Knaanic language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Knaanic
Spoken in: Europe
Total speakers:
Language family: Indo-European
 Slavic
  West Slavic
   Czech-Slovak
    Knaanic
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3: czk

Knaanic (also called Canaanic, Leshon Knaan or Judeo-Slavic) was a West Slavic Jewish language, formerly spoken in the Czech lands, now the Czech Republic. It became extinct in the Late Middle Ages. The name Knaanic applied mainly to Judeo-Czech, but also to other Judeo-Slavic languages.

The name comes from the ancient Canaan (Hebrew כנען "kəna‘an"). The use of a name derived from Canaan for a slavic language spoken by a jewish peoples living in a slavic region is an indication to the Canaanite origin of Hebrew language (and people) as perceived by the speakers themselves and/or surrounding slavic people, probably as relayed to them by Bibilical mythology.

[edit] See also

[edit] Literature

  • Ruth Bondyová: Mezi námi řečeno. Jak mluvili Židé v Čechách a na Moravě (Between us: language of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia), Society of Franz Kafka 2003, ISBN 80-85844-88-5. The book documents languages used by Jews in the Czech lands during 12-20th century. Review in Czech, pages 28-33.

[edit] References