Judeo-Italian languages
Encyclopedia
Judeo-Italian languages are the varieties of Italian
used between the 10th and the 20th centuries in Italy
, Corfu
and Zante.
(vol. 7, 310-313), describing the languages of the Jews of Corfu
. In Italian, Giuseppe Cammeo referred to a Gergo giudaico-italiano in his 1909 article Studj dialettali (Vessillo Israelitico 57 (1909); the term first appears on p. 169). That same year, Umberto Cassuto
used the term giudeo-italiano, in the following:
Also
At least two Judeo-Italian varieties, based on Salentino
and Venetian
varieties were also used in Corfu
.http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/indo-european/europe/judeo-italian-corfiote/?searchterm=Judeo-Italian
, although there are arguably parallels in Jewish English usage) combination of Hebrew
verb stems with Italian
conjugations (e.g., "אכלר akhlare", to eat; "גנביר gannaviare", to steal; "דברר dabberare", to speak; "לכטיר lekhtire", to go). Similarly there are abstract nouns such as "טובזה tovezza", goodness.
Also common are lexical incorporations from Hebrew
, particularly those applicable to daily life. Terms from other Jewish languages such as Yiddish
and Ladino were also incorporated.
Bagitto, the dialect of Livorno
(Leghorn), is particularly rich in loanword
s from Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Portuguese
.
It was claimed by Cassuto that most Judeo-Italian dialects reflect the Italian dialect of places further to the south, as since the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom of Naples the general direction of Jewish migration in Italy has been northward.
as a subject heading, neither does it figure as a reference to Judeo-Italian. The authorized subject heading is "Judeo-Italian language". Subheadings are:
The subject reference is: Judeo-Italian dialect. LC-MARC uses the following language codes :
Judeo-Italian Assigned collective code [ita] (Italian).
This is in compliance with the International Organization for Standardization
language code ISO 639-2 code (roa).
Italian dialects
Dialects of Italian are regional varieties of the Italian language, more commonly and more accurately referred to as Regional Italian. The dialects have features, most notably phonological and lexical, percolating from the underlying substrate languages...
used between the 10th and the 20th centuries in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
and Zante.
The term "Judaeo-Italian"
The glossonym type giudeo-italiano is of academic and relatively late coinage. In English, Judæo-Italian was first used by Lazaro Belleli in 1904 for his article Judæo-Greek and Judæo-Italian in the Jewish EncyclopediaJewish Encyclopedia
The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...
(vol. 7, 310-313), describing the languages of the Jews of Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
. In Italian, Giuseppe Cammeo referred to a Gergo giudaico-italiano in his 1909 article Studj dialettali (Vessillo Israelitico 57 (1909); the term first appears on p. 169). That same year, Umberto Cassuto
Umberto Cassuto
Umberto Cassuto, also known as Moshe David Cassuto, , was a rabbi and Biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy. -Early life and career:...
used the term giudeo-italiano, in the following:
- Actually, while the existence of a Judeo-German dialect is universally known, almost nobody beyond the Alps suspects that the Italian Jews have, or at least had, not to say a dialect of their own, but at least a way of speaking with peculiar features. True, in practice its importance, limited to the everyday use of some thousand people, is almost nothing versus that of Judeo-German, spoken by millions of individuals that often do not know any other language, and has its own literatureYiddish literatureYiddish literature encompasses all belles lettres written in Yiddish, the language of Ashkenazic Jewry which is related to Middle High German. The history of Yiddish, with its roots in central Europe and locus for centuries in Eastern Europe, is evident in its literature.It is generally described...
, its own journalism, its own theater, and thus, almost the importance of a real language... It is almost nothing, if you will, even compared with other Jewish dialects, Judeo-Spanish for instance, that are more or less used literarily; all this is true, but from the linguistic point of view, Judeo-German is worth as much as Judeo-Italian [giudeo-italiano], to name it so, since for the glottological sciencePhilologyPhilology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
the different forms of human speech are important in themselves and not by its number of speakers or the artistic forms they are used in. Moreover, a remarkable difference between Judeo-German and Judeo-Italian [giudeo-italiano], that is also valuable from the scientific point of view, is that while the former is so different from German as to constitute an independent dialect, the latter by contrast is not essentially a different thing from the language of Italy, or from the individual dialects of the different provinces of Italy... - 256:
- ...It was natural that the Judeo-Italian jargon [gergo giudeo-italiano] would disappear in a short while.: 255-256)
Other designations
- Historically, Italian Jews referred to their vernaculars as "La`az" (לעז), HebrewHebrew languageHebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
for "foreign language" (i.e., specifically, "non-Hebrew language"). The Italian Jewish rite is sometimes called minhag ha-lo'azim, and linguists use lo'ez as a description of words of Romance origin in Yiddish. This may be connected with the Germanic use of the word wälschWalhaWalhaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic word, meaning "foreigner", "stranger", "Roman", "Romance-speaker", or "Celtic-speaker". The adjective derived from this word can be found in , Old High German walhisk, meaning "Romance", in Old English welisċ, wælisċ, wilisċ, meaning "Romano-British" and in...
(literally, "foreign") for Romance peoples and languages (as in "Welsh", "Walloon" and "Wallachian"): the Italian (and Sephardic) Hebrew script for Torah scrolls is known as "Velsh" or "Veilish". - In 1587, David de Pomi uses the word "italiano" in reference to the ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
glosses in his trilingual dictionary. The Hebrew title of the 1609 Venice Haggadah uses the word "italiano" for the language of Leone ModenaLeon of ModenaLeon Modena or Yehudah Aryeh Mi-modena was a Jewish scholar born in Venice of a notable French family that had migrated to Italy after an expulsion of Jews from France.-Life:...
