Jewish languages

The oldest and most treasured books of the Jewish people have been the Torah and Tanakh (i.e. the Hebrew Bible) written almost entirely in Biblical Hebrew and widely used by Jews during their history. Jews zealously studied these detailed Hebrew texts, observed the commandments formulated in them, based their prayers on them, and spoke its language. Jews maintained a belief that Hebrew was God's "language" as well (as it was the language God uses in the Torah itself), hence its name "lash ...

See also:

Jewish languages, Jewish languages - Background, Jewish languages - Contemporary trends, Jewish languages - Use of the Hebrew alphabet, Jewish languages - List of Jewish languages, Jewish languages - Afro-Asiatic languages, Jewish languages - Indo-European languages, Jewish languages - Uralo-Altaic, Jewish languages - Kartvelic, Jewish languages - Dravidian, Jewish languages - Alphabetical list

Read more here: » Jewish languages: Encyclopedia II - Jewish languages - Background

Yiddish (Yid. ייִדיש, yidiš) is a Germanic language spoken by about three million people throughout the world, predominantly Ashkenazic Jews. The name Yiddish itself is Yiddish for "Jewish" (compare German jüdisch) and is likely an abbreviated rendition of yidish-taytsh (ייִדיש־טײַטש), or "Jewish German". In its earliest historical phase (13th-14th centuries), Yiddish is referred to by linguists as Judeo-German; occasionally this term is used for later forms of the language as wel ...

Including:

• Yiddish language - History
• Yiddish language - From Judeo-German to Old Yiddish
• Yiddish language - The modern Haskalah
• Yiddish language - The 20th century
• Yiddish language - Haredi Orthodox Jews
• Yiddish language - Haredi educational use of Yiddish
• Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language
• Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages
• Yiddish language - Phonology
• Yiddish language - Consonants
• Yiddish language - Vowels
• Yiddish language - Orthography
• Yiddish language - Typography
• Yiddish language - Morphology
• Yiddish language - Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers
• Yiddish language - Books

Read more here: » Yiddish language: Encyclopedia - Yiddish language

Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic is a modern Jewish Aramaic language, often called Neo-Aramaic or Judeo-Aramaic. It was originally spoken in three villages near Aqra in Iraqi Kurdistan. The native name of the language is Lishanid Janan, which means 'our language', and is similar to names used by other Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects (Lishan Didan, Lishanid Noshan). Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic - Origin and use today. The Jewish inhabitants of a wide area from northern Iraq, eastern Turkey a ...

Including:

• Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic - Origin and use today

Read more here: » Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic: Encyclopedia - Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Yevanic, otherwise known as Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the Hellenistic period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Hellenistic Koine (Ελληνική Κοινή) and includes Hebrew elements as well. It was mutually intelligible with Greek of the Christian population. The Romaniotes used their version o ...

Including:

• Yevanic language - External link

Read more here: » Yevanic language: Encyclopedia - Yevanic language

Various Neo-Aramaic dialects were spoken across a wide area from the Zakho region, in the west, to Lake Urmia, in the northeast to Sanandaj, in the southeast (the are covers northern Iraq and northwestern Iran). However, there is very little intelligibility between Lishana Deni and the other Jewish dialects. On the other hand, there is quite reasonable intelligibility between it and the Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects spoken in the region. The Christian dialect of Chaldean Neo-Aramaic is closest to Lishana Deni, and the less intelligible A ...

See also:

Lishana Deni, Lishana Deni - Origin and use today

Read more here: » Lishana Deni: Encyclopedia II - Lishana Deni - Origin and use today

There are two major dialect clusters of Lishanid Noshan. The western cluster of dialects was centred around Arbil. Most of the Jews of Arbil itself spoke Arabic as their first language, and their Aramaic was heavily influenced by Iraqi Arabic. Dastit, the language of the plain, is the Aramaic dialect of the villages of the Plain of Arbil. Lishanid Noshan was also spoken about 50 km north of Arbil, in the village of Dobe, with a ...

