Judæo-Piedmontese

Judæo-Piedmontese was the vernacular language of the Jews living in Piedmont, Italy, from about the 15th Century until the Second World War.The dialect was based on the Piedmontese language, with many loans from ancient Hebrew, and also languages like Provençal and Spanish , since many Piedmontese Jews came from Provence and Spain.

It was never as wide and rich in words as are Yiddish and Judaeo-Spanish, two other and more famous Jewish langiages, but rather narrow and based on secrecy and segregation, and meant not be understood by the gentiles.Today there are virtually no more speakers of Judæo-Piedmontese.

mall vocabulary

The dialect never had real written phonetical rules, the words in this list are written accordingly to (and taken mostly from) Primo Levi's book The Periodic Table and the book La gran battaglia degli ebrei di Moncalvo.

Pronunciation:

(kh) like in German "Nacht".

(ñ) nasal, like in English "Sing", not to be confunded with the Spanish "ñ".

(ô) like in English "Loom".

(u) like the French "u" or the German "ü".

(sc) like the English "sh".

(j) like in German "Jung" or in English "Young".

*(a)brakhà - blessing
*Adonai Eloénô - God, Lord
*bahalòm - in a dream (used for jokes)
*barakhùt - blessed
*barôcabà - welcome!, blessed He who comes!
*batacaìn - cemetery
*beemà - beast
*berìt - pact, penis (vulgar)
*Cadòss Barôkhù - God
*cassèr - community, ghetto
*ganàv - thief
*ganavé - to steal
*ghescér - bridge
*gôì - non-Jewish man
*gôià - non-Jewish woman
*gojìm - non-Jewish people
*hafassìm - jewels (lit. "stuff")
*hamòr - donkey
*hamortà - stupid woman (lit. female of donkey)
*hasìr - pig
*hasirùd - rubbish
*havertà - rough and dissolute woman
*khakhàm - rabbi (lit. "learned one")
*khalaviòd - breasts (from Hebrew "halav", milk)
*khaltrùm - Catholic overdevoutness
*khamisà - five
*khamissidò - slap
*khanéc - neck (pregnant with meaning, used to swear)
*khaniké - to hang (kill)
*khèder - room
*kinìm - lice
*lakhtì - (exclamation) go away!
*Lassòn Acòdesh - Sacred Language
*macòd - blows
*maftèkh - key
*mahané - neck (generic and neutral)
*mamsér - bastard
*mañòd - money
*medà meshônà - accident (lit. "strange death")
*menaghèm / meraghèl - spy
*Milca - Queen
*morénô - rabbi (lit. "our master")
*nainé - to look at
*ñarél - non-circumcised
*nero - evil, bad
*pakhàt - fear
*pegartà - dead woman
*pôñaltà - dirty, shabbily-clothed woman
*pôñèl - dirty, shabbily-clothed man
*rabbenù - rabbi
*rashàn - non-pious
*rôkhòd - winds
*ruàkh - wind
*samdé - to baptize (lit. "destroy")
*sarfatìm - guards
*saròd - disgraced
*scòla - synagogue, temple
*sefòkh - toddler vomit
*sôrada - appearance, look
*sôtià - crazy woman
*tafùs - prison, jail (it is a hebraic loanwords in piedmontese jargon, "ca tafus": jail, from "ca" house, although the piedmontese word is "përzon")
*takhôrìm - haemorroids
*tanhanè - to argue