Preserving Ladino: The Conservation of a Sephardic Jewish Language

You’ve heard of Yiddish, but what about Ladino?

Many people are familiar with Yiddish, a German-Hebrew language (a blend, if you will) developed and spoken by Ashkenazi Jews from Europe. Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, a Sephardic Jewish language, is a parallel to Yiddish, though much less known.¹ The language goes by other names, such as Judesmo/Djudezmo or Judío/Djudyo (which mean ‘Jewish’), Sefardí, and Haquetía, but ‘Judeo-Spanish’ is official and ‘Ladino’ is most popular.

Ladino is a blend between Old Spanish (pre-16th century Spanish or Castilian) and Hebrew. It used to be written with Hebrew letters (popular in Rashi script, as used in the cover image for this post), but since the 20th century has mostly been composed in Latin characters. Spanish Jews were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century (ca. 1492) and settled wherever they were dispersed, many around the Mediterranean region of the Ottoman Empire. It is theorised that Ladino or Judeo-Spanish came into existence around this time. The expulsion also resulted in other Mediterranean characteristics becoming incorporated into the language, besides just Spanish and Hebrew. Ladino took on aspects from languages such as Portuguese, Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Italian, and French. However, it is probable that Hebrew was already being incorporated into the Spanish language of medieval Jews in Spain. Therefore, it seems the language was already developing prior to the expulsion as a ‘Judeo-Spanish’ language.

Efforts to preserve the endangered Judeo-Spanish language

The idea for this post came to me when a friend of mine recently sent me an article detailing how experts (including of Hispanic Philology) met at the Real Academia Española (RAE) in Madrid and announced the establishment of the National Ladino academy in Israel.² The academy has the aim of protecting this Sephardic language which is endangered and on the verge of extinction. Judeo-Spanish suffered great loss when Sephardic communities were decimated during the Holocaust. Despite this infliction, Ladino has survived. It is currently spoken in Israel, Turkey, the Balkans, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Morocco, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and even the United Kingdom, among other places. Today, an estimated 300,000 people know Ladino to a greater or lesser extent, with approximately 200,000 of these people in countries outside of Israel.

One goal of Sephardic and linguistic experts is to teach younger people this language since at the moment it is almost entirely the elderly which know it. It is already recognised as an official minority language in Israel and even taught at some universities (including some in Europe and America). There has also been an emphasis on putting it into writing for preservation.

A sample of Ladino

Here is just one sample of how Ladino or Judeo-Spanish sounds: Jack from Thessaloniki, Greece speaking Ladino. Much of it sounds just like Spanish or Castilian, and indeed is, but with a close listen one can hear the influence of Hebrew.

Ladino or Judeo-Spanish is a fascinating language with a rich history. Optimistically, younger Sephardic generations will learn and further preserve it with the aid of leading experts and the guidance of their elders.

You can do your part to help by learning this amazing way of blessing someone after they sneeze: ביב’אס קריסקאס אינגראנדיסקאס קומו און פישיקו אין אגואס פ’ריסקאס אמן (Bivas, kreskas, engrandeskas, komo un peshiko en aguas freskas! Amen!), which means, “Live; thrive; grow; like a little fish in fresh water! Amen!”³

 

Endnotes:

1. The information I provide in this post is based upon online articles: Isaac Benabu, “What is Ladino?” [Online] at My Jewish Learning, reprinted with permission from The Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present, ed. Glenda Ambranson (Blackwell Publishers). Available at: <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ladino/>; Aviya Kushner, “Ladino Today: Is the language of Sephardic Jews, undergoing a revival?” [Online] at My Jewish Learning. Available at: <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ladino-today/>
2. Manuel Morales, “Nace la academia ‘nasionala’ del ladino en Israel” [Online] at El País (20 Feb 2018). Available at: <https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/02/20/actualidad/1519127816_439498.html?id_externo_promo=enviar_email>; a lot of information in my post is also based upon this article.
3. Taken from Devin E. Naar and Ty Alhadeff, “The 11 Best Ladino Expressions and Phrases To Know,” [Online] at My Jewish Learning. Available at: <https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-11-best-ladino-expressions-and-phrases-to-know/>