Judeo-Portuguese

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Judeo-Portuguese is the generally extinct Jewish language of the Jews of Portugal.

The Judeo-Portuguese language was vernacular to the Jews in Portugal before the sixteenth century and also in many places of the Judeus da Nação Portuguesa diaspora. Texts were written in Hebrew letters (Aljamiado Português) or in Latin script.

As Portuguese Jews mixed with other expelled Sephardim, it influenced the Judeo-Spanish or Ladino language, but was distinct from it, since the Portuguese Jewry was never expelled, rather was forced to convert to Christianity, through a mass baptism decreed by King Manoel in 1497. Many of New Christians, also known as Conversos or Marranos, continued secretly to observe Judaism. When the Inquisition was established in Portugal in 1536, a migratory movement to France, Netherlands, and later to England and the New World began.

Due to close similiarity of Portuguese it died out in the Portugal, surviving in the every-day usage in the diaspora until the early Ninetienth century.

It also left an influence for Papiamento and Saramaccan.

[edit] Characterístics

Many Hebraisms:

Judeo-Portuguese	Hebrew	English meaning
cados	qadosh	holy
esnoga		synagogue
jessiba	yeshiva	Religious School
massó	matzoth	ritual bread
misvá	mitzvah	commandments
ros	rosh	head
rassim	rashim	heads
rossaná	rosh hashanah	Jewish New Year
sabá	Shabbat	Saturday
sedacá	tsedakah	charity
queilá	qehila	congregation
quidus	kiddush	blessing over the wine
tebá	tevah	central plataform in the synagogue

Influences of the Ladino:

	Judeo-Portuguese	Portuguese	Ladino	English meaning
	el Dio	O Deus	el Dio	God
	manim	mãos	manos	hands

Many Portuguese archaisms

Judeo-Portuguese	Portuguese	English meaning
algûa	alguma	any
angora	agora	now
apartar	separar	separate
ay	há	has
aynda	ainda	yet
dous	duas	two
he	é	is
hûa	uma	a, an

[edit] References

Judeo-Portuguese in Jewish Language Research Center

Thesouro dos Dinim, a Halakhic work

Strolovitch, Devon L. (2005) Old Portuguese in Hebrew Script: Convention, Contact, and Convivência. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.