History of Judaism-- Ladino

[Adam Blatner]

Dear Michael, 
      Yiddish is a creole language of northern-European Jewry, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Ukraine, Some Germany and Austria..It is based about 69% on 16th century High German, 18% Hebrew, and a variable mixture of Slavic, French, and other languages. It was used by women and the general population aside from actual liturgy---classical Hebrew was used for prayers at home or in the synagogue, learning Hebrew to study Talmud in the kheder (elementary school) or Yeshiva (high school for the more scholarly and talented). Many--probably most---boys went off to work in their teens. Yiddish was written using the Hebrew alphabet in a phonetic fashion. 

      Ladino is like that, but derives from the common language spoken by the large population of Jews in Spain in the 14th and 15th century. In 1492, not only did Columbus sail the ocean blue, but Ferdinand and Isabella, rabid Catholics, expelled the Jews from Spain, forcing them to sell everything for near nothing, to find ships to carry them---mainly into various ports in the Ottoman Empire. Some were enslaved. It was a terrible tragedy. Yet communities were re-established in the emerging communities of Amsterdam, Turkey, Italy, Palestine, Algeria, and elsewhere. Many of these folks continued to speak in the 15th century dialect of Castilian Spain, with (as with Yiddish), an admixture of Hebrew and other local variants. So Ladino was for Southern Europe what Yiddish was for North-East-Central Europe. It, too, when written, used a Hebrew alphabet. 

    There were other variants like this---regional types of Arabic written again in Hebrew script by the communities living throughout the Arabic world. 
         
     Your great-grandfather? That would put him in the general era of what? Moreno in Vienna? In spite of the active Jewish community that was rising in the professions, etc., as in Romania, there was also a great deal of intense anti-semitism in all those countries. 
      Did your grandparents assimilate, convert, what's the story with you?  Warmly, Adam      
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Michael Wieser 
  To: list at grouptalkweb.org 
  Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 1:24 PM
  Subject: Re: Moreno History (sort of)


  Dear Adam and others,
  could someone explain to me the term "Ladino-speaking Jews".  My grand-grandfather spoke "Ladinisch" and moved from a northern part of Italy. Some told me that Sephardic Jews spoke the same but I still wonder if it is the same.
  Warmly
  Michael

  PS: J.L. moved around 1895 to Vienna.



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  Michael Wieser, Asst-Prof. Mag. Dr.
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