Ladino language

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Not to be confused with Ladin.

Ladino/Judæo-Spanish גודיאו-איספאנייול Djudeo-espanyol
Spoken in:	Israel, Turkey, Brazil, France, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Mexico, Curaçao
Total speakers:	100,000 in Israel 8,000 in Turkey 1,000 in Greece unknown numbers elsewhere, steady decline in all those places
Language family:	Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Ibero-Romance West Iberian Spanish Ladino/Judæo-Spanish
Official status
Official language of:	none
Regulated by:	Alliance Israelite Universelle
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`lad`
ISO 639-3:	`lad`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Ladino is a Romance language, derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish) and Hebrew. The relationship of Ladino to Castilian Spanish is comparable to that of Yiddish to German. Speakers are currently almost exclusively Sephardic Jews, for example, in (or from) Thessaloniki and Istanbul.

Ladino has kept the postalveolar phonemes /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ of Old Spanish, which both changed to the velar /x/ in modern Spanish; Ladino also has an /x/ phoneme taken over from Hebrew. In some places it has also developed certain characteristic words, such as muestro for nuestro (our). Its grammatical structure is close to that of Spanish, with the addition of many terms from the Hebrew, Portuguese, French, Turkish, Greek, and South Slavic languages depending on where its speakers resided.

Ladino is in serious danger of extinction because many native speakers today are elderly as well as elderly olim (immigrants to Israel), who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardic communities, especially in music. The danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian Spanish.

1 Name of language
2 Variants
3 Orthography
4 Phonology
5 History
6 Songs
7 Example
8 Notes
9 References
10 See also
11 External links

[edit] Name of language

The name "Ladino" is a variant of "Latin". The language is also called Judæo-Spanish, Sefardi, Djudio, Dzhudezmo, Judezmo, and Spanyol; Haquitía (from the Arabic haka حكى, "tell") refers to the dialect of North Africa, especially Morocco. The dialect of the Oran area of Algeria was called Tetuani, after the Moroccan town Tétouan, since many Oranais Jews came from this city. In Hebrew, the language is called Spanyolit.

According to the Ethnologue,

The name 'Dzhudezmo' is used by Jewish linguists, 'Judeo-Espanyol' or simply 'Djudio' by Turkish Jews; 'Judeo-Spanish' by Romance philologists; 'Ladino' by laymen, especially in Israel; 'Hakitia' by Moroccan Jews; 'Spanyol' by some others.

The derivation of the name "Ladino" is complicated. In pre-Expulsion Spain the word simply meant "Spanish": literary Spanish as distinct from dialect, and Spanish in general as distinct from Arabic. Following the expulsion, Jews spoke of "the Ladino" to mean the traditional oral translation of the Bible into archaic Spanish. By extension it came to mean that style of Spanish generally, in the same way that (among Kurdish Jews) Targum has come to mean Judaeo-Aramaic and (in Arab countries) sharħ has come to mean Judaeo-Arabic. For this reason, authors like Haim Vidal Sephiha^[1] reserve "Ladino" for the very hebraicized form of the language used in religious translations such as the Ferrara Bible, which was based on the traditional oral version.

[edit] Variants

At the time of the expulsion from Spain, the day to day language of Spanish Jews was little if at all different from that of other Spaniards. There was however a special style used for purposes of study or translation, featuring a more archaic dialect of Spanish, a large number of Hebrew and Aramaic loan-words and a tendency to render Hebrew word order literally (ha-laylah ha-zeh, meaning "this night", was rendered la noche la esta instead of the normal Spanish esta noche^[2]). As stated above, some authorities would confine the term "Ladino" to this style.

Following the expulsion, the daily language was increasingly influenced both by the language of study and by the local non-Jewish vernaculars such as Greek and Turkish, and came to be known as Dzhudezmo: in this respect the development is parallel to that of Yiddish. However, many speakers, especially among the community leaders, also had command of a more formal style nearer to the Spanish of the expulsion, referred to as Castellano.

The Judaeo-Spanish dialect of Northern Morocco, known as Haketia, is the subject of a separate article.

[edit] Orthography

Today, Ladino is most commonly written with the Latin alphabet, especially in Turkey. However, it is still sometimes written in the Hebrew alphabet (especially in Rashi characters), a practice that was very common, possibly almost universal, until the 19th century (and called aljamiado, by analogy with Arabic usage). Although the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets have been employed in the past ^[3], this is rare nowadays. Following the decimation of Sephardic communities throughout much of Europe (particularly in the Netherlands and the Balkans) during the Holocaust the greatest proportion of speakers remaining were Turkish Jews. As a result the Turkish variant of the Latin alphabet is widely used for publications in Ladino. The Israeli Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino promotes another spelling. There are also those who, with Iacob M Hassán, claim that Ladino should adopt the orthography of the standard Spanish language.

