Judeo-Arabic languages

Infobox Language
name=Judeo-Arabic
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Semitic
fam3=West Semitic
fam4=Central Semitic
fam5=South Central Semitic
fam6=Arabic
script=Arabic alphabet
iso2=jrb
lc1=jrb|ld1=Judeo-Arabic macrolanguage|ll1=Judeo-Arabic
lc2=yhd|ld2=Judeo-Iraqi Arabic|ll2=Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
lc3=aju|ld3=Judeo-Moroccan Arabic|ll3=Judeo-Moroccan Arabic
lc4=yud|ld4=Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic|ll4=Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic
lc5=ajt|ld5=Judeo-Tunisian Arabic|ll5=Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
lc6=jye|ld6=Judeo-Yemeni Arabic|ll6=Judeo-Yemeni Arabic

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 AlexandriaVerify source|date=August 2008, which shares the first person singular imperfective initial Nun with Maghrebi Arabic dialects (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunisian) rather than the initial Alif of other Egyptian Arabic vernacularsClarifyme|date=August 2008. 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.

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 did not 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:

* Saadia Gaon's "Emunoth ve-Deoth", his "Tafsir" (biblical commentary and translation), and his "siddur" (the explanatory content; not the prayers themselves)
* Solomon ibn Gabirol's "Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh"
* Bahya ibn Pakuda's "Chovot ha-Levavot"
* Judah Halevi's "Kuzari"
* Maimonides' "Commentary on the Mishnah", "Sefer ha-Mitzvot", "Guide to the Perplexed", and many of his letters and shorter essays.

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 did not 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.

ee also

*Judeo-Berber languages
*Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
*Baghdad Arabic (Jewish)
*Judeo-Moroccan
*Judeo-Yemenite

Bibliography

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yhd Ethnologue entry for Judeo-Iraqi Arabic]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aju Ethnologue entry for Judeo-Moroccan Arabic]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yud Ethnologue entry for Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ajt Ethnologue entry for Judeo-Tunisian Arabic]
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=jye Ethnologue entry for Judeo-Yemeni Arabic]
* Blau, Joshua, "The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic": OUP, last edition 1999
* Heath, Jeffrey, "Jewish and Muslim dialects of Moroccan Arabic" (Routledge Curzon Arabic linguistics series): London, New York, 2002.

External links

* [http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/judeo-arabic2.html Alan Corré's Judeo-Arabic Literature site]
* [http://shekel.jct.ac.il/~green/judeo-arabic.html Judeo-Arabic Literature]
* [http://thejewsoflebanon.org/ The Jews of Lebanon]
* [http://reka.iba.org.il/ Reka] Israeli radio network offering a daily fifteen-minute program in Moroccan Judeo-Arabic (Arbiya l'Mugrabiya) with internet broadcast