User:Universal Life/Sephardic Communities&History, Judaeo-Spanish and its Dialects

I've been reading and researching about Judaeo-Spanish (JS), learning about it for a very very long time, properly said during a time of 10 years but with gaps. I've been always interested with the information, kept it, many times however neglected the source of my information. This has been a fault on my part, especially in the earlier years as I haven't known then, how to make scientific research.

That's why, I'll give the information here and I will use the template {{Citation needed}}, when I know that there is a source that I don't remember, I'll use the same template twice, when there are multiple sources that I'm aware of and when I encounter those, I'll replace them with the template.

This is not an article of Wikipedia but rather an essay of thoughts and a collection of all the information I can list with time.

On the Divergeance of Judaeo-Spanish, from Old Spanish

• Everything Prof. Aldina Quintana told me and all the academic articles I've read so far made me think that there was almost no difference between the Spanish of Jews in 15th century Spain and the Spanish spoken then in Spain. Of course some differences were obvious, such as the use of El Dio instead of Dios and the use of the Rashi scirpt.
• It is said that and usually believed that the word "/mozotros/" developed from "/nozotros/", through the influence of the pronounciation "/muestro/" of the word "nuestro". However this contradicts very much with the truth that, even though the Moroccan Jews had no contact, with the Ottoman Jews; even though in Haketia, the group "nue" is never pronounced /mue/; they still say /mozotros/ and /moz/.
• Doesn't this point out to a common origin of the pronounciation /mozotros/ or /moz/, to sometime when the Jews where living together in Spain, before the expulsion?
• There are many other features of Haketia, such as the singular 2nd person or 1st person of the preterite tense that's exactly the same in Oriental JS (pensates and not pensastes or pensaste, entrí and not entré) . And these also definitely show that such formation happened while Jews were living in Spain.
• Moreover, the arguments given by the opposite view, usually have it's basis in 16th and 17th century JS texts that uses forms like "nosotros" and "pensaste". They say that the formation of JS is much more recent, somewhere in the last 300 years, but until then, it's nothing but Old Spanish.
• Counterarguments of mine follows in the text below:
  • Jews, in diaspora always lived in their own community in history. That was the same for the case of Jews living in Spain. Thus, it is quite normal that they had their own macrolect. Each Jewish community throughout Spain probably had their own macrolect but all these macrolects had common features.
  • Moreover, within every community there were sociolects, just like it was the case with the Christian communities.
  • These sociolects are very distinguisable in the history of the Jews after expulsion as well. Especially the Rabbis always used a more pure Castilian, whereas the language of the people were rather a mixture of all Romance languages both in vocabulary and garammar.
  • In the community, where I lived (Istanbul), I observed that while everyone says /mozotros/ and /moz/, the Rabbis used /nozotros/ and /noz/. And all the religous books we had, it always said /nozotros/ and /noz/. The ordinary speakers I questioned associated the words /nozotros/ and /noz/ with a higher form of JS (aka the Rabbi's JS).
  • Many sources cite that the JS of Saloniki had many sociolects, one of them being the "high language" of the Rabbis.
  • Ladino, can be considered such a sociolect, although not spoken it's always used by almost all social groups while praying. It's vocabulary is also pure Castilian, it's the vocabulary that the Rabbi's of the 16th and 17th centuries would use, even while righting in JS.
  • While, it's so apparent that the forms such as mozotros/nozotros existed and given the high probabilty of the religous texts from the 16th and 17th century being not the daily language of the not-rabbinical societies, those texts can not be the proof that JS of that era, was not a different language from Old Spanish.

Application of Sarkar's Language Criteria on JS

According to Sarkar's criteria for distinguishing languages and dialects, there are eight morphological, phonological and syntactical criteria to define soemthing as a language, if it doesn't fit the criteria, it can be a dialect, a sociolect, a historiacal variant and so, of another established language.

