Ladino Language

This article aims to describe a newly-discovered slang used in the diamond and jewellery trade in Paris during the 20th century, the lexical element of which being constituted with loanwords from Yiddish, Dutch, Judeo-Spanish and some semantically restricted hereditary French words. After a comparison of this oral material and its written counterparts in an already extant lexicographical work about the diamond traders’ technolect, we give a few elements of characterization of trade argots, and some advice towards the actual practice of oral investigation in the field of slangs.
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À partir d’enquêtes linguistiques récentes ayant mené à la découverte fortuite d’un argot de diamantaires parlé à Paris au XXe siècle et dont le lexique consiste essentiellement en emprunts au yidich, au néerlandais et au judéo-espagnol, cet article propose, après une description et une mise en perspective de cette variété, quelques réflexions sur les argots de métier : quels métiers donnent lieu à des argots de métiers ? Pourquoi n’en est-il pas dans tous les milieux socioprofessionnels ? À ces questions, nous répondrons par quelques cas d’espèce et, enfin, par un formulaire d’enquête proposé au (socio-)linguiste désireux d’entreprendre une collecte dans ce champ négligé.

A historical overview in Judezmo of the use of Romanization for writing Judezmo (Ladino, Judeo-Spanish) followed by a description of the Romanization rules advocated today by the La Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino i Su Kultura and the Akademia Nasional del Ladino en Israel (Jerusalem).

This paper suggests a multi-disciplinary approach to a Judeo-Spanish folk song, traditionally performed during the ceremony of the bride’s purification bath before her wedding. The discussion focuses on the following issues:
* A description and analysis of the traditional ceremony (based on field work with elderly women who were born in the island of Rhodes.)
* A presentation and analysis of the fictional and real characters related to the folk song.
* A description and analysis of the symbols that evolved in the folk song.
* A description and analysis of the reflexive system created around the folk song.
* An analysis of the status of the folk song in the context of the fact that the traditional Judeo-Spanish from which it sprung is disappearing at the point in time in which it was documented.

מיכל הלד מציגה קריאה צמודה בשיר חתונה בלאדינו מרודוס, אשר בוצע כחלק מטקס הטבילה של הכלה לפני חתונתה. שיטת הקריאה הנקוטה במאמר זה מעוגנת בהכרה שהעולם הרעיוני והרגשי המגולם ביצירה העממית שואב את תכניו מהיותה שילוב של קולות מן העבר ועיבודם בהווה – בזמן ובמקום שתפקידו המסורתי של שיר העם כמעט חלף מן העולם. ההתייחסות אל השיר נעשית באמצעות גישות טקסטואליות, המנסות לפרש את מארג הסמלים הבולטים בשיר, וגישות הרמנויטיות, המתבססות על פענוח המעגלים הרפלקסיביים הנוצרים סביבו.

The present work focuses on the underlying seminal causes of the Annihilation of Jewish Greeks in Bulgarian occupied Northern Greece, in particular the regions of Eastern Macedonia (the cities of Kavala, Serres and Drama) and Thrace (the cities of Alexandroupolis, Komotini and Xanthi), along with the Annihilation of their brethren of the cities of Didimoteixo, Nea Orestiada and Soufli of the Evros Prefecture of Thrace occupied by the Germans 70 years ago.  A definition of the Holocaust is given that broadens the term beyond its peak point that of the actual assassination of Jews by the Germans and some of their allies.  The definition includes all past historical events and practices that fermented the path to destruction of the European and North African Jewry during the World War II as well as the now and current state practices.  Starting milestones are the Preliminary Peace Treaty at San Stefano and the Peace Treaty at Berlin both of the year 1878, even though seeds of the later calamity were sowed much earlier:  The sum total of seemingly unrelated historic events led inexorably to the final act of the tragedy.  The root causes of the complicity of the Bulgarian governments of the time in the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants of the “New” Bulgarian territories are analyzed and, given the documentary and archival evidence presented, conclusions are reached.  Also, the nation states that were created in the wake of the First World War and the ensuing Peace Treaties are shown to be fraught with all those ingredients that fertilize the national psyche to accept as legitimate racist and exclusive policies along with anti-Semitic and prejudicial ones.  The distinction of Racial Anti–
Semitism versus the millennia old Religious one is emphasized.  Memory is an inseparable part of the Holocaust and, as such, it is both a means of Remembrance and a link with the past as well as instructive and educative for all generations and acts as a shield against Holocaust denial, revisionism and/or whitewashing of the past.

