Judaeo-Romance languages
The Judeo-Romance languages are Jewish languages that are derived from the Romance languages and are spoken by various Jewish communities and their descendants. They originated in areas where Romance languages predominate and have changed to such an extent that they are viewed as languages in their own right.
languages
Judaeo-Aragonese
Judeo-Aragonese was a Judeo-Romance language that had developed in the Navarro-Aragonese language area and which merged with Judaic Spanish at an early stage.
Judaeo-French
Judaeo-French or Zarfatian is a lost Judeo-Romance language in northern France.
Judaeo-Italian
Judeo-Italian languages are spoken fluently by fewer than 200 people today. The languages used by these speakers form the last remnant of the various Judeo-Italian dialects spoken in Italy, on Corfu, and along the west coast of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas .
Judaeo-Catalan
Judeo-Catalan was a Jewish language based on the Catalan spoken in the Levant and was lost after the Jews were expelled from Spain .
Judeo-Portuguese
Judeo-Portuguese was the language of the Jewish population in Portugal . As in many Jewish languages, archaisms were preserved that no longer existed in standard Portuguese . After the violent Christianization of the Jews, Judeo-Portuguese could only be spoken in the security of the crypto-Jewish communities. In Belmonte , a village with approx. 3000 inhabitants in the barren Serra da Estrela region, in the north of Portugal, a "crypto-Jewish" community has survived to this day and lives its old Jewish faith in private - but they were unable to keep the Judeo-Portuguese language .
Judaeo-Provencal
Judaeo-Provençal or Shuadit is a Jewish language based on Occitan (Old Provencal ) varieties with Hebrew influence, which is related to Judaeo-Catalan and was not only widespread in Provence , but throughout Languedoc and beyond in medieval southern France . Shuadit shows some unique phoneme changes in Hebrew loanwords .
Judaeo-Spanish
Jewish Spanish , Djudeo-Espanyol or Ladino is the Middle Spanish language of the Sephardic Jews , which is spoken in different variants and due to the expulsion of the Sephardi from Spain, sometimes very far from the Iberian Peninsula.
History and Development
The exact development of the Judeo-Romance languages is unclear. The two prevailing theories are that they either emerged from Judaeo-Latin or are independent outgrowths of individual language communities. Another theory adopts parts of both and suggests that certain Judeo-Romance languages arose from Judeo-Latin and that others are the product of individual development.
Todays situation
Judeo-Latin (if ever there was), Judeo-French, Shuadit, Judeo-Catalan, and Judeo-Aragonese are dead languages now . Judeo-Latin since ancient times, Judeo-French and Judeo-Aragonese since the Middle Ages, and Shuadit had his last speakers around 1977.
Judeo-Portuguese only survives in stunted forms in the language of the crypto-Jewish communities on the Iberian Peninsula.
Judeo-Italian was spoken by 5,000 Italian Jews two generations ago, but today there are fewer than 200.
Ladino is still spoken by Sephardic communities of the Maghreb in North Africa , the Middle East and especially Turkey by 150,000 people, most of them at least bilingual.
The future of the Judeo-Romance languages, like that of most Jewish languages, is uncertain. Since Hebrew is becoming increasingly important for communication between Jews in the Middle East and the prestige of the English language is increasing, the local colloquial languages (especially Turkish ) are gaining economic importance, the situation seems bleak.