Everything about Judeo-arabic Languages totally explained
The
Judæo-Arabic languages are a collection of
Arabic dialects spoken by
Jews living or formerly living in the
Arab world; the term also refers to more or less
classical Arabic written in the
Hebrew script, particularly in the
Middle Ages. Just as with the rest of the Arab world,
Arabic-speaking Jews had different dialects depending on where they lived. This phenomenon may be compared to cases such as different forms of
Yiddish (Judæo-German) such as
Western Yiddish and
Eastern Yiddish, or forms of
Ladino (Judæo-Spanish) in areas such as the
Balkans,
Thessaloníki/
Istanbul,
Morocco, etc.
Characteristics
The
Arabic spoken by Jewish communities in the Arab world differed from the Arabic of their Muslim neighbours, as well as from the Arabic spoken by Christians. These differences were partly due to the incorporation of some words from Hebrew and other languages and partly geographically, in a way that may reflect a history of migration. For example, the Judeo-Arabic of Egypt, including in the
Cairo community, resembled the dialect of
Alexandria, which belongs to the
Maghrebi Arabic dialects (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian) rather than the
Egyptian Arabic vernaculars. Similarly the
Jewish Iraqi Arabic of Baghdad was found reminiscent of the dialect of
Mosul, which in some ways resembles
Syrian Arabic rather than
Baghdad Arabic or
Gulf Arabic. For example, "I said" is
qeltu in the speech of Baghdadi Jews and Christians, as well as in Mosul and Syria, as against Muslim Baghdadi
gilit. Many Jews in Arab countries were bilingual in Judeo-Arabic and the dialect of the Arab Muslim majority (and sometimes spoke English or French as well).
History
Jews in Arab countries wrote—sometimes in their dialects, sometimes in a more classical style—in a mildly adapted
Hebrew script (rather than using
Arabic script), often including
consonant dots from the
Arabic alphabet to accommodate phonemes that didn't exist in the Hebrew alphabet.
Some of the most important books of medieval Jewish thought were originally written in medieval Judæo-Arabic, as well as certain
halakhic works and biblical commentaries. Only later were they translated into
medieval Hebrew so that they could be read by the
Ashkenazi Jews of Europe. These include:
Most communities also had a traditional translation of the Bible into Judeo-Arabic, known as a
sharħ (meaning). The term
sharħ sometimes came to mean "Judeo-Arabic" as such, in the same way that "
Targum" was sometimes used to mean Aramaic.
Present day
In the years following the
1948 Arab-Israeli War, most
Mizrahi and
Sephardi Jews in Arab countries became
Jewish refugees, fleeing mainly to
France and
Israel. Their dialects of Arabic didn't thrive in either country, and most of their descendants now speak
French or
Modern Hebrew; as a result, the Judæo-Arabic dialects are now considered
endangered languages.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Judeo-arabic Languages'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://judeo-arabic_languages.totallyexplained.com">Judeo-Arabic languages Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
