| Judeo-Tat | |
|---|---|
| Juhuri | |
| CuhuriЖугьуриז׳אוּהאוּראִ | |
| Native to | Azerbaijan,Russia –North Caucasian Federal District, spoken by immigrant communities inIsrael, United States (New York City) |
| Ethnicity | Mountain Jews |
Native speakers | 80,000 (2010–2018)[1] |
| Latin,Cyrillic,Hebrew | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | jdt |
| Glottolog | jude1256 |
| ELP | Judeo-Tat |
 Judeo-Tat is classified as Definitely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010). | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Judeo-Tat orJuhuri (Cuhuri,Жугьури,ז׳אוּהאוּראִ) is aJudeo-Persian dialect and the traditional language spoken by theMountain Jews in the easternCaucasus Mountains, especiallyAzerbaijan, parts ofRussia and today inIsrael.[1] It belongs to thesouthwestern group of theIranian division of theIndo-European languages, albeit with heavy influence fromHebrew. The wordsJuhuri andJuhuro translate as "Jewish" and "Jews".
The IranicTat language is spoken by theMuslimTats ofAzerbaijan, a group to which the Mountain Jews were mistakenly considered to belong during the era ofSoviet historiography though the languages probably originated in the same region of thePersian Empire.
Judeo-Tat featuresSemitic elements in all linguistic levels of the language. Uniquely, Judeo-Tat retains thevoiced pharyngeal approximant, also known asayin (ع/ע), a phoneme whose presence is considered to be a hallmark of Semitic languages such as Arabic and no longer found inModern Hebrew; no neighbouring languages feature it.[3]
Judeo-Tat is anendangered language[4][5] classified as "definitely endangered" byUNESCO'sAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[6]
The language is spoken by an estimated 101,000 people:
Being a variety of the Tat language, Judeo-Tat itself can be divided into several dialects:
The dialects ofOğuz (formerly Vartashen) and the now extinct Jewish community ofMücü have not been studied well and thus cannot be classified.[9]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrounded | Rounded | |||
| Close | i | y | u | |
| Near-close | ɪ | |||
| Mid | ɛ | o | ||
| Open | æ | a | ||
In the early 20th century, Judeo-Tat used theHebrew script. In the 1920s, theLatin script was adapted for it; later it was written inCyrillic. The use of the Hebrew alphabet has enjoyed renewed popularity.
| Latin | Aa | Bb | Cc | Çç | Dd | Ee | Əə | Ff | Gg | Hh | Ḩḩ | Ħћ | Ii | Jj | Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | Oo | Pp | Rr | Ss | Şş | Tt | Uu | Vv | Xx | Yy | Zz | |
| Cyrillic | Аа | Бб | Чч | Жж | Дд | Ее | Ээ | Фф | Гг | Гьгь | ГӀгӀ | Хьхь | Ии | Йй | Кк | Лл | Мм | Нн | Оо | Пп | Гъгъ | Рр | Сс | Шш | Тт | Уу | Вв | Хх | Уьуь | Зз |
| Hebrew | אַ | בּ | ג׳/צ | ז׳ | ד | אי | א | פ | ג | ה | ע | ח | אִ | י | כּ | ל | מ | נ | אָ | פּ | ק | ר | ס | ש | ת | אוּ | ב | כ | או | ז |
| IPA | a | b | tʃ/ts | dʒ | d | ɛ | æ | f | g | h | ʕ | ħ | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | p | ɢ | ɾ | s | ʃ | t | u | v | χ | y | z |
Judeo-Tat is a Southwest Iranian language (as is modernPersian) and is much more closely related to (but not fully mutually intelligible with)[11] modern Persian than most other Iranian languages of the Caucasus (for example:Talysh,Ossetian, andKurdish). However, it also bears strong influence from other sources:
Medieval Persian: Postpositions are used predominantly in lieu of prepositions, for example in modern Persian:باز او > Judeo-Tatæ uræ-voz "with him/her".
Arabic: like in modern Persian, a significant portion of the vocabulary is Arabic in origin. Unlike modern Persian, Judeo-Tat has almost universally retained the original pharyngeal/uvular phonemes of Arabic, for example/ʕæsæl/ "honey" (Arab.عسل),/sæbæħ/ "morning" (Arab.صباح).
Hebrew: As in other Jewish dialects, the language also has many Hebrew loanwords, for example/ʃulħon/ "table" (Heb.שֻלחןshulḥan),/mozol/ "luck" (Heb.מזלmazal),/ʕoʃiɾ/ "rich" (Heb.עשירʻashir). Hebrew words are typically pronounced in the tradition of otherMizrahi Jews. Examples:ח andע are pronounced pharyngeally (like Arabicح,ع respectively);ק is pronounced as avoiced uvular plosive (like Persianق/غ). Classical Hebrew/w/ (ו) and/aː/ (kamatz), however, are typically pronounced as /v/ and /o/ respectively (similar to the Persian/Ashkenazi traditions, but unlike the Iraqi tradition, which retains/w/ and/aː/)
Azerbaijani:Vowel harmony and many loan words
Russian: Loanwords adopted after the Russian Empire's annexation of Daghestan and Azerbaijan
Northeast Caucasian languages:/tʃuklæ/ "small" (probably the same origin as the medieval Caucasian city name "Sera-chuk" mentioned byIbn Battuta, meaning "little Sera")
Other common phonology/morphology changes from classical Persian/Arabic/Hebrew:
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