Cultural Post 4: Linguistic History Part 2

[Elliott Hammer]

In researching the history of Hebrew I came upon a language known as Judaeo-Spanish (Djudeo Espanyol) or Spanyolit (in Hebrew). 

 

Spanyolit is a Romance language and is derived from Old Spanish. Its other major influences are Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic and Turkish. It has kept fossils, as is common with dialects because they are more conservative, from Old Castillian such as the /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ alveolar sounds (which moved backwards to velar in modern Spanish). Hebrew gave it the /x/ sound. It is written traditionally with Hebrew characters although in cursive it uses Solitreo which differs from the Ashkenazi cursive.

 

Its origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages when Castilian was developing into a "prestige" language. Spanyolit was spoken throughout the Middle East and the Balkans after 1492 when Jewish refugees were expelled from what is now modern day Spain.

 

Spanyolit is in danger of extinction, which means that the last native speakers are elderly, many not transmitting the language to their children. 

[Global Studio]

I haven't heard the term 'Spanyolit' but I do know the term 'Ladin', which is the Spanish spoken by Jews expelled in 1492.  When I first came to Richmond, one of the Turkish lab assistants was a speaker of Ladin as well as Turkish.