's translation (u-fitrono bi-leshon iṭalyano ופתרונו בלשון איטליאנו). - Other historic descriptions are "Latino" and "Volgare", both of which were commonly used in the Middle Ages to mean Italian in general.
- After the institution of the GhettoGhettoA ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...
forced Jewish communities throughout Italy into segregation, the term ghettaiolo was identified with local Jewish varieties of regional dialects. - Another native name type is giudeesco (e.g., Judeo-Florentine iodiesco; < *IUDÆĬSCU[M], or an assimulation of the hiatus /aˈe/ *giudaesco < *IUDAĬSCU[M]).
- The neologism Italkian was coined in 1942 by Solomon Birnbaum (see References), who modelled the word on the modern Hebrew adjective ית-/אטלקי italki(t), “Italian”, from the middle Hebrew adjective איטלקי (< ITALICU[M]), “Italic”, “Roman”.
Yiddish
According to some scholars, there are some Judeo-Italian loan words that have found their way into Yiddish. For example, the word in Judeo-Italian for "synagogue" is scola, as opposed to "school," which is scuola. The use of words for "school" to mean "synagogue" dates back to the Roman Empire. The Judeo-Italian distinction between scola and scuola parallels the Standard Yiddish distinction between shil 'synagogue' and shul 'school'. Another example is Yente, from Judeo-Italian yentile, standard Italian gentile, meaning 'noble'.Dialects
Judeo-Italian regional dialects (ghettaioli giudeeschi), including:- Judæo-Ferraran (giudeo-ferrarese) from FerraraFerraraFerrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
- Judæo-Florentine (giudeo-fiorentino, iodiesco) from FlorenceFirenzaFirenza may refer to the following:* Florence - a city in Italy * Oldsmobile Firenza - a model of car * Peavey Firenza - a model of electric guitar* Vauxhall Firenza - a model of car * A brand of tyre from Singapore....
- Judæo-Mantuan (giudeo-mantovano) from MantuaMantuaMantua is a city and comune in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the same name. Mantua's historic power and influence under the Gonzaga family, made it one of the main artistic, cultural and notably musical hubs of Northern Italy and the country as a whole...
- Judæo-Modenan (giudeo-modenese) from ModenaModenaModena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
- Judæo-PiedmonteseJudæo-PiedmonteseJudæo-Piedmontese was the vernacular language of the Jews living in Piedmont, in North Western Italy, from about the 15th Century until the Second World War....
(giudeo-piemontese) from the region of PiedmontPiedmontPiedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of... - Judæo-Reggian (giudeo-reggiano) from the region of Reggio EmiliaReggio EmiliaReggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
in Emilia-RomagnaEmilia-RomagnaEmilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna. The capital is Bologna; it has an area of and about 4.4 million inhabitants.... - Judæo-Roman (giudeo-romanesco) from RomeRomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
- Judæo-Venetian (giudeo-veneziano) from VeniceVeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
.
Also
- Bagitto (giudeo-livornese) from LivornoLivornoLivorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
(includes elements of Judeo-Spanish and PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
)
At least two Judeo-Italian varieties, based on Salentino
Sicilian language
Sicilian is a Romance language. Its dialects make up the Extreme-Southern Italian language group, which are spoken on the island of Sicily and its satellite islands; in southern and central Calabria ; in the southern parts of Apulia, the Salento ; and Campania, on the Italian mainland, where it is...
and Venetian
Venetian language
Venetian or Venetan is a Romance language spoken as a native language by over two million people, mostly in the Veneto region of Italy, where of five million inhabitants almost all can understand it. It is sometimes spoken and often well understood outside Veneto, in Trentino, Friuli, Venezia...
varieties were also used in Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
.http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/indo-european/europe/judeo-italian-corfiote/?searchterm=Judeo-Italian
Characteristics
All the spoken varieties used a unique (among Jewish languagesJewish languages
Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities around the world.Although Hebrew was the daily speech of the Jewish people for centuries, by the fifth century BCE, the closely related Aramaic joined Hebrew as the spoken language in Judea and by the third...
, although there are arguably parallels in Jewish English usage) combination of Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
verb stems with Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
conjugations (e.g., "אכלר akhlare", to eat; "גנביר gannaviare", to steal; "דברר dabberare", to speak; "לכטיר lekhtire", to go). Similarly there are abstract nouns such as "טובזה tovezza", goodness.
Also common are lexical incorporations from Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, particularly those applicable to daily life. Terms from other Jewish languages such as Yiddish
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
and Ladino were also incorporated.
Bagitto, the dialect of Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
(Leghorn), is particularly rich in loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s from Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Portuguese
Judeo-Portuguese
Judaeo-Portuguese, Lusitanic, or "Lusitanico" in Judaeo-Portuguese is the generally extinct Jewish language of the Jews of Portugal.-Description:...
.
It was claimed by Cassuto that most Judeo-Italian dialects reflect the Italian dialect of places further to the south, as since the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom of Naples the general direction of Jewish migration in Italy has been northward.
Number of speakers
Fewer than 4000 people today have basic knowledge of Italkian, and of these, only a small number are able to speak the language fluently.Library of Congress/ISO information
"Italkian" is not used by the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as a subject heading, neither does it figure as a reference to Judeo-Italian. The authorized subject heading is "Judeo-Italian language". Subheadings are:
- Judeo-Italian language: Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
- Judeo-Italian language: Grammar.
- Judeo-Italian language: Italy Livorno Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
- Judeo-Italian language: Texts.
The subject reference is: Judeo-Italian dialect. LC-MARC uses the following language codes :
Judeo-Italian Assigned collective code [ita] (Italian).
This is in compliance with the International Organization for Standardization
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
language code ISO 639-2 code (roa).
See also
- Italian Jews
- Judæo-Latin
- Judæo-Romance languages