The Ladino Language
by Isaac Wolf
Sometimes called "Spaniolish," Ladino is the Spanish-Jewish
dialect spoken by Sephardic Jews. Ladino's origins are similar to those of Yiddish, in that they
both combine Hebrew and local language(s). As the Ladino language developed during the 15th
and 16th centuries, it grew to include Arabic, Turkish, Greek, French
and Italian.
Ladino spread throughout the Mediterranean after Spain expelled it's Jews in 1492, and is currently spoken by about 160,000 Jews in Turkey,
the Balkans, North
Africa, Israel and the Americas. But because of the recent trend among Sephardic Jews
to adapt local languages in place of traditional ones, Ladino is now
in decline.
There are several subtle differences between Ladino and Spanish. In
Spanish, the name
for god is "Dios," which ends in "s," implicating
that there are several gods. But in Ladino, god is consistently called
"El Dio," or "the god." Similarly, instead of using
the Spanish term Domingo (which translates to "god's day")
for Sunday, Ladino employs "Alhat," an Arabic word meaning
one.
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