The criteria are:

1. Own verb endings (or own conjugation)
2. Own case endings (or own declination)
3. Own pronouns
4. Own vocabulary
5. Own oral or written literature (does not matter whether classical or folk)
6. Own style of intonation
7. Own acoustic notes ("psycho-acoustic and inferential acoustic")
8. Own syntax

Let's examine JS, from the eye of each criterion, we shall also examine the variants of JS, such as Haketia, from this point of view:

1. JS although very similar to modern Spanish, has definitely it owns conjugation.
   • The forms "Yo estó" "Yo me vo" is incorrect in Modern Spanish, however it's the normal conjugation in JS
   • Many irregular verbs in Modern Spanish are conjugated as regular in JS such as "Quero, Puedemos".
   • The past (preterite tense) is even more different than Modern Spanish as it has the endings of "-í", "-ates" etc. in the -ar verbs, and "-ites" in the -er and -ir verbs.
   • Use of the subjunctive case is different in JS.
   • (1)
2. Let's examine the case endings (or rather prepositions in this case):
   • JS has the preposition "ande/ende" which has the same function of "chez" in French and "etsel" in Hebrew. It doesn't exist in Modern Spanish (MS).
   • On of the roles of the preposition "por" is in the passive case. JS instead uses "de la parte de" for this purpose.
   • Also, "because of" is expressed differently then MS. In MS it's "por causa de" and in JS it's "por morde/modre de". It has many similar local expressions.
   • However much of the other prepositions are same in JS and MS (a, de, en, por, para etc.)
   • We can conclude that JS has partially it's own pronouns and partially not, not counting the syntactical differences.
   • (0.5)
3. JS pronouns, again very similar to MS, are distinct. We should not forget that the only pronouns are not personal pronouns.
   • Io, mosos, vosos, vos (and not os), quen, cualo, tala etc.
   • (1)
4. JS definitely has its own vocabulary (1)
5. JS has some written liliterature and a huge collection of oral literature (1)
6. JS's style of intonation, although similar to many South-American Spanish dialects, is definitely distinct and all of its dialects and subdailects have their own style.
   • Another question that comes to mind; are these styles of intonation of different subdialects, same with the ones in Spain, where it derived from the first place?
   • Although, similarities (huge or small) are present between the aforementioned pairs, JS has growned to create its own styles of intonation.
   • (1)
7. Yes, JS has both its own psycho-acoustic (different phonemes) and inferential acoustic (different phonology) notes. (1)
8. Although, JS developed its syntax from a combination of Castilian, Romance, Hebrew, Aramaic, Ottoman Turkish, Greek, Serbian and French syntaxes, it has definitely developed its own syntax. (1)

In total, we get 7.5/8, which is a high proof from these criteria that JS is a language of its own, although it's not completely an independant language (8/8). I think, in these criteria, when the result is:

• 0.5-4/8, it's a dialect or subdialect,
• 4.5-6.5/8, it's a variant or historical variant,
• 7-7.5/8, it can be considered as a language, however it's not a full-fledged and independant language, it needs improvement,
• 8/8, it's a full-fledged and independant language

Calculating Haketia (comparing with JS)

1. 0.5
2. 0
3. 0
4. 1
5. 1
6. 1
7. 1
8. 0 or 0.5

So, in total we get, 4.5 or 5, which says Haketia is not a mere dialect, it's a variant of JS.

Haketia

• Haketia (Hebrew: חקיטייה) is an endangered Jewish-Moroccan variant of the Romance language, Judaeo-Spanish that was spoken in Morocco.
• Alternative spellings for Haketia are Haketiya, Hakitia, Hakitiya, Haquetía, Haquetiya, Haquitía, Haquitiya, Ħaketia, Ħakitia, Ħaketilla, Yaquetía, Jaketía, Jaketiya, Jaketilla, Jakitía, Jakitiya, Jakitilla, Jaquetía, Jaquetiya, Jaquetilla, Jaquitía, Jaquitiya, Jaquitilla, Jhaketía, Jhaquetía, Jhaketiya, Rakitía, Raquitía and Ghaketilla.
• It is spoken today in 9 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Israel, Morocco, Spain, United States and Venezuela. However today, it faces a serious threat of extinction.

