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Ladino language

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{{dablink|For other meanings see Ladino and Ladin.}} {{Infobox Language |name=Ladino/JudÃ¦o-Spanish |nativename=×’×•×“×™×?×•-×?×™×¡×¤×?× ×™×™×•×œ ''Djudeo-espanyol'' |familycolor=Indo-European |states=Israel, Turkey, Brazil, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Mexico, CuraÃ§ao |speakers=100,000 in Israel
10,000 in Turkey
unknown numbers elsewhere
steady decline in most places |fam2=Italic languages Italic |fam3=Romance languages Romance |fam4=Italo-Western languages Italo-Western |fam5=Western |fam6=Gallo-Iberian |fam7=Ibero-Romance languages Ibero-Romance |fam8=West Iberian languages West Iberian |fam9=Spanish language Spanish |agency=Alliance Israelite Universelle |iso2=lad|iso3=lad}} '''Ladino''' is a Romance languages Romance language, derived mainly from Old Castilian (Spanish language Spanish) and Hebrew language Hebrew. Speakers are currently almost exclusively Sephardic Jews, for example, in Thessaloniki and Istanbul. The relationship of Ladino to Castilian Spanish is comparable to that of Yiddish to German language German.

Name of language
The name "Ladino" is a variant of "Latin". The language is also called '''JudÃ¦o-Spanish''', '''Sefardi''', '''Dzhudezmo''', '''Judezmo''', and '''Spanyol'''; '''HaquitÃa''' (from the Arabic ''haka'' ØÙƒÙ‰, "tell") refers to the dialect of North Africa, especially Morocco. The dialect of the Oran area of Algeria was called '''Tetuani''', after the Morocco Moroccan town TÃ©touan, since many Oranais Jews came from this city. In Hebrew, the language is called '''Spanyolit'''. According to the Ethnologue, :The name 'Dzhudezmo' is used by Jewish linguists, 'Judeo-Espanyol' by Turkish Jews; 'Judeo-Spanish' by Romance philologists; 'Ladino' by laymen, especially in Israel; 'Hakitia' by Moroccan Jews; 'Spanyol' by some others. Authors like Haim Vidal Sephiha[http://www.vallenajerilla.com/berceo/florilegio/vidalsephiha/ladino1.htm El ladino. Lengua litÃºrgica de los judÃos espaÃ±oles]. Haim Vidal Sephiha. Historia 16, 1978 reserve "Ladino" for a very Hebraicized form used in religious translations as in the Ferrara Bible. Like Old Spanish, ''Ladino'' keeps the {{IPA|[ʃ]}} and {{IPA|[ʒ]}} palatal phonemes, both changed to {{IPA|[x]}} in modern Spanish. But unlike Old Spanish, it has an {{IPA|[x]}} phoneme taken over from Hebrew. In some places it has also developed certain characteristic usages, such as ''muestro'' for ''nuestro'' (our). The structure is linguistically related to Spanish language Spanish, with the addition of many terms from the Hebrew language Hebrew, Portuguese language Portuguese, French language French, Turkish language Turkish, Greek language Greek, and South Slavic languages depending on where the speakers resided.

Orthography
Today, ''Ladino'' is most commonly written with the Latin alphabet, especially in Turkey. However, it is still sometimes written in the Hebrew alphabet (especially in Rashi characters), a practice that was very common, possibly almost universal, until the 19th Century (and called ''aljamiado'', by analogy with Arabic usage.) Although the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets have been employed in the past, this is rare nowadays. Following the decimation of Sephardic communities throughout much of Europe (particularly in the Netherlands and the Balkans) during the Holocaust the greatest proportion of speakers remaining were Turkey Turkish Jews. As a result the Turkish variant of the Latin alphabet is widely used for publications in ''Ladino''. The Israeli Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino promotes another spelling. There are also those who, with Iacob M HassÃ¡n, claim that Ladino should adopt the orthography of the standard Spanish language. Perhaps more conservative and less popular, others along with Pablo Carvajal ValdÃ©s suggest that Ladino should adopt the orthography used during the time of the Jewish expulsion of 1492 from Spain. The orthography of that time has standardized and eventually changed by a series of reforms; it was finally changed by an orthographic reform in the 18th century. Ladino has retained some of the pronunciation that at the time of reforms had become archaic in standard Spanish. Adopting 15th century orthography for Ladino would bring back into existence the /s/ (originally /ts/) - ''c'' (before ''e'' and ''i'') and ''Ã§''/''z'' (cedilla): such in ''caÃ§a'', which was a letter of Spanish origin, the /s/ - ''ss'' : such as in ''passo'' and the voiceless postalveolar fricative {{IPA|[Êƒ]}} - ''x'' : like in ''dixo''. The original pronunciation of voiced postalveolar fricative {{IPA|[Ê’]}} - ''g'' (before ''e'' or ''i'') and ''j'' : ''mujer'', would be reestablished and the /z/ (originally /dz/) - ''z'' : would remain in Ladino words like ''fazer'' and ''dezir''. The /z/ - ''s'' : in between vowels like in ''casa'', would regain its pronunciation under this orthography as well. Like in modern Spanish, in Ladino the /z/ - ''s'' is also present before m, d and others like in ''mesmo'' or ''desde''. The distinctive Ladino voiceless postalveolar fricative {{IPA|[Êƒ]}} - ''s'' : like in ''buscar'', ''cosquillas'', ''mascar'', ''pescar'' or after ''is'' endings like in sÃ©is , favlÃ¡is or sois could be reflected through writing by the ''x''. The difference between ''b'' and ''v'' would be clearer thus some concessions to Latin spelling, as in the case of the reflex of intervocalic ''-B-'': eg Latin ''DEBET'' > post-1800 Spanish ''debe'', will return to its Old Castilian ''deve'' spelling. The use of the digraphs ''ch'', ''ph'' and ''th'' ( today /k/, /f/ and /t/ in standard Spanish respectively), formally reformed in 1803, would be in used in words like ''orthographÃa'', ''theologÃa''. Latin ''q'' before words like ''quando'', ''quanto'' and ''qual'' would also be used. Some argue that using Old Castilian Orthography will only distance non-Hispanic characteristics about Ladino and create problems that phonetical systems solve. Nevertheless, Classical and Golden Age Spanish literature would gain renewed interest, better appreciation and understanding should its orthography be used again.