The rich world of Ladino literature has yet to be surveyed in its entirety, and therefore, this dissertation is designed to serve as a groundbreaking study of the topic. One of the research’s objectives is a new mapping of Ladino literature. This treatise is based on the hypothesis that in the wake of the substantial accumulation of scientific information about Ladino literature and its history, the time had come for a new mapping. Thus, the challenging and intriguing work begun by a succession of scholars, particularly during the past century, would finally be completed. From the late nineteenth century and on, a significant number of attempts were made to survey Ladino literature and its inherent characteristics. Researchers have sought to decode its structure, to uncover its secrets, and to identify its primary thematic attributes and genres. However, they were apparently overwhelmed by its scope, and hence, their conclusions were often inadequate and insufficient.
The following study indicates that in order to create an authoritative and exhaustive mapping of Ladino literature, the researchers of the past had to examine every work which was published in this language; to keep a precise record of each work - after examining the books and the publications themselves, rather than copying the data from a secondary source (e.g., lists, catalogues, and additional research); to understand Ladino fluently - in order to record, document, and map the works; and lastly, to be extremely knowledgeable about the history of Hebrew literature in general and Ladino literature in particular. These conditions were never fully met, and as the opening chapter of this dissertation shows, the eighteen previous compilations and mappings, which attempted to survey Ladino literature, achieved only partial results. These surveys were written in English, French, German, Hebrew, Romanian and Spanish, and were even published in a wide array of literary platforms – such as encyclopedia entries, articles, and book chapters. Fifteen scholars – including bibliographers, librarians, and researchers – with different cultural backgrounds and orientations tried to survey Ladino literature. An analysis of their work reveals that Ladino literature served as a challenging and fascinating research topic even for those outside the original ethnic group for which it was intended – namely, Sephardim.

[Attention:  The attachments contain correct download links to the accompanying presentation in both pptx and ppsx (presentation & show)] in English and Greek [Ελληνικά]
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Jewish Thessaloniki is unique because the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its 2,000 year history is its (near total) obliteration. Unfathomable events of human annihilation took place within a space of a few months in 1943 CE. These events have been only superficially researched as to the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place, to the degree and speed they occurred. Documentary evidence shows the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. The events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki should be correlated with the history of the Community before AND after the destruction. The question is twofold: if more human beings could have been saved and, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the surroundings of the Community? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be surmised and deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and / or omissions of the non–Jewish community, as a whole and as individuals, BEFORE and AFTER the Holocaust. Unfortunately the general Holocaust mathematical equation has two parts: The first equality states that it only takes a few evil persons to assassinate [too] many. The second equality states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings. Darfur waits our actions. . .

[Attention:  The attachments contain correct download links to the accompanying presentation in both pptx and ppsx (presentation & show)]
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Jewish Salonika is unique: the most cataclysmic and momentous event in its two thousand year history is its near total obliteration. The year 1943 CE witnessed unfathomable events of human annihilation that took place within the time frame of just a few months. These events have been only superficially researched. Such superficiality is exemplified in the research on the interplay of circumstances and powers that allowed them to take place and the degree and speed to which they occurred. At odds with such feeble research is the existence of documentary evidence demonstrating the bureaucratic efficiency of the perpetrators. Given such documentary evidence, the events of the Holocaust of the Jews of Salonika should be correlated with the history of the Community before and after the destruction. Proceeding in this manner should be done in keeping with the framework of concurrent Hellenic history in particular and European–world history in general. The inquiry partially catalyzing such a correlation is twofold: first, could more human beings have been saved and second, irrespective of the outcome, what was the moral standing of the Society at large? The latter, for objective purposes, can only be deduced by the behavior, attitude, actions, reactions and/or omissions of the non-Jewish community as a whole and as individuals before and after the Holocaust. Deducing as such must occur with cognizance. Mainly, there is difficulty in judging the behavior of bystanders when it is impossible to ascertain how the critic would have behaved under similar circumstances. Mindful of possible ambiguity, the general Holocaust calculus nevertheless has two parts: the first operation states that it takes only a few evil persons to assassinate many. The second operation states that many righteous humans may save, at most, a finite number of fellow beings.

