Judeo-Arabic
Template:Short description Template:Expand French
{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other Template:Contains special characters
Judeo-Arabic (Template:Langx; Template:Langx Template:Pronunciation; Template:Langx Template:Pronunciation) is Arabic, in its formal and vernacular varieties, as it has been used by Jews, and refers to both written forms and spoken dialects.<ref name="Kahn-2017">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Shohat-2017" /> Although Jewish use of Arabic, which predates Islam, has been in some ways distinct from its use by other religious communities, it is not a uniform linguistic entity.<ref name="Kahn-2017" />
Varieties of Arabic formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arab world have been, in modern times, classified as distinct ethnolects.<ref name="Shohat-2017" /> Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encompassing four languages: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju), Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye), Judeo-Egyptian Arabic (yhd), and Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Shohat-2017" />
Judeo-Arabic, particularly in its later forms, contains distinctive features and elements of Hebrew and Aramaic.<ref name="Hary-2012">Template:Citation</ref>Template:Rp<ref name="Hary-2018">Template:Citation</ref>Template:Rp
Many significant Jewish works, including a number of religious writings by Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and Judah Halevi, were originally written in Judeo-Arabic, as this was the primary vernacular language of their authors.
HistoryEdit
Template:Further Jewish use of Arabic in Arabia predates Islam.<ref name="Kahn-2017" /> There is evidence of a Jewish Arabic dialect, similar to general Arabic but including some Hebrew and Aramaic lexemes, called al-Yahūdiyya, predating Islam. Some of these Hebrew and Aramaic words may have passed into general usage, particularly in religion and culture, though this pre-Islamic Judeo-Arabic was not the basis of a literature.<ref name="Hary-2018" />Template:Rp
There were Jewish Pre-Islamic Arabic poets, such as al-Samawʾal ibn ʿĀdiyā, though surviving written records of such Jewish poets do not indicate anything that distinguishes their use of Arabic from non-Jewish use of it, and their work according to Geoffrey Khan is generally not referred to as Judeo-Arabic.<ref name="Kahn-2017" /> This work is similar to and tends to follow Classical Arabic, and Benjamin Hary, who calls it Classical Judeo-Arabic, notes it still includes some dialectal features, such as in Saadia Gaon's translation of the Pentateuch. This period includes a wide array of literary works.<ref name="Hary-2018" />Template:Rp Scholars assume that Jewish communities in Arabia spoke Arabic as their vernacular language, and some write that there is evidence of the presence of Hebrew and Aramaic words in their speech, as such words appear in the Quran and might have come from contact with these Arabic-speaking Jewish communities.<ref name="Kahn-2017" />
Before the spread of Islam, Jewish communities in Mesopotamia and Syria spoke Aramaic, while those to the West spoke Romance and Berber.<ref name="Kahn-2017" /> With the Early Muslim conquests, areas including Mesopotamia and the eastern and southern Mediterranean underwent Arabization, most rapidly in urban centers.<ref name="Kahn-2017" /> Some isolated Jewish communities continued to speak Aramaic until the 10th century, and some communities never adopted Arabic as a vernacular language at all.<ref name="Kahn-2017" /> Although urban Jewish communities were using Arabic as their spoken language, Jews kept Hebrew and Aramaic, traditional rabbinic languages, as their languages of writing during the first three centuries of Muslim rule, perhaps due to the presence of the Sura and Pumbedita yeshivas in rural areas where people spoke Aramaic.<ref name="Kahn-2017" />
Jews in Arabic, Muslim majority countries wrote—sometimes in their dialects, sometimes in a more classical style—in a mildly adapted Hebrew alphabet rather than using the Arabic script, often including consonant dots from the Arabic alphabet to accommodate phonemes that did not exist in the Hebrew alphabet.
By around 800 CE, most Jews within the Islamic Empire (90% of the world's Jews at the time) were native speakers of Arabic like the populations around them. This led to the development of early Judeo-Arabic.<ref name="Jewish Languages">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The language quickly became the central language of Jewish scholarship and communication, enabling Jews to participate in the greater epicenter of learning at the time, which meant that they could be active participants in secular scholarship and civilization. The widespread usage of Arabic not only unified the Jewish community located throughout the Islamic Empire but also facilitated greater communication with other ethnic and religious groups, which led to manuscripts like the Toledot Yeshu, being written or published in Arabic or Judeo-Arabic.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> By the 10th century Judeo-Arabic would transition from Early to Classical Judeo-Arabic.