History
During the Middle Ages, Jews were instrumental in the development of Castilian into a prestige language. In the Toledo School of Translators, erudite Jews translated Arabic and Hebrew works (often translated earlier from Greek) into Castilian and Christians translated again into Latin for transmission to Europe. Until recent times, the language was widely spoken throughout the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa, having been brought there by Jewish refugees fleeing Spain following the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. The contact among Jews of different regions and tongues developed a unified dialect, already different in some aspects of the Castilian norm that was forming simultaneously in Spain. Ladino was the common language in the Ottoman Empire Ottoman city of Salonika, captured by Greece in 1912 and subsequently renamed Thessaloniki. Despite a major fire, economic oppression by Greek authorities, and mass settlement of Greek-speaking refugees, the language remained widely spoken in Salonika until the death of 49,000 Salonikan Jews in the Holocaust during the Second World War. Over time, a corpus of literature, both liturgical and secular, developed. Early Ladino literature was limited to translations from Hebrew. At the end of the 17th century, Hebrew was disappearing as the vehicle for Rabbinic instruction. Thus a literature in the popular tongue (Ladino) appeared in the 18th century, such as Meam Loez and poetry collections. By the end of the 19th century, Sephardim in the Ottoman Empire studied in schools of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. French became the language for foreign relations (as it did for Maronites), and ''Ladino'' drew from French for neologisms. New secular genres appeared: more than 300 journals, history, theatre, biographies. Given the relative isolation of many communities, a number of regional dialects of Ladino appeared, many with only limited mutual comprehensibility. This is due largely to the adoption of large numbers of loanwords from the surrounding populations, including, depending on the location of the community, from Greek language Greek, Turkish language Turkish, Arabic language Arabic, and, in the Balkans, Slavic languages, especially Bulgarian language Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian language Serbo-Croatian. In the twentieth century, the number of speakers declined sharply: entire communities were eradicated in the Holocaust, while the remaining speakers, many of whom migrated to Israel, adopted Hebrew language Hebrew. The governments of the new nation-state encouraged instruction in the official language. At the same time, it aroused the interest of philologists since it conserved language and literature which existed prior to the standardisation of Spanish. Many native speakers today are elderly immigrants, who have not transmitted the language to their children or grandchildren, however it is experiencing a minor revival among Sephardic communities. In addition, Sephardic communities in several Latin American countries still use ''Ladino''. Folklorists have been collecting ''romances'' and other folk songs, some dating from before the expulsion. Many religious songs in Ladino are translations of the Hebrew, usually with a different tune. For example, ''Ein k'Eloheynu'' looks like this in Ladino: :Non komo muestro Dio, :Non komo muestro Sinyor, :Non komo muestro Rey, :Non komo muestro Salvador. :''etc.'' Qol Yerushalayim and Radio Nacional de EspaÃ±a hold regular radio broadcasts in Ladino. And Law and Order showed an episode with references to Ladino language.

