Academic literature on the topic 'Judeo-Arabic language'

Abstract The Tagged Algerian Judeo-Arabic (TAJA) corpus is the first linguistically annotated corpus of any Judeo-Arabic dialect regardless of geography and period. The corpus is a genre-diverse collection of written Modern Algerian Judeo-Arabic texts, encompassing translations of the Bible and of liturgical texts, commentaries and original Judeo-Arabic books and journals. The TAJA corpus was manually annotated with parts-of-speech (POS) tags and detailed morphology tags. The goal of the new corpus is twofold. First, it preserves this endangered Judeo-Arabic language, expanding on previous fieldwork and going beyond the study of individual written texts. The corpus has already enabled us to make strides towards a grammar of written Algerian Judeo-Arabic. Second, this tagged corpus serves as a foundation for the development of Judeo-Arabic-specific Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools, which allow automatic POS tagging and morphological annotation of large collections of yet untapped texts in Algerian Judeo-Arabic and other Judeo-Arabic varieties.

Abstract The article deals with the evolution of Middle Judeo-Arabic in North Africa. The study examines the linguistic processes and the hybridized uses of Judeo-Arabic in a theoretical framework oriented toward the main sociopragmatic features of Jewish languages. These include diglossic functioning, endolectal appropriation of a non-Jewish language, hybridization of grammatical and lexical structures, and discursive and textual diversity. Middle Judeo-Arabic is considered here in three different periods of its formation and use in North Africa. The first period, the classic period, lasted from the tenth to the thirteenth century. It generated religious, philosophical, literary, and epistolary texts that are documented by the archives of the Cairo Genizah and by the seminal works of famous scholars. The second period began after the settlement of the Megorashim in urban centers of North Africa at the end of the fifteenth century and lasted until the nineteenth century. During this period, Jewish poets turned their attention to some remnants of Middle Judeo-Arabic texts, mostly paraliturgical, to heighten the language of their Judeo-Arabic poems. The third period was characterized by a new kind of literary Judeo-Arabic used by journalists and writers in Tunis at the end of the nineteenth century.

Abstract The main aim of this study is to introduce a model of TEI (Text Encoding Initiative) annotation of Hebrew elements in Judeo-Arabic texts, i.e., code switching (CS), borrowing, and Hebrew quotations. This article will provide an introduction to using XML (Extensible Markup Language) to investigate sociolinguistic aspects in medieval Judeo-Arabic texts. Accordingly, it will suggest to what extent using XML is useful for investigating linguistic and sociolinguistic features in the Judeo-Arabic paradigm. To provide an example for how XML annotation could be applied to Judeo-Arabic texts, a corpus of 300 pages selected from three Judeo-Arabic books has been manually annotated using the TEI P5. The annotation covers all instances of CS, borrowing, and Hebrew quotations in that corpus.

Saadia Gaon’s (882-942) Tafsir is considered to be a turning point in the history of not only Judeo-Arabic written production, but also medieval Judeo-Arabic culture. Through his translation of the bible into Arabic written in Hebrew characters, Saadia made this text and other works of philosophy, biblical interpretation, synagogue liturgy, and linguistics accessible to a wider audience and standardized a mode of communication among Jews throughout the medieval Islamic world. This paper compares twelfth-century Cairo Geniza fragments of Saadia’s Tafsir and Siddur, analyzing the visual interplay of Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic in these sources. Changes in color, hand, damage, marginal notes, and presence or absence of writing on the verso side of the fragment shed light on the application of Saadia’s work by Jews in the medieval Mediterranean. I ultimately conclude that while production of anti-Karaite polemic may have partially motivated Saadia to write in Judeo-Arabic, the desire to standardize a uniformly understood language rooted in Classical Arabic orthography more comprehensively explains the revolutionary effect of Saadia’s work and its immediate tenth-century adaptations outside the Rabbanite Jewish community.