Informed by such evidence and caveats, my objective is to present a glimpse of Jewish Thessaloniki with special emphasis to the Holocaust. This vast topic may be broadly divided into the following subtopics: 1) The history of Jewish Thessaloniki up to the Holocaust, 2) The Holocaust of the Jews of Thessaloniki and 3) The post war aftermath encompassing the current status and future of Jewish Thessaloniki in general and the preservation of the remnants of Sephardic heritage and traditions.

The goal to which I aspire is to provide a sequence of historical events and by so doing, to attempt to stimulate interest in further research. A cursory non-web or web based search lays bare both the surprising little we know, as well as the fact that scholarly or non-scholarly published work, in most instances, employs the repetition of a bare minimum of facts and data. Informed by such a reality, one might be tempted to believe that a particular subject especially that of the annihilation is taboo. Gaps in the historiography of Greece do a disservice both to the remaining Jewish Greeks in particular and the whole Hellenic nation in general. It is encouraging that research has recently accelerated, albeit at a slow pace. These endeavors are nevertheless a welcome step in the right direction. The main reason that research should accelerate at full speed is the inescapable reality of the biological attrition of the ranks of eyewitnesses and Holocaust survivors.3

Jewish languages contain a component derived from Hebrew and Aramaic, the earliest languages Jews used. We offer a historical comparative analysis of the structure and use of adjectives of Hebrew and Aramaic origin in the diverse spoken and written registers of Judezmo (Ladino, Judeo-Spanish) and Yiddish, the two major Jewish languages of the Sephardim and Ashkenazim of Europe. Attention is paid both to adjectives whose forms are entirely of Hebrew or Aramaic origin, as well as those constructed of bases of Hebrew and Aramaic origin, and derivational morphemes of Hispanic and Turkish origin (Judezmo), and Germanic and Slavic origin (Yiddish). The incorporation of the adjectives within the syntactic and semantic systems of Judezmo and Yiddish is examined , and comparisons made between the relative quantity and function of the adjectives in the two languages. It is meant as a model for the comparative study of the linguistic structures of Jewish languages.

The present chapter outlines the historical development of lexicography in Judezmo, the traditional language of the Sephardic Jews of the former Ottoman Empire and its successor states, and Ḥaketía, the language of the Sephardim of Spanish Morocco. After notes on the thematic limitations of the chapter and on present-day Judezmo orthography, introductory notes are provided on Judezmo and Ḥaketía. The developmental stages of Judezmo and Ḥaketía lexicography are then sketched out, culminating in an overview of electronic corpora and contemporary Judezmo lexicography online, discussion of current issues in Judezmo lexicography, and a look at prospects for the future.

Ladino is living a seemingly contradictory moment: While it disappears as an active language of daily use, it also undergoes a general revival, with increased cultural production. As the site where a politics of identity was shaped that encouraged ethnic identifi cation and the " celebration of diff erence, " the United States sees a plural and productive stage in the development of Ladino. In this paper I will initially discuss the beginnings of Ladino usage in the United States, introducing the Ladino press and then off ering a comprehensive – and yet nonexhaustive – picture of poets and writers who wrote in and about Ladino. In a second part I will introduce a few contemporary artists who have created and performed in Ladino and observe their stance toward language preservation, while interrogating their place in both the Jewish and the broader community. I will argue that the present stage of " bridging " between Sephardic/Ladino and Latino artists not only can be one of the most powerful tools in the eff orts of preservation of the Ladino language and tradition but also renders possible innovative and creative aesthetic choices, thus enlarging both the Jewish and the broader non-Jewish repertoires. Furthermore, such a bridging or collaboration participates in the shaping of a new view and a new discourse about ethnicity, minorities, and viable political alliances.

