Judeo-Arabic dialects
Judeo-Arabic dialects (Judeo-Arabic: ערביה יהודיה, romanized: ‘Arabiya Yahūdiya; Arabic: عربية يهودية, romanized: ʿArabiya Yahūdiya ; Hebrew: ערבית יהודית, romanized: ‘Aravít Yehudít ) are ethnolects formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arab world.[2] 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).[3][4]
Judeo-Arabic
Jews from North Africa and the Fertile Crescent
240,000 (2022)[1]
-
Semitic
- West Semitic
- Central Semitic
- Arabic
- Judeo-Arabic
- Arabic
- Central Semitic
- West Semitic
jrb – inclusive code
Individual codes:yhd – Judeo-Egyptian Arabicaju – Judeo-Moroccan Arabicyud – Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabicjye – Judeo-Yemeni Arabic
None
Judeo-Arabic can also refer to Classical Arabic written in the Hebrew script, particularly in the Middle Ages.
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.
Characteristics[edit]
The Arabic spoken by Jewish communities in the Arab world differed slightly from the Arabic of their non-Jewish neighbours. These differences were partly due to the incorporation of some words from Hebrew and other languages and partly geographical, in a way that may reflect a history of migration. For example, the Judeo-Arabic of Egypt, including in the Cairo community, resembled the dialect of Alexandria rather than that of Cairo (Blau). Similarly, Baghdad Jewish Arabic is reminiscent of the dialect of Mosul.[5] Many Jews in Arab countries were bilingual in Judeo-Arabic and the local dialect of the Muslim majority.
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.[6]
Media[edit]
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.[7] There is also Judeo-Arabic videos on YouTube.[7]
A collection of over 400,000 of Judeo-Arabic documents from the 6th-19th centuries was found in the Cairo Geniza.[10]
The movie Farewell Baghdad would be released in 2013 entirely in Judeo-Iraqi Arabic[11]