Why are there Jewish languages?

[Lital Levy]

Friends,

In reviewing both the jewishlanguage.org website and Jewish Languages from A to Z, it dawned on me that I don't see an answer to what I would anticipate would be a FAQ from general audiences:

Why are there Jewish languages (to begin with)?

In other words, WHY did Jews historically speak (and write differently) from non-Jews? How do we explain this across a range of cultural and social situations in different times and places? How might the answer be different in the Yiddish and Ladino cases, or in the cases of Baghdadi Jewish Arabic vs Yemeni JA?

I also wonder: is Ladino qualitatively different than the other cases since it developed as an exilic language? When Jews lived in Iberia, do we know whether or not they had Jewish dialects of Arabic, Romance, Castilian, etc.?

I'd love your thoughts and/or directions to publications addressing these questions.

Thank you so much!

Warmly,

Lital

[geo...@jochnowitz.net]

Max Weinreich believed that Ladino antedates the expusion from Spain:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44938790

George

Quoting Lital Levy <lital...@gmail.com>:

> Friends,
> In reviewing both the jewishlanguage.org website and Jewish Languages from
> A to Z, it dawned on me that I don't see an answer to what I would
> anticipate would be a FAQ from general audiences:

> *Why* are there Jewish languages (to begin with)?

>
> In other words, WHY did Jews historically speak (and write differently)
> from non-Jews? How do we explain this across a range of cultural and social
> situations in different times and places? How might the answer be different
> in the Yiddish and Ladino cases, or in the cases of Baghdadi Jewish Arabic
> vs Yemeni JA?
>
> I also wonder: is Ladino qualitatively different than the other cases since
> it developed as an exilic language? When Jews lived in Iberia, do we know
> whether or not they had Jewish dialects of Arabic, Romance, Castilian, etc.?
> I'd love your thoughts and/or directions to publications addressing these
> questions.
>
> Thank you so much!
> Warmly,
> Lital
>

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[Sarah Benor]

Lital,

Thanks for this question. On my to-do list has been to post a general article answering your first question on the Jewish Language Website. I just posted it at the bottom of this page:

https://www.jewishlanguages.org/about

Sarah

Sarah Bunin Benor

Director, Jewish Language Project

Professor of Contemporary Jewish Studies and Linguistics

Vice Provost

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion

[Jana De Benedetti]

This Jewish Language FAQ page is wonderful! Thank you for posting it and for all of your work about Jewish languages and Dialects. 

Sent from my oyPhone

On Feb 14, 2022, at 8:42 AM, Sarah Benor <sbeno...@gmail.com> wrote:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jewish-languages/CAOpx48tG9tz%2BEMj90hFrez5eHniBD8CQJUB%2BZKrcOCer_Ki%3DoQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Benjamin Hary]

Hi Lital,

Good to hear from you.

Sarah's answer is perfect.

To add to her answer, I believe that the best explanation for your "WHY did Jews historically speak (and write differently) from non-Jews?" is the sociolinguistic framework.

Please see in the second page of my "Jewish Languages" article (attached here) in the just-published The Oxford Handbook of the Jewish Diaspora (as well as in many other publications) the sociolinguistic theory behind the reason for the development of Jewish Languages (starting "wherever Jews have lived..."). BTW, this theory can apply to any other minority or closed group as is developed in other papers.

Benny

Benjamin Hary, Ph.D.
Director, NYU Tel Aviv and Professor,Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University

Office: +972-3-715-9704; from NYU: 5959704; Cell: +972-54-5905636

My pronouns are: He-Him-His

Latest Publication: Hary and Benor, Languages in Jewish Communities,

Past and Present (De Gruyter - Mouton, 2018)

https://nyu.academia.edu/BenjaminHary
http://www.nyu.edu/global/global-academic-centers/telaviv.html

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jewish-languages/CAOpx48tG9tz%2BEMj90hFrez5eHniBD8CQJUB%2BZKrcOCer_Ki%3DoQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Lital Levy]

Dear friends

Thank you to everyone who responded to my query both on and off-list with generous information and resources. So much appreciated!

I will reply individually but it will take me a few days.

In the meantime, Happy Valentine's Day - your knowledge is the best treat ( :

Lital

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 7:27 AM Benjamin Hary <benjam...@nyu.edu> wrote:

Hi Lital,

Good to hear from you.

Sarah's answer is perfect.

To add to her answer, I believe that the best explanation for your "WHY did Jews historically speak (and write differently) from non-Jews?" is the sociolinguistic framework.

Please see in the second page of my "Jewish Languages" article (attached here) in the just-published The Oxford Handbook of the Jewish Diaspora (as well as in many other publications) the sociolinguistic theory behind the reason for the development of Jewish Languages (starting "wherever Jews have lived..."). BTW, this theory can apply to any other minority or closed group as is developed in other papers.

Benny

Benjamin Hary, Ph.D.
Director, NYU Tel Aviv and Professor,Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University

Office: +972-3-715-9704; from NYU: 5959704; Cell: +972-54-5905636

My pronouns are: He-Him-His

Latest Publication: Hary and Benor, Languages in Jewish Communities,

Past and Present (De Gruyter - Mouton, 2018)

https://nyu.academia.edu/BenjaminHary
http://www.nyu.edu/global/global-academic-centers/telaviv.html

On Mon, Feb 14, 2022 at 4:42 PM Sarah Benor <sbeno...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jewish-languages/CAOpx48tG9tz%2BEMj90hFrez5eHniBD8CQJUB%2BZKrcOCer_Ki%3DoQ%40mail.gmail.com.