The Ibero-Romance-speaking Jews of medieval Christian Iberia were linguistically distinct from their non-Jewish neighbors primarily as a result of their language's unique Hebrew-Aramaic component; preservations from older Jewish Greek, Latin, and Arabic; a tradition of translating sacred Hebrew and Aramaic texts into their language using archaisms and Hebrew-Aramaic rather than Hispanic syntax; and their Hebrew-letter writing system. With the expulsions from Iberia in the late 15th century, most of the Sephardim who continued to maintain their Iberianorigin language resettled in the Ottoman Empire, with smaller numbers in North Africa and Italy. Their forced migration, and perhaps a conscious choice, essentially disconnected the Sephardim from the Spanish language as it developed in Iberia and Latin America, causing their language-which they came to call laðino 'Romance', ʤuðezmo or ʤuðjó 'Jewish, Judezmo', and more recently (ʤudeo)espaɲol 'Judeo-Spanish'-to appear archaic when compared with modern Spanish. In their new locales the Sephardim developed the Hispanic component of their language along independent lines, resulting in further differentiation from Spanish. Divergence was intensified through borrowing from contact languages of the Ottoman Empire such as Turkish, Greek, and South Slavic. Especially from the late 18th century, factors such as the colonializing interests of France, Italy, and Austro-Hungary in the region led to considerable influence of their languages on Judezmo. In the 19th century, the dismemberment of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and their replacement by highly nationalistic states resulted in a massive language shift to the local languages; that factor, followed by large speech-population losses during World War II and immigration to countries stressing linguistic homogeneity, have in recent years made Judezmo an endangered language.

From the 19th–20th-century beginnings of modern linguistics, scholars reported on various results of interactions between diverse language speakers; but it was only with Uriel Weinreich's Languages in Contact (1953) that a solid theoretical basis for the systematic study of contact linguistics was elaborated. The present article studies lexical influences from South Slavic on Judezmo (Ladino/Judeo-Spanish) resulting from contact during the 16th–19th centuries between speakers of these two languages in the regions that, between 1918 and 1992, were known jointly as Yugoslavia. During the Ottoman and then Austro-Hungarian periods, borrowings in local Judezmo from South Slavic were relatively few compared with Turkisms. But from the nineteenth century, when the South Slavs gained political independence, Serbo-Croatian exerted an ever-increasing influence on Judezmo in this region. The case of Judezmo there differs considerably from Yiddish in Slavic Eastern Europe throughout the same period, as described by Uriel Weinreich and others.

From the 19th–20th-century beginnings of modern linguistics, scholars reported on various results of interactions between diverse language speakers; but it was only with Uriel Weinreich’s Languages in Contact (1953) that a solid theoretical basis for the systematic study of contact linguistics was elaborated. The present article studies lexical influences from South Slavic on Judezmo (Ladino/Judeo-Spanish) resulting from contact during the 16th–19th centuries between speakers of these two languages in the regions that, between 1918 and 1992, were known jointly as Yugoslavia. During the Ottoman and then Austro-Hungarian periods, borrowings in local Judezmo from South Slavic were relatively few compared with Turkisms. But from the nineteenth century, when the South Slavs gained political independence, Serbo-Croatian exerted an ever-increasing influence on Judezmo in this region. The case of Judezmo there differs considerably from Yiddish in Slavic Eastern Europe throughout the same pe...

This article shows how the semiotics of a language, that is, what a language signifies, is a negotiated process observable by following online debates. Indeed, the adoption of new media seems to instigate, if not intensify and revitalize, these debates. I analyze an electronically mediated discussion group stating its goals as the maintenance, revitalization and standardization of Ladino (Judeo-Spanish). Employing theories from linguistic anthropology, I show how language ideologies map out the boundaries of what I call “Ladinoland” by insisting on particular meanings of Ladino. Group members assign the language these meanings through debates about Ladino’s glottonym, recursive boundary marking between Ladino native and novice users, and erasures of linguistic elements perceived to be non-standard.

The Judezmo writer Alexandre Benghiat was widely appreciated for his popular, light and often humorous literary style. His writings were mostly praised by fellow Judezmo writers and published in numerous Judezmo journals inside and outside his native Izmir, including his own periodical El Meseret [“The Joy”]; and since the turn of the twentieth century his compositions have been cited, analyzed and anthologized by researchers. Until World War I most of his writings were relatively optimistic. But with the War and its disastrous consequences for the residents of Izmir much of Ben ghiat’s writing became more somber. In 1919 Benghiat published the Judezmo diary that he had kept during the War, describing the tribulations of the Izmir residents, especially its Jews, and particularly his own plight. This article previews the diary, which will be published in its entirety by the author of the article.