Ladino language

Not to be confused with Ladin.

Ladino (also called Judeo-Spanish) is a Jewish Romance language that is very close to the Spanish language. It has many old Spanish words and Hebrew words.

Judaeo-Spanish
Ladino
גֿודֿיאו-איספאנייול Djudeo-Espagnol גֿידֿייו Djidio גֿודֿזמו Djudesmo איספאנייול Espagnol איספאנייוליקו Espagnolico חאקיטיאה Jaquetía לאדינו Ladino
Pronunciation	[dʒuˈðeo espaˈɲol]
Native to	Israel Turkey USA France Greece Brazil UK and others
Ethnicity	Sephardim
Native speakers	Between 70,000 and 200,000. Most recent estimates around 95,000. 72,000 in Israel, 7,000 in Turkey, 3,500 in the USA, 2,500 in France, around 1,000 each in Greece, Brazil and the UK. (2013)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Ibero-Romance West Iberian Castilian Judaeo-Spanish
Dialects	Haketia Variant - Morocco, Canada Levantine Variant - main variant, two branches Occidental branch - originally spoken in Albania, Romania, Western Bulgaria, Western Greece and Yugoslavia Oriental branch - originally spoken in Eastern Bulgaria, Eastern Greece, the Middle East, North Africa (except for Morocco) and Turkey. Ponentine Variant - extinct
Writing system	Mainly Latin script Original script Rashi and Solitreo Other scripts; Persian, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew.
Official status
Regulated by	Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino in Israel (using Latin letters)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	lad
ISO 639-3	lad
ELP	Ladino
Linguasphere	51-AAB-ba ... 51-AAB-bd

History

During the Middle Ages, many Jews lived in Spain. They were called Sephardic Jews or Sephardim (in Hebrew). Forced to leave Spain after the country was taken over by Christians, they brought the old Spanish with them to their new countries. Some Sephardic Jews still speak Ladino in Israel, Turkey, Bulgaria, the United States, and other countries.

Like many other Jewish languages, Ladino is an endangered language, is in danger of language death. It could become an extinct language. Most native speakers are old because many of them who emigrated to Israel and did not pass on the language to their children or grandchildren. In some Sephardic Jewish communities in Latin America and elsewhere, there is a threat of dialect levelling by the extinction by assimilation into modern Spanish.

Writing

Ladino is usually written by using the Latin alphabet but in Israel, it uses the Hebrew alphabet.

Ladin language

Ladino should not be confused with the Ladin language, which is related to the Swiss Romansh and Friulian languages and is mostly spoken in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region of Northern Italy.

Other websites

• Socolovsky, Jerome. "Lost Language of Ladino Revived in Spain", Morning Edition, National Public Radio, March 19, 2007.