Perhaps more conservative and less popular, others along with Pablo Carvajal Valdés suggest that Ladino should adopt the orthography used during the time of the Jewish expulsion of 1492 from Spain. The orthography of that time has standardized and eventually changed by a series of reforms; it was finally changed by an orthographic reform in the 18th century. Ladino has retained some of the pronunciation that at the time of reforms had become archaic in standard Spanish. Adopting 15th century orthography for Ladino would bring back into existence the /s/ (originally /ts/) - c (before e and i) and ç/z (cedilla): such in caça, which was a letter of Spanish origin, the /s/ - ss : such as in passo and the /ʃ/ - x : like in dixo. The original pronunciation of /ʒ/ - g (before e or i) and j : mujer, would be reestablished and the /z/ (originally /dz/) - z : would remain in Ladino words like fazer and dezir. The /z/ - s : in between vowels like in casa, would regain its pronunciation under this orthography as well. Like in modern Spanish, in Ladino the /z/ - s is also present before m, d and others like in mesmo or desde. The distinctive Ladino /ʃ/ - s : like in buscar, cosquillas, mascar, pescar or after is endings like in séis, favláis or sois could be reflected through writing x.

The difference between b and v would be clearer giving some concessions to Latin spelling, as in the case of the reflex of intervocalic -B-: eg Latin DEBET > post-1800 Spanish debe, will return to its Old Castilian deve spelling. The use of the digraphs ch, ph and th ( today /k/, /f/ and /t/ in standard Spanish respectively), formally reformed in 1803, would be in used in words like orthographía, theología. Latin q before words like quando, quanto and qual would also be used. Some argue that using Old Castilian Orthography will only distance non-Hispanic characteristics about Ladino and create problems that phonetical systems solve. Nevertheless, Classical and Golden Age Spanish literature would gain renewed interest, better appreciation and understanding should its orthography be used again.

[edit] Phonology

The phonology of the consonants of Ladino and part of its lexicon are closer to Portuguese than to Spanish, because both retained characteristics of medieval Ibero-Romance which Spanish later lost. Compare for example Ladino aninda ("still") with Portuguese ainda and Spanish aún, or the initial consonants in Ladino fija, favla ("daughter", "speech"), Portuguese filha, fala, Spanish hija, habla. However, the grammar of Ladino is closer to Spanish grammar. See also Judeo-Portuguese.

[edit] History

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During the Middle Ages, Jews were instrumental in the development of Castilian into a prestige language. In the Toledo School of Translators, erudite Jews translated Arabic and Hebrew works (often translated earlier from Greek) into Castilian and Christians translated again into Latin for transmission to Europe.

Until recent times, the language was widely spoken throughout the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, having been brought there by Jewish refugees fleeing Spain following the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

The contact among Jews of different regions and tongues (including Catalan, Leonese and Portuguese) developed a unified dialect, already different in some aspects of the Castilian norm that was forming simultaneously in Spain. The language was known as Yahudice (Jewish language) in the Ottoman Empire. In late 18th century, Enderunlu Fazıl (Fazyl bin Tahir Enderuni) wrote in his Zenanname: "Spaniards speak the Jewish language but they are not Jews."

The common Ladino and Spanish favoured trade among Sephardim (often relatives) ranging from the Ottoman Empire to the Netherlands and the conversos of Spain and Portugal. Over time, a corpus of literature, both liturgical and secular, developed. Early Ladino literature was limited to translations from Hebrew. At the end of the 17th century, Hebrew was disappearing as the vehicle for Rabbinic instruction. Thus a literature in the popular tongue (Ladino) appeared in the 18th century, such as Me'am Lo'ez and poetry collections. By the end of the 19th century, Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire studied in schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. French became the language for foreign relations (as it did for Maronites), and Ladino drew from French for neologisms. New secular genres appeared: more than 300 journals, history, theatre, biographies. Interaction with French also gave way to the creation of a new language named judeo-franyol

Given the relative isolation of many communities, a number of regional dialects of Ladino appeared, many with only limited mutual comprehensibility. This is due largely to the adoption of large numbers of loanwords from the surrounding populations, including, depending on the location of the community, from Greek, Turkish, Arabic, and, in the Balkans, Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.

Ladino was the common language of Salonika during the period of Ottoman rule. The city became part of the modern Greek Republic in 1912 and subsequently renamed to its original historical name Thessaloniki. Despite a major fire, economic oppression by Greek authorities, and mass settlement of Christian refugees, the language remained widely spoken in Salonika until the deportation and murder of 50,000 Salonikan Jews in the Holocaust during the Second World War.