See also:

Lishanid Noshan, Lishanid Noshan - Origins, Lishanid Noshan - Modern Use

Read more here: » Lishanid Noshan: Encyclopedia II - Lishanid Noshan - Modern Use

Yiddish language - From German dialects to Old Yiddish. The Jewish presence in the lands of present-day Germany goes back at least to the time of the Roman Empire. By the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture had developed in Central Europe known as Ashkenazi, or Germanic Jewry. (Ashkenaz was the medieval Hebrew name for Germany, derived from a reference in Genesis 10:3.) The Medieval Jewish cultural areas did not coincide with the Christian principalities; thus Ashkenaz included Northern France, and ...

See also:

Yiddish language, Yiddish language - History, Yiddish language - From German dialects to Old Yiddish, Yiddish language - The modern Haskalah, Yiddish language - The 20th century, Yiddish language - Yiddish media, Yiddish language - Haredi Orthodox Jews, Yiddish language - Haredi educational use of Yiddish, Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language, Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages, Yiddish language - Phonology, Yiddish language - Orthography, Yiddish language - Typography, Yiddish language - Morphology, Yiddish language - Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers, Yiddish language - Books, Yiddish language - Periodicals

Read more here: » Yiddish language: Encyclopedia II - Yiddish language - History

Various Neo-Aramaic dialects were spoken across a wide area from Lake Urmia to Lake Van (in Turkey), down to the plain of Mosul (in Iraq) and back across to Sanandaj (in Iran again). Lishán Didán, at the northeastern extreme of this area, is somewhat intelligible with the Jewish Neo-Aramaic languages of Hulaula (spoken further south, in Iranian Kurdistan) and Lishanid Noshan (formerly spoken around Kirkuk, Iraq). However, the local Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects of Assyrian Neo-Aramaic are unintelligible: Christian and Jewish communities l ...

See also:

Lishan Didan, Lishan Didan - Origin and use today

Read more here: » Lishan Didan: Encyclopedia II - Lishan Didan - Origin and use today

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 ...

See also:

Ladino language, Ladino language - Name of language, Ladino language - Orthography, Ladino language - History, Ladino language - Songs

Read more here: » Ladino language: Encyclopedia II - Ladino language - Orthography

The Jewish inhabitants of a wide area from northern Iraq, eastern Turkey and north western Iran mostly spoke various dialects of modern Aramaic. The turmoil near the end of the First World War and resettlement in Israel in 1951 (when eight families from Bijil moved to the new Jewish state) led to the decline of these traditional languages. This particular and distinct dialect of Jewish Neo-Aramaic was spoken in the villages of Bij ...

See also:

Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic - Origin and use today

Read more here: » Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic: Encyclopedia II - Barzani Jewish Neo-Aramaic - Origin and use today

Yiddish language - From Judeo-German to Old Yiddish. The Jewish presence in the lands of present-day Germany goes back at least to the time of the Roman Empire. By the 10th century, a distinctive Jewish culture had developed in Central Europe known as Ashkenazi, or Germanic Jewry. (Ashkenaz was the medieval Hebrew name for Germany, derived from a reference in Genesis 10.3.) The Medieval Jewish cultural areas did not coincide with the Christian principalities; thus Ashkenaz included Northern France, and bou ...

See also:

Yiddish language, Yiddish language - History, Yiddish language - From Judeo-German to Old Yiddish, Yiddish language - The modern Haskalah, Yiddish language - The 20th century, Yiddish language - Haredi Orthodox Jews, Yiddish language - Haredi educational use of Yiddish, Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language, Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages, Yiddish language - Phonology, Yiddish language - Consonants, Yiddish language - Vowels, Yiddish language - Orthography, Yiddish language - Typography, Yiddish language - Morphology, Yiddish language - Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers, Yiddish language - Books

Read more here: » Yiddish language: Encyclopedia II - Yiddish language - History

Hulaulá sits at the southeastern extreme of the wide area over which various Neo-Aramaic dialects used to be spoken. From Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan Province, Iran, the area extended north, to the banks of Lake Urmia. From there, it extended west to Lake Van (in Turkey), and south onto the Plain of Mosul (in Iraq). Then it headed east again, through Arbil, back to Sanandaj. Hulaulá is somewhat intelligible with the Jewish Neo-Aramaic of Lake Urmia and Iranian Azerbaijan: Lishan Didan. It is also somewhat intelligible with it ...