Although small budgets have recently been allocated to governmentally controlled “Authorities” for Yiddish and Ladino, both of these languages (as well as Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian) suffer from a serious lack of well-prioritized efforts in accord with their specific language-planning needs. The ultra-orthodox Yiddish-speaking community is the only one among all of the “Jewish languages other than Hebrew” which has both a continually growing number of young speakers as well as demographically concentrated residential areas with neighborhood institutions (schools, synagogues) utilizing their own vernacular. The secular Yiddish sector is much richer in modern language-related institutional infrastructure and intelligentsia but is almost in total disarray insofar as demographic concentration of young speakers, schools with adequate instructional time and young institutional leadership are concerned. Ladino is even worse off, with respect to speakers and infrastructure, but has recently moved ahead noticeably due to prominent younger leaders with a rich agenda of important goals and projects. Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian both suffer from a dire lack of language-focused intellectuals as well as the absence of a dominant spoken or written variety and are still regarded by their own speakers as dialects lacking in autonomy. None of the latter three languages/varieties has either a periodical press or book-production and the last two lack even courses, teachers or pedagogic materials appropriate for young students. The current insufficiency of funds and less-than-informed efforts on behalf of governmental authorities may lead to the early demise of most “other Jewish languages than Hebrew” in Israel, with the distinct exception of Yiddish in ultra-Orthodox circles.

Abstract This article addresses lexical features of the speech of native-born Hebrew-speaking Israelis from the geographic and socioeconomic periphery (i.e., moshavim, cities, and development towns in the north and south of Israel). Study of their language shows that their Hebrew incorporates a fair number of Judeo-Arabic words belonging to meaningful categories, such as foods, customs, beliefs, holidays, and nicknames, among others. These words are distinctively different from the Arabic words interpolated in Modern Israeli Hebrew, which derive from the local Arabic dialect. The findings demonstrate the existence of a Hebrew sociolect grounded in Judeo-Arabic and typical of a specific sociogeographic sector.

Abstract This paper presents several rather unexpected manuscripts that have been discovered in the Firkovitch collections. These collections, which are preserved in the National Library of Russia, are best known for Hebrew, Karaite, Samaritan, and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts, and have attracted the interest of specialists in Middle-Eastern languages and cultures. It is generally not known that they also contain manuscripts written in a western language. In the course of my research on the collections, however, I have come across approximately twenty manuscripts in Judeo-Spanish.

Abstract This article complements my article on “Single-Script Mixed-Code Literary Sources from the Cairo Genizah” (2018). It begins with introductory comments on the phenomenon of mixed code in Judeo-Arabic, as a continuously spoken and written Jewish language from medieval to modern times. While the documentary sources in the Cairo Genizah (a Jewish medieval archive found in the loft of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo) have drawn scholars’ attention to this phenomenon, there are few discussions of code switching in dual script Judeo-Arabic literary sources. The article presents and discusses two Genizah sources of this kind (as well as one new documentary source), which feature both Hebrew and Arabic scripts in the space of the same fragment. It argues that the haphazard appearance of code switching in such fragments is misleading. The analysis shows there are specific conditions that govern the mixing of Hebrew and Arabic scripts, and highlights its sociolinguistic background. Code switching is a dominant feature of single script Judeo-Arabic literary sources as well, meaning, those penned solely in Hebrew or Arabic script, which lie beyond the scope of the present study. A systematic survey and study of the Genizah literary sources relevant to both categories (single and dual scripts) is therefore a desideratum, and is bound to lead to a better understanding of the sociolinguistic functions of mixed code in Judeo-Arabic writings and culture.

This paper surveys the Judeo Arabic manuscripts of the Abraham Firkovich Collection of the National Library of Russia. The published catalogue was composed by Victor Vladimirovich Lebedev. His work later has been clarified later. This paper particularly draws attention to the Judeo Arabic fragments of the Qur’an, texts on philosophy, Sufism, and folk literature. Particular emphasis in this regard is given to some fragments of the anonymous and unique sources.

The last few decades have witnessed extensive studies of and debates about modern Judeo-Arabic dialectics, especially in the larger cities in the Maghreb, where the spoken language has received particular interest. This article provides an overview of the linguistic features shared by several dialects—Moroccan, Tripolitanian, Algerian, Judeo-Berber and Tunisian—as well the issues they raise and their individual characteristics.

Aquesta tesi presenta l'edició i l'estudi filològic del còdex 122 de l'arxiu del Regne de Mallorca (ARM). El manuscrit és un llibre de comptes o pinqàs d'un jueu prestamista mallorquí de la segona meitat del segle XIV. Es tracta del registre personal d'aquest jueu on hi ha anotats préstecs realitzats majorment a cristians tot i que s'hi registren també