Songs
{| |'''Quando el Rey Nimrod''' ''(Adaption)'' |'''When King Nimrod''' ''(translation)'' |- |Quando el Rey Nimrod al campo salÃa
mirava en el cielo y en la estrellerÃa
vido una luz santa en la juderÃa
que havÃa de nascer Abraham Avinu. |When King Nimrod (king) Nimrod went out to the fields
Looked at the heavens and at the stars
He saw a holy light in the Jewish quarter
A sign that Abraham, our father, was to be born. |- |Abraham Avinu, Padre querido
Padre bendicho, la luz de Israel. |Abraham Avinu [our Father], dear father
Blessed Father, light of Israel. |- |Luego a las comadres encomendava
que toda mujer que preÃ±ada quedasse
si no pariera al punto, la matasse
que havÃa de nascer Abraham Avinu. |Then he told all the midwife midwives
That every pregnant woman
Who did not give birth to her baby at once was going to be killed
because Abraham our father was going to born. |- |Abraham Avinu, Padre querido
Padre bendicho, luz de Israel. ' |Abraham Avinu, dear father
Blessed Father, light of Israel. |- |La mujer de Terach quedÃ³ preÃ±ada
y de dÃa en dÃa le preguntava
Â¿De quÃ© tenÃ©is la cara demudada?
ella ya sabÃa bien quÃ© tenÃa. |Terach's wife was pregnant
and each day he asked her
Why do you look so distraught?
She already knew very well what she had. |- |Abraham Avinu, padre querido
Padre bendicho, luz de Israel. |Abraham Avinu, dear father
Blessed Father, light of Israel. |- |En fin de nueve meses parir querÃa
iva caminando por campos y viÃ±as,
a su marido tal ni le descubrÃa
topÃ³ una meara, allÃ lo parirÃa |After nine months she wanted to give birth to her baby
She was walking on the fields and on the vineyards
Her husband will not discover her
She made a manger where she will have her baby. |- |Abraham Avinu, Padre querido
Padre bendixo a la luz de Israel. |Abraham Avinu, dear father
Father who blessed the light of Israel. |- |En aquella hora el nascido fablava
"AndÃ¡vos mi madre, de la meara
yo ya topo quiÃ©n me alexasse
mandarÃ¡ del cielo quien me acompaÃ±arÃ¡
porque sÃ³ criado del Dios bendito." |When the baby was born he told his mother
'Get away of the manger, my mother
I will somebody to take me out
He will send from the heaven the one that will go with me
Because I am created by blessed God.' |- |Abraham Avinu, Padre querido
Padre bendicho, luz de Israel |Abraham Avinu, dear father
Blessed Father, light of Israel. |- | |- |'''Por una Ninya'''
(A song from Sofia, Bulgaria) |'''For a Girl''' ''(translation)'' |- |Por una ninya tan fermoza
l'alma yo la vo a dar
un kuchilyo de dos kortes
en el korason entro. |For a beautiful girl
I would give my soul
a double-edged knife
pierced my heart. |- |No me mires ke'stÃ³ kantando
es lyorar ke kero yo
los mis males son muy grandes
no los puedo somportar. |Don't look at me singing,
all I want do do is to cry,
my sorrows are so great
I can't bear them. |- |No te lo kontengas tu, fijika,
ke sos blanka komo'l simit,
ay morenas en el mundo
ke kemaron Selanik. |Don't hold your sorrows, young girl,
for you are white like bread,
there are brunette girls in the world
who set fire to Thessaloniki. |} Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow from the New York-based band Elysian Fields released a CD in 2001 called La Mar Enfortuna, which featured modern versions of traditional Sephardic songs, many sung by Charles in Ladino.

Reference

See also
*Sephardic Jews *Jewish languages *Judaism *Yiddish language

External links
{{InterWiki|code=lad}}
- Ethnologue report for Ladino
- Ladinokomunita, an email list in ''Ladino''
- Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino
- The Ladino Alphabet
- Diksionario de Ladinokomunita {{Jewish language}} Category:Jewish Spanish history Category:Romance languages Category:Spanish language Category:Languages of Spain Category:Languages of Turkey Category:Languages of Bulgaria Category:Languages of Greece Category:Languages of Israel Category:Languages of Brazil Category:Languages of France af:Ladino als:Ladino ast:XudeoespaÃ±ol br:Ladinoeg ca:JudeocastellÃ de:Sephardische Sprache es:Idioma judeoespaÃ±ol fr:Ladino (langue) id:Bahasa Ladino it:Ladino (giudeo-spagnolo) he:×œ×“×™× ×• lad:Idioma djudeo-espanyol nl:Ladino ja:ã‚¸ãƒ¥ãƒ‡ã‚ºãƒ¢èªž nn:JÃ¸despansk sprÃ¥k os:Ð›Ð°Ð´Ð¸Ð½Ð¾ pdc:Ladino pl:Ladino (dialekt judeo-hiszpaÅ„ski) pt:Judeu-espanhol ro:Limba ladino ru:Ð›Ð°Ð´Ð¸Ð½Ð¾ simple:Ladino fi:Ladino (espanja) sv:Ladino tr:Ladino

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