See also:

Hulaula language, Hulaula language - Origin and use today

Read more here: » Hulaula language: Encyclopedia II - Hulaula language - Origin and use today

Zarphatic or Judæo-French (Zarphatic: Tsarfatit) is an extinct Jewish language, formerly spoken among the Jewish communities of northern France and in parts of what is now west-central Germany, in such cities as Mainz, Frankfurt-am-Main, and Aachen. Zarphatic language - Etymology. The word Zarphatic comes from the Hebrew name for France, Tzarfat (צרפת), the Biblical name for the Phoenician city of Sarepta. Some have conjectured that Zarphatic was the original language ...

Including:

• Zarphatic language - Etymology
• Zarphatic language - Distinct features

Read more here: » Zarphatic language: Encyclopedia - Zarphatic language

Yiddish eventually split into Western (German) Yiddish and Eastern Yiddish. The latter in turn split into North-Eastern (Litvish) Yiddish, Central/Mid-Eastern (Polish/Galician) Yiddish, and South-Eastern (Ukrainian, Bessarabian, Romanian) Yiddish. The Eastern Yiddish dialects and Modern Yiddish contain a great many words derived from Slavic languages. Like Judæo-Arabic and pre-20th century Ladino (Judæo-Spanish), Yiddish is written using an adaptation of the Hebrew alphabet. However, Yiddish itself is not linguistically related to Hebrew, even though it absorbed thousands of Hebrew and Aramaic te ...

See also:

Yiddish language, Yiddish language - History, Yiddish language - From German dialects to Old Yiddish, Yiddish language - The modern Haskalah, Yiddish language - The 20th century, Yiddish language - Yiddish media, Yiddish language - Haredi Orthodox Jews, Yiddish language - Haredi educational use of Yiddish, Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language, Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages, Yiddish language - Phonology, Yiddish language - Orthography, Yiddish language - Typography, Yiddish language - Morphology, Yiddish language - Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers, Yiddish language - Books, Yiddish language - Periodicals

Read more here: » Yiddish language: Encyclopedia II - Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages

Yeshivish is spoken mainly by English-speaking Orthodox Jews who attend or have attended a Litvish-style yeshiva. Yeshivish is the primary vehicle of communication in major American and British yeshivot. At present, only one serious study of Yeshivish has been made, the "Frumspeak" Yeshivish dictionary by Chaim Weiser. Weiser maintains that Yeshivish is neither a jargon, pidgin, Creole, or an independent language; he instead refers to it--with tongue-in-cheek--as a shprach (which is a Yeshivish word meaning "language" or "communication", d ...

Including:

• Yeshivish - Comparison with Yiddish
• Yeshivish - Vocabulary
• Yeshivish - Grammar
• Yeshivish - Culture

Read more here: » Yeshivish: Encyclopedia - Yeshivish

The Bene Ephraim, also called Telugu Jews because they speak Telugu, are a small community of Jews living primarily in Kottareddipalem, a village outside Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India, near the delta of the River Krishna. The Bene Ephraim trace their observance of Judaism back to ancient times, and recount a history similar to that of the Bnei Menashe in the northeastern Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur: adoption of Christianity upon the arrival of Baptist missionaries around the beginning of ...