Ladino was also a language used in Donmeh ("Dönme" in Turkish meaning convert and referring to adepts of Sabbatai Tsevi converted to Moslem religion by the Ottoman empire) rites. An example is the recite Sabbatai Tsevi esperamos a ti. Today, the religious practices and ritual use of Ladino seem to be confined to elderly generations.

The Spanish colonization of Northern Africa favoured the role of polyglot Sephardim who bridged between Spanish colonizers and Arab and Berber speakers.

In the twentieth century, the number of speakers declined sharply: entire communities were eradicated in the Holocaust, while the remaining speakers, many of whom migrated to Israel, adopted Hebrew. The governments of the new nation-states encouraged instruction in the official languages. At the same time, it aroused the interest of philologists since it conserved language and literature which existed prior to the standardisation of Spanish.

Ladino is in serious danger of extinction because many native speakers today are elderly olim (immigrants to Israel), who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren. However, it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardic communities, especially in music. In addition, Sephardic communities in several Latin American countries still use Ladino. The danger of extinction is also due to the risk of assimilation by modern Castilian Spanish.

Kol Yisrael^[4] and Radio Nacional de España^[5] hold regular radio broadcasts in Ladino. Law & Order showed an episode with references to Ladino language. Films partially or totally in Ladino include Novia que te vea and Every Time We Say Goodbye.

The Jewish community of Belgrade still chants part of the Sabbath Prayers in Ladino. The Sephardic Synagogue Ezra Bessaroth in Seattle, State of Washington (US) was formed by Jews from Turkey and the Island of Rhodes and they use Ladino in some portions of their Shabbat services. The Siddur is called Zehut Yosef and was written by Hazzan Isaac Azose.

[edit] Songs

Folklorists have been collecting romances and other folk songs, some dating from before the expulsion.

Many religious songs in Ladino are translations of the Hebrew, usually with a different tune. For example, Ein k'Eloheynu looks like this in Ladino:

Non komo muestro Dio,

Non komo muestro Sinyor,

Non komo muestro Rey,

Non komo muestro Salvador.

etc.

Quando el Rey Nimrod (Adaptation)	When King Nimrod (translation)
Quando el Rey Nimrod al campo salía mirava en el cielo y en la estrellería vido una luz santa en la judería que havía de nascer Abraham Avinu.	When King Nimrod was going out to the fields He was looking at heaven and at the stars He saw a holy light in the Jewish quarter [A sign] that Abraham, our father, must have been born.
Abraham Avinu, Padre querido Padre bendicho, la luz de Israel.	Abraham Avinu [our Father], dear father Blessed Father, light of Israel.
Luego a las comadres encomendava que toda mujer que preñada quedasse si no pariera al punto, la matasse que havía de nascer Abraham Avinu.	Then he was telling all the midwives That every pregnant woman Who did not give birth at once was going to be killed because Abraham our father was going to born.
Abraham Avinu, Padre querido Padre bendicho, luz de Israel. '	Abraham Avinu, dear father Blessed Father, light of Israel.
La mujer de Terach quedó preñada y de día en día le preguntava ¿De qué tenéis la cara demudada? ella ya sabía bien qué tenía.	Terach's wife was pregnant and each day he would ask her Why do you look so distraught? She already knew very well what she had.
Abraham Avinu, padre querido Padre bendicho, luz de Israel.	Abraham Avinu, dear father Blessed Father, light of Israel.
En fin de nueve meses parir quería iva caminando por campos y viñas, a su marido tal ni le descubría topó una meara, allí lo pariría	After nine months she wanted to give birth She was walking through the fields and vineyards Such would not even reach her husband She found a manger; there, she would give birth.
Abraham Avinu, Padre querido Padre bendixo a la luz de Israel.	Abraham Avinu, dear father Father who blessed the light of Israel.
En aquella hora el nascido fablava "Andávos mi madre, de la meara yo ya topo quién me alexasse mandará del cielo quien me acompañará porque só criado del Dios bendito."	In that hour the newborn was speaking 'Get away of the manger, my mother I will somebody to take me out He will send from the heaven the one that will go with me Because I am a servant of the blessed God.'
Abraham Avinu, Padre querido Padre bendicho, luz de Israel	Abraham Avinu, dear father Blessed Father, light of Israel.

