Jewish languages

The Jewish Langue S are a whole of Langue S which developed in different Jewish communities all over the world and more particularly in Europe, in Occidental Asia and North Africa. The usual development of these Langue S passed by the addition of Mot S and Phrase S resulting from the Hebrew and used to express mainly Jewish concepts. Being given the insular nature of many Jewish communities in the past, many Jewish languages keep a Vocabulaire and a structure Linguistique resulting from the language which generated them, even after this one lost this vocabulary and this structure.

History until the 19th century

The oldest and more important books for the Jewish people were the Torah and the Tanakh written almost entirely in Hebrew biblical and abundantly used by the Jews lasting their history. The Jews studied these Hebrew texts much, observed their commands, based their prayers on those, and spoke the language about those. For the Jewish S, the Hebrew is the language of God, from where the name of “lashon hakodesh” (“Langue Sacré E”).

The oldest Hebrew inscription in which reached us, the Calendrier of Gezer, date of the {{S|X|E}} before our era. He was written in paléo-Hebraic Alphabet, Alphabet which was used at the time of the Temple of Solomon until it is modified to become the Assyrian Alphabet ( ktav ashurit ) by Esdras following the Exil in Babylon. At that time there were also modifications in the language whereas it developed towards the mishnic Hebrew . Hitherto, the majority of the Jews had spoken the Hebrew in Israel and Judaea. But with the destruction of the Second Temple, the majority had started to speaking the Araméen, and most of the Jewish Diaspora spoke the Greek . Whereas the Juif S emigrated towards remote countries, and whereas the languages of the countries in which they were changed, they adopted the local language more and more and are reflected with speaking several languages. During the the Middle Ages, the Araméen was the principal language of the Jews. The Targoum and most of the Talmud were written in Araméen. Later, during the the Middle Ages, the majority of Jewish literary works were written in Judéo-Arabic, i.e. of the Arab writes with the Hebrew alphabet. It was thus for example the language used by Maïmonide. The Hebrew remained used within religious and official frameworks such as the religious events and thus kept an importance, just like the Araméen, for the writing of the Ketubah (contracts of Mariage S).

With the wire of time, these Dialecte S Juif S was different so much from the language-parent whom they constituted a Langue with whole share. They were influenced significantly by words resulting from Hebrew, Araméen, like by other innovations. Thus, a large variety of own languages to the Jewish community were created. Most known are thus the Yiddish in Europe, the Judéo-espagnol resulting from Andalusia which then spread in many areas around the the Mediterranean following the expulsion of 1492 and with the Persécution from the Spanish Inquisition.

The Juifs of the diaspora made of many communities often folded up on themselves, in particular because of the Ostracisme and the Persécution S undergone by the communities around, as well as desire to maintain their own culture. This sociological factor contributed to the formation of Dialecte S which often diverged to form different Langue S.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Yiddish was the principal language of the Jews in Europe of the East (what made of it the language most spoken by the Jews in the world), while the Judéo-espagnol had been spread in the the Maghreb, in Greece, in the Balkans and until current the Turkey. Small groups in Europe spoke about the languages such as the Judéo-Italian, the Yévanique, the Karaïm. The Jews of the Arab Monde spoke various gathered languages are the name of Judéo-Arabic, while the Jews of Iran spoke the Judéo-Persian, others the Judéo-Berber or, with the Kurdistan, the Judéo-araméen.

Recent evolutions

This general table was strongly modified by major historical events starting from the end of the 19th century. The emigration several million European Jews towards the North America strongly increased the number of anglophone Jewish, the colonial period with the the Maghreb involved the passage for many Jews of the the Maghreb to the French and with the Spanish , finally the Sionisme started again the Hebrew like Living language, the vocabulary increased some in a substantial way and phonetics simplified some. Eliézer Ben Yehoudah played a part of very first plan in the rebirth of this language, while the Haskala promoted the Hebrew with the detriment of the Yiddish. The Shoah éradiqué the large majority of the Juif S Europeans speaking the Yiddish, the German and the Judéo-espagnol. The israélo-Palestinian Conflit led many Jews to leave the Arab Monde.

The Jews of today speak a great number of languages, adopting for their large majority the languages of their home country. The language most spoken by the Jews today is the English, follows then the Hebrew , the spoken language in Israel like by Israeli emigrants living abroad. The Hebrew is the language of the every day in Israel, although for most of the population, the Hebrew is the second language.

The third language most spoken by the Juif S is currently the Russian , with approximately 2 million speakers resulting from old the Soviet Union and whose majority currently lives in Israel. Approximately 1 million Israéliens usually speak Russian.

The French, the Spanish and the Portuguese are the other spoken languages by a great number of Jews. Hundreds of thousands of Jews speak the French in France and with the Quebec, the majority of them resulting from North Africa where they spoke formerly the Judéo-espagnol or the Arab . The Spanish and the Portuguese are spoken by the Jewish communities about Central America and the South. Buenos Aires has an important Jewish community thus. A big part of the immigrant in Israel thus usually speak French or Spanish.

Yiddish and Judéo-espagnol, which corresponded to the two large surfaces of civilization Ashkénaze and Séfarade, continues to be spoken by certain generations and in certain small islands about Europe (Antwerp) and about America (the United States). The Yiddish is always spoken at the Haredim. If the number of speakers falls, one however notes an renewed interest for these languages considered as carrying a heritage Culture L. Number of the languages evoked previously remain despite everything the languages in danger, some, like the Judéo-araméen or the Judéo-of Provence disappeared in 1977, tends even to becoming dead languages.

Presentation of the linguistic varieties

varieties Judéo-Arabic S: Arabic Judéo-Iraqi, Arabic Judéo-Morrocan, Arabic Judéo-tripolitain, Arabic Judéo-Tunisian, Arabic Judéo-Yemeni.
Dialect S néo- Araméen S: the Hulaula (Iranian Kurdistan), the Lishán didán (Iranian Azerbaïdjan), the Lishanid noshan (Iraqi Kurdistan of the South), the Lishana refusal (Iraqi Kurdistan of North).
Dialect S Persan S: the Boukharique (spoken by the Jewish about Bukhara), the Dzhidi (judéo-Persan), the Juhuri (or judéo-tat, spoken by the Jewish about the mountains)
variety Romance: the Judeo-Spanish and its Western dialectal alternatives (Tetuani and Haketiya), judéo-Italian (Italkien), the Judéo-Portuguese, theof Provence one (Shuadit), judéo-French (Sarphatique), the Judéo-Catalan, the Bagitto (spoken by the Granas or Jews livournais).
others: the Yiddish (Yiddish), the Jéddischdaitsch (judéo-Alsatian), the Yévanique (judéo-Greek, spoken by the Romaniotes), the Judéo-Berber , the Judéo-géorgien.

References

Jewish Languages: history, traces, passage. File devoted to the languages of the Jewish Diaspora.

Yiddish and Judeo-Spanish: a European heritage on the site of the European Institute séfarade.

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