Read more here: » Bene Ephraim: Encyclopedia - Bene Ephraim

The status of Yiddish as a Germanic language is occasionally challenged from two opposing perspectives. On the one hand, there are those who suggest that in its deep structure Yiddish is unrelated to German—that it is instead a Semitic or a Slavic. For example, the linguist Paul Wexler claims that Eastern Yiddish was originally a Slavic language, Sorbian, whose vocabulary was replaced with German words, and that a second round of relexification, this time replacing an East Slavic dialect with German words, occurred when this variety of Yid ...

See also:

Yiddish language, Yiddish language - History, Yiddish language - From German dialects to Old Yiddish, Yiddish language - The modern Haskalah, Yiddish language - The 20th century, Yiddish language - Yiddish media, Yiddish language - Haredi Orthodox Jews, Yiddish language - Haredi educational use of Yiddish, Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language, Yiddish language - Yiddish and other languages, Yiddish language - Phonology, Yiddish language - Orthography, Yiddish language - Typography, Yiddish language - Morphology, Yiddish language - Yiddish words and phrases used by English speakers, Yiddish language - Books, Yiddish language - Periodicals

Read more here: » Yiddish language: Encyclopedia II - Yiddish language - Status of Yiddish as a Germanic language

The Ashkenazi Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice. Its phonology was influenced by languages with which it came into contact, such as Yiddish and various Slavic languages. It survives today as a separate religious dialect even alongside Modern Hebrew in Israel. As it is used parallel with Modern Hebrew, its phonological differences are clearly recognized: א ʾālep̄ and ע

Read more here: » Ashkenazi Hebrew language: Encyclopedia - Ashkenazi Hebrew language

1United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home: 2000. Table 1a. Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 6 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. The core of the Tanakh (sometimes referred to as the Hebrew Bible), the Torah (which Christianity and Judaism traditionally hold to have been first recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago), ...

Including:

• Hebrew language - History
• Hebrew language - Early history
• Hebrew language - Later history
• Hebrew language - Revival
• Hebrew language - Modern Hebrew
• Hebrew language - Hebrew language in the USSR
• Hebrew language - Dialects
• Hebrew language - Languages strongly influenced by Hebrew
• Hebrew language - Sounds
• Hebrew language - Vowels
• Hebrew language - Consonants
• Hebrew language - Historical sound changes
• Hebrew language - Grammar
• Hebrew language - Writing system
• Hebrew language - Romanization
• Hebrew language - Notes

Read more here: » Hebrew language: Encyclopedia - Hebrew language

Jew - Usage note. Some uses of the term "Jew" are tainted by historic anti-Jewish bigotry. The correct adjectival form is "Jewish"; the use of "Jew" as an adjective (as in "Jew lawyer" rather than "Jewish lawyer") is associated with bigotry. The use of "Jew" or "jew" as a verb (as in "to jew someone down": to bargain for a lower price) is generally seen as an extremely offensive expression based on stereotypes. Even when used in a grammatically correct manner as a noun, the term "Jew" can objectify a ...

Including:

• Jew - Usage note
• Jew - Etymology
• Jew - Who is a Jew?
• Jew - Jewish culture
• Jew - Ethnic divisions
• Jew - Population
• Jew - Significant geographic populations
• Jew - State of Israel
• Jew - Diaspora outside Israel
• Jew - Population changes: Assimilation
• Jew - Population changes: Wars against the Jews
• Jew - Population changes: Growth
• Jew - Jewish languages
• Jew - History of the Jews
• Jew - Jews and migrations
• Jew - Kingdoms of Israel and Judah
• Jew - Persian Greek and Roman rule
• Jew - Beginning of the Diaspora
• Jew - Middle Ages: Europe
• Jew - Middle Ages: Islamic Europe and North Africa
• Jew - Enlightenment and emancipation
• Jew - Zionism and immigration
• Jew - The Holocaust
• Jew - Israel
• Jew - Persecution
• Jew - Jewish leadership
• Jew - Famous Jews
• Jew - Notes

Read more here: » Jew: Encyclopedia - Jew