.jpg){kind=link}
In al-Andalus, Jewish poets associated with the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain, such as Judah Halevi, composed poetry with Arabic. The muwaššaḥ, an Andalusi genre of strophic poetry, typically included kharjas, or closing lines often in a different language. About half of the corpus of the more than 250 known muwaššaḥāt in Hebrew have kharjas in Arabic, compared to roughly 50 with Hebrew kharjas, and about 25 with Romance.<ref name="Menocal-2012">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp There are also a few kharjas with a combination of Hebrew and Arabic.<ref name="Menocal-2012" />Template:Rp
During the 15th century, as Jews, especially in North Africa, gradually began to identify less with Arabs, Judeo-Arabic would undergo significant changes and become Later Judeo-Arabic.<ref name="Jewish Languages" /> This coincided with increased isolation of Jewish communities and involved greater influence of Hebrew and Aramaic features.<ref name="Hary-2018" />Template:Rp
Some of the most important books of medieval Jewish thought were originally written in medieval Judeo-Arabic, as were certain halakhic works and biblical commentaries. Later they were translated into medieval Hebrew so that they could be read by contemporaries elsewhere in the Jewish world, and by others who were literate in Hebrew. These include:
- Saadia Gaon's translations of the Pentateuch,<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Emunoth ve-Deoth (originally {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), his tafsir (biblical commentary and translation) and siddur (explanatory content, not the prayers themselves)
- David ibn Merwan al-Mukkamas
- Solomon ibn Gabirol's Tikkun Middot ha-Nefesh
- Bahya ibn Paquda's Kitab al-Hidāya ilā Fara'id al-Qulūb, translated by Judah ben Saul ibn Tibbon as Chovot HaLevavot
- Judah Halevi's Kuzari
- Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah, Sefer Hamitzvot, The Guide for the Perplexed, and many of his letters and shorter essays.
.jpg){kind=link}
Sharch (šarḥ, pl. šurūḥ, šarḥanim) is a literary genre consisting of the translation of sacred texts, such as Bible translations into Arabic, the Talmud or siddurim, which were composed in Hebrew and Aramaic, into Judeo-Arabic, prevalent starting in the 15th century, and exhibiting a number of mixed elements.<ref name="Hary-2012" /> The term sharḥ sometimes came to mean "Judeo-Arabic" in the same way that "Targum" was sometimes used to mean the Aramaic language.Template:Cn The texts of the sharh are based on and dependent on Hebrew.<ref name="Hary-2012" />
Present dayEdit
The significant emigration of Judeo-Arabic speakers in the 1940s and 1950s to Israel, France, and North America has led to endangerment or near-extinction of the ethnolects.<ref name="Hary-2003" />Template:Rp Judeo-Arabic was viewed negatively in Israel as all Arabic was viewed as an "enemy language".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Their distinct Arabic dialects in turn did not thrive, and most of their descendants now speak French or Modern Hebrew almost exclusively; thus resulting in the entire group of Judeo-Arabic dialects being considered endangered languages.<ref name="Hary-2018" />Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Hary-2003">Template:Cite journal</ref> There remain small populations of speakers in Morocco,<ref name="Hary-2003" /> Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Yemen, the United States,Template:Cn and Israel.<ref name="Hary-2003" />
HistoriographyEdit
Cultural critic Ella Shohat notes that Jewish speakers of Arabic did not refer to their language as 'Judeo-Arabic' but simply as 'Arabic'.<ref name="Shohat-2017">Template:Cite journal</ref> In the period of 'massive dislocation' from the late 1940s through the 1960s, Jewish speakers of Arabic in diaspora and their descendants gradually adopted the term 'Judeo-Arabic' and its equivalents in French and Hebrew.<ref name="Shohat-2017" />
The 19th century rediscovery of the Cairo Geniza gave the study of Judeo-Arabic prominence within Judaic Studies, leading to publications such as Shelomo Dov Goitein's series A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza.<ref name="Shohat-2017" />
Shohat identifies linguist Yehoshua Blau as a key figure in the development of the notion of Judeo-Arabic, within what she describes as a Zionist linguistic project invested in prioritizing the uniqueness and separateness of isolatable 'Jewish languages'.<ref name="Shohat-2017" /> Shohat cites the first issue of the Israeli journal Pe'amim, which featured a "Scholars' Forum" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) on "The Jewish Languages – the Common, the Unique and the Problematic" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}})<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> with articles from Chaim Menachem Rabin "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ('What Distinguishes the Jewish Languages')<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and Yehoshua Blau "{{#invoke:Lang|lang}}" ('Classical Judeo-Arabic').<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> This project explicitly sought to describe the Arabic of Jews as a distinct, Jewish language, equating it with Yiddish.<ref name="Shohat-2017" /> According to Esther-Miriam Wagner, the case of Judeo-Arabic reified a Zionist 'Arab vs. Jew' dichotomy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
