Judeo-Arabic contains distinctive features and elements of Hebrew and Aramaic, such as grammar, vocabulary, orthography, and style.[15][6]
For example, most Jews in Egypt lived in Cairo and Alexandria and they shared a common dialect.[26]Baghdad Jewish Arabic is reminiscent of thedialect of Mosul. For example, "I said" isqeltu in the speech of Baghdadi Jews and Christians, as well as in Mosul and Syria, as against Muslim Baghdadigilit.[27]
Judeo-Arabic can be thought of as a variety of vernacular Middle Arabic, and differs from Bedouin dialects and classical Arabic in a shift to subject-verb-object word order and in that it is more an analytical language versus a synthetic language, relying on syntax more than morphology. It also exhibits changes such as the loss of nominal case and verbal modal endings and the introduction of new object markers and particles.[7]
Some Judeo-Arabic writers, such as Maimonides, were able to switch between varieties of Judeo-Arabic and the Standard Arabic dialect.[18]: 64–65
Like other Jewish languages and dialects, Judeo-Arabic languages contain borrowings from Hebrew andAramaic. This feature is less marked intranslations of the Bible, as the authors clearly took the view that the business of a translator is to translate.[28]
Most literature in Judeo-Arabic is of a Jewish nature and is intended for readership by Jewish audiences. There was also widespread translation of Jewish texts from languages likeYiddish andLadino into Judeo-Arabic, and translation of liturgical texts from Aramaic and Hebrew into Judeo-Arabic.[8] There is also Judeo-Arabic videos onYouTube.[8]
A collection of over 400,000 of Judeo-Arabic documents from the 6th-19th centuries was found in theCairo Geniza.[30]
The movieFarewell Baghdad would be released in 2013 entirely inJudeo-Iraqi Arabic[31]
Judeo-Arabic orthography uses a modified version of theHebrew alphabet called the Judeo-Arabic script. It is written fromright to left horizontally like the Hebrew script and also like the Hebrew script some letters contain final versions, used only when that letter is at the end of a word.[32] It also uses the lettersalef andwaw oryodh to mark long or short vowels respectively.[32] The order of the letters varies between alphabets.
| Judeo- Arabic | Arabic | Semitic name | Transliteration |
|---|---|---|---|
| א | ا | Alef | /ʔ/ā and sometimesʾI |
| ב | ب | Beth | b |
| ג | ج | Gimel | g orǧ: hardG, orJ, as inget, orJack:/ɡ/, or/dʒ/ orsi invision/ʒ/ depending on the dialect |
| גׄ,עׄ orרׄ | غ | Ghayn | ġ/ɣ/, a gutturalgh sound |
| ד | د | Daleth | d |
| דׄ | ذ | Dhaleth | ḏ, an Englishth as in "that"/ð/ |
| ה | ه | He | h |
| ו orוו | و | Waw | w and sometimesū |
| ז | ز | Zayn | z |
| ח | ح | Heth | ḥ/ħ/ |
| ט | ط | Teth | ṭ/tˤ/ |
| טׄ orזׄ | ظ | Theth | ẓ/ðˤ/, a retracted form of the th sound as in "that" |
| י orיי | ي | Yodh | y orī |
| כ,ך | ك | Kaph | k |
| כׄ,ךׄ orחׄ | خ | Kheth | ḫ, akh sound like "Bach"/x/ |
| ל | ل | Lamedh | l |
| מ | م | Mem | m |
| נ | ن | Nun | n |
| ס | س | Samekh | s |
| ע | ع | Ayn | /ʕ/ʿa ,ʿ and sometimesʿi |
| פ,ף orפׄ,ףׄ | ف | Fe | f |
| צ,ץ | ص | Sadhe | ṣ/sˤ/, a hards sound |
| צׄ,ץׄ | ض | Dhadhe | ḍ/dˤ/, a retractedd sound |
| ק | ق | Qof | q |
| ר | ر | Resh | r |
| ש orש֒ | ش | Shin | š, an Englishsh sound/ʃ/ |
| ת | ت | Taw | t |
| תׄ orת֒ | ث | Thaw | ṯ, an Englishth as in "thank"/θ/ |
| Additional letters | |||
| ﭏ | الـ | - | Definite Article "al-". Ligature of the lettersא andל |
| Judeo-Iraqi Arabic[32] | Transliteration[32] | English[32] |
|---|---|---|
יא אבאנא אלדי פי אלסמואת, יתׄקדס אסמך, תׄאתׄי מלכותׄך, תׄכון משיתך כמא פי אלסמא ועלי אלארץ, חבזנא אלדי ללעד אעטנא אליום, ואעפר לנא מא עלינו כמא נעפר נחן למן לנא עליה, ולא תׄדחלנא אלתׄגארב, לכן נגנא מן אלשריר, לאן לך למלך ואלקות ואלמגד אלי אלאבד | Yā abānā illedī fī al-samwāti, yaṯaqaddasu asmuka, ṯāṯī malakūṯuka, ṯakūnu mašyatuka kamā fī al-samā waʕalay al-ārṣi, ḥubzanāʔ al-ladī liluʕadi aʕṭinā al-yawma. Wāǧfir lanā mā ʕalaynū kamā naǧfiru naḥnu liman lanā ʕalayhi, walā ṯudḥilnāʔ al-ṯṯagāriba, lakin nagginā mina al-šširīri, lanna laka lamluka wālquqata wālmagida alay al-abdi. | Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. |
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