Por una Ninya (A song from Sofia, Bulgaria)	For a Girl (translation)
Por una ninya tan fermoza l'alma yo la vo a dar un kuchilyo de dos kortes en el korason entro.	For such a beautiful girl I will give my soul a double-edged knife pierced my heart.
No me mires ke'stó kantando es lyorar ke kero yo los mis males son muy grandes no los puedo somportar.	Don't look at me; I am singing, it is crying that I want, my sorrows are so great I can't bear them.
No te lo kontengas tu, fijika, ke sos blanka komo'l simit, ay morenas en el mundo ke kemaron Selanik.	Don't hold your sorrows, young girl, for you are white like bread, there are brunette girls in the world who set fire to Thessaloniki.

Anachronistically, Abraham - who in the Bible is the very first Jew and the ancestor of all who followed, hence his appelation "Avinu" (Our Father) - is in the Ladino song born already in the judería, the Jewish quarter. This makes Terach and his wife into Jews, as are the parents of other babies killed by Nimrod. In essence, unlike its Biblical model, the song is about a Jewish community persecuted by a cruel king and witnessing the birth of a miraculous saviour - a subject of obvious interest and attraction to the Jewish people who composed and sang it in Medieval Spain.

Evidently, the song attributes to Abraham many aspects of the birth of Jesus - the star announcing his impending birth, the cruel king killing innocent babies in an effort to prevent that birth, and his being laid in a manger. Moreover, his speaking rationally to his mother right after birth suggests the Muslim account where the baby Jesus (honoured by Islam as a Prophet though not as the Son of God) speaks to Mary and counsels her right after birth - a miracle not recounted in the Christian Gospels (see[1]). Jews in Medieval Spain were likely to be familiar with the Muslim version of Jesus' life as well as the Christian one. On the other hand, there are some references to the above-mentioned events in "Sefer Hayashar" and "Pirkei D'reb Eliezer", the latter predating Jesus' birth according to some, and was commonly referred to by Jewish scholars of the late eighth century onwards.

Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow from the New York-based band Elysian Fields released a CD in 2001 called La Mar Enfortuna, which featured modern versions of traditional Sephardic songs, many sung by Charles in Ladino. There are a number of groups in Turkey that sing in Ladino, notably Janet - Jak Esim Ensemble, Sefarad, Los Pasharos Sefaradis, and the children's chorus Las Estreyikas d'Estambol.

[edit] Example

El djudeo-espanyol, djudio, djudezmo o ladino es la lingua avlada por los sefardim, djudios ekspulsados de la Espanya enel 1492. Es una lingua derivada del espanyol i avlada por 150.000 personas en komunitas en Israel, la Turkia, antika Yugoslavia, la Gresia, el Maruekos, Boriken, Mayorka, entre otros.

Spanish version

El judeoespañol o ladino es la lengua hablada por los sefardíes, judíos expulsados de España en 1492. Es una lengua derivada del español y hablada por 150.000 personas en comunidades en Israel, Turquía, la Antigua Yugoslavia, Grecia, Marruecos, Puerto Rico, Mallorca, entre otros.

English

Judeo-Spanish or Ladino is a language spoken by the Sephardim, Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. It is a language derived from Spanish and spoken by 150,000 people in communities in Israel, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Morocco, Puerto Rico, and Mallorca, among others.

[edit] Notes

^ El ladino. Lengua litúrgica de los judíos españoles. Haim Vidal Sephiha. Historia 16, 1978
^ "Clearing up Ladino, Judeo-Spanish, Sephardic Music" Judith Cohen, HaLapid, winter 2001; Sephardic Song Judith Cohen, Midstream July/August 2003
^ Verba Hispanica X: Los problemas del estudio de la lengua sefardí, Katja Smid, Ljubljana, pages 113-124: Es interesante el hecho que en Bulgaria se imprimieron unas pocas publicaciones en alfabeto cirílico búlgaro y en Grecia en alfabeto griego. [...] Nezirović (1992: 128) anota que también en Bosnia se ha encontrado un documento en que la lengua sefardí está escrita en alfabeto cirilico. The Nezirović reference is: Nezirović, M., Jevrejsko-Spanjolska knjitévnost. Institut za knjifevnost, Svjeálost, Sarajevo, 1992.
^ Reka Network: Kol Israel International
^ Radio Exterior de España: Emisión sefardí

[edit] References

Hemsi, Alberto: Cancionero Sefardí
Molho, Michael: Usos y costumbres de los judíos de Salónica (1950)
Markus, Shimon, Ha-safa ha-sefaradit-yehudit (the Judeo-Spanish language): Jerusalem, 1965
Габинский, Марк А. Сефардский (еврейской-испанский) язык (M.A. Gabinsky. Sephardic (Judeo-Spanish) language, in Russian). Ştiinţa: Chişinău, 1992.
Kohen, Elli; Kohen-Gordon, Dahlia. Ladino-English, English-Ladino: Concise Encyclopedic Dictionary. Hippocrene Books: New York, 2000