Ħaketilla

1. Haquitía: Dialecto judeoespañol hablado en Marruecos.. Jaquitía/Haketia: Judaeo-Spanish spoken in Morocco. Jaquitía:Variedad lingüítica del Castellano medieval cultivada entre los judíos sefardíes que habitan el territorio marroquí. Jaquitía or Haquetía: Variant of JS, derived from medieval Spanish, contains a lot of words from Arabic and Hebrew.
2. Jaquitía est une langue parlé de Ceuta et de Melilla.
3. The first migrations from Morocco to Argentina starts in 1875, it continues every year with an increase of immigrants which in 1906 is counted 182 people. After 1907 it starts decreasing drastically as when arrived to 1914, the number is 37 people. The number continues around the same until 1917 and then increases to a less than 100 until 1920.
   • The first migrations is to Buenos Aires in 1875. In 1877, they construct the first Jewish cemetery to Avellaneda (a place in Buenos Aires) in Argentina. The majority settle in three barrios of Buenos Aires: San Telmo, Concepción and Montserrat. Later, a bigger majority prefer to settle in other cities than Buenos Aires (1), the known localities are Santa Fe (2), Entre Ríos (3), Córdoba (4) and El Chaco, near Córdoba.
   • The language that speak these migrants in Buenos Aires is called Jaquitía, it has many characteristics similar to Anadalucian Spanish.
   • There were three syagogues, three communities of Jews in Buenos Aires, which united in 1974. However the lives and the communities of Jews were fragmented, even between the original cities that they came from. In 1890, they were prefering to marry first with people from the same city, than at least the same country.
   • Between 1890 and 1910, approximately 2000 people came from Morroco, little less than 600 of them settled to Buenos Aires and the rest to other cities. From those who settled to Buenos Aires according to the consensus; %57.45 are from Tetouan, %36.17 are from Tangiers, %5.32 are from Casablanca, Fes, Rabat, Meknes and Mogador and %1.06 of them are from Larache.
4. Literature in Haketia, from an author originating from Tangiers, a book called: La Vida Perra de Juanita Narboni composed by Ángel Vázquez.
5. Jaquitía is full of words from Arabic, however later on it rehispanizes because of the Spaniards and starts to sound almost no different than Andalucian Spanish.

Ħaketilla - Summary

• It's a variant or dialect of Judaeo-Spanish.
• It's origin is Morocco.
• Some of the existing communities in Morocco in 1890: Ceuta, Tetouan, Tangiers, Casablanca, Fes, Rabat, Meknes, Mogador and Larache.
• Today still spoken in Ceuta and Melilla.
• And in Argentina spoken in four cities Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Entre Ríos and Córdoba. In Buenos Aires, three biggest barrios are San Telmo, Concepción and Montserrat. And one of the known barrio in Córdoba is El Chaco. The migration to Argentina starts in 1875 and 94% of the people who migrates to Buenos Aires between 1890-2010 are from Tetouan and Tangiers. The first arrivers to Argentina are the Moroccan Sepharadim.
• It contains a lot of words from Arabic and Hebrew.
• Books to read in Haketia: "La Vida Perra de Juanita Narboni" by "Ángel Vázquez".
• It comes under the influence of Andalucian Spanish and rehispanizes.

JS

• There is presence of Sephardic Jews in the Americas (including USA and Canada) and Europe. The presence of Sephardim of Argentina, Brasil, Mexico and Uruguay derives from Aleppo, Damascus, Turkey and Morocco and they speak JS, Jaquitía or Arabic. Most of the Mexican come from Syria.