CharacteristicsEdit
The Arabic spoken by Jewish communities in the Arab world differed from the Arabic of their non-Jewish neighbors. Particularly in its later forms, Judeo-Arabic contains distinctive features and elements of Hebrew and Aramaic, such as grammar, vocabulary, orthography, and style.<ref name="Hary-2012"/><ref name="Hary-2018"/>
For example, most Jews in Egypt lived in Cairo and Alexandria and they shared a common dialect.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Baghdad Jewish Arabic is reminiscent of the dialect of Mosul. For example, "I said" is {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in the speech of Baghdadi Jews and Christians, as well as in Mosul and Syria, as against Muslim Baghdadi {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Some Judeo-Arabic writers, such as Maimonides, were able to switch between varieties of Judeo-Arabic and the Standard Arabic dialect.<ref name="Hary-2003" />Template:Rp
Like other Jewish languages and dialects, Judeo-Arabic languages contain borrowings from Hebrew and Aramaic. This feature is less marked in translations of the Bible, as the authors clearly took the view that the business of a translator is to translate.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
DialectsEdit
- Judeo-Algerian
- Judeo-Egyptian
- Judeo-Moroccan
- Judeo-Tripolitanian
- Judeo-Tunisian
- Judeo-Yemeni
- Judeo-Syrian
- Judeo-Lebanese
- Modern Palestinian Judeo-Arabic
- Judeo-Iraqi
MediaEdit
Most literature in Judeo-Arabic is of a Jewish nature and is intended for readership by Jewish audiences. There was also widespread translation of Jewish texts from languages like Yiddish and Ladino into Judeo-Arabic, and translation of liturgical texts from Aramaic and Hebrew into Judeo-Arabic.<ref name="Jewish Languages" /> There is also Judeo-Arabic videos on YouTube.<ref name="Jewish Languages" />
A collection of over 400,000 of Judeo-Arabic documents from the 6th-19th centuries was found in the Cairo Geniza.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The movie Farewell Baghdad would be released in 2013 entirely in Judeo-Iraqi Arabic<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
OrthographyEdit
Judeo-Arabic orthography uses a modified version of the Hebrew alphabet called the Judeo-Arabic script. It is written from right to left horizontally like the Hebrew script and also like the Hebrew script some letters contain final versions, used only when that letter is at the end of a word.<ref name="www.omniglot.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It also uses the letters alef and waw or yodh to mark long or short vowels respectively.<ref name="www.omniglot.com" /> The order of the letters varies between alphabets.
Sample textEdit
| Judeo-Iraqi Arabic<ref name="www.omniglot.com" /> | Transliteration<ref name="www.omniglot.com" /> | English<ref name="www.omniglot.com" /> |
|---|---|---|
| Template:Rtl-para | Yā abānā illedī fī al-samwāti, yaṯaqaddasu asmuka, ṯāṯī malakūṯuka, ṯakūnu mašyatuka kamā fī al-samā waʕalay al-ārṣi, ḥubzanāʔ al-ladī liluʕadi aʕṭinā al-yawma. Wāǧfir lanā mā ʕalaynū kamā naǧfiru naḥnu liman lanā ʕalayhi, walā ṯudḥilnāʔ al-ṯṯagāriba, lakin nagginā mina al-šširīri, lanna laka lamluka wālquqata wālmagida alay al-abdi. | Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory for ever and ever. |
See alsoEdit
- Arabic language in Israel
- Judeo-Berber language
- Judeo-Iraqi Arabic
- Baghdad Jewish Arabic
- Judeo-Moroccan Arabic
- Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
- Judeo-Yemeni Arabic
- Judeo-Syrian Arabic
- Judeo-Algerian Arabic
- Letter of the Karaite elders of Ascalon
- Arab Jews
- Haketia
- Garshuni
EndnotesEdit
BibliographyEdit
- Blanc, Haim, Communal Dialects in Baghdad: Harvard 1964
- Blau, Joshua, The Emergence and Linguistic Background of Judaeo-Arabic: OUP, last edition 1999
- Blau, Joshua, A Grammar of Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic: Jerusalem 1980 (in Hebrew)
- Blau, Joshua, Studies in Middle Arabic and its Judaeo-Arabic variety: Jerusalem 1988 (in English)
- Blau, Joshua, Dictionary of Mediaeval Judaeo-Arabic Texts: Jerusalem 2006
- Mansour, Jacob, The Jewish Baghdadi Dialect: Studies and Texts in the Judaeo-Arabic Dialect of Baghdad: Or Yehuda 1991
- Heath, Jeffrey, Jewish and Muslim dialects of Moroccan Arabic (Routledge Curzon Arabic linguistics series): London, New York, 2002.
External linksEdit
- Alan Corré's Judeo-Arabic Literature site, via the Internet Archive
- Judeo-Arabic Literature
- Reka Kol Yisrael, a radio station broadcasting a daily program in Judeo-Moroccan Arabic
- Jewish Language Research Website Template:Webarchive (description and bibliography)
- Tafsir Rasag, a translation of the Torah into literary Judeo-Arabic, at Sefaria
Template:Jewish languages Template:Arabic language Template:Varieties of Arabic Template:Languages of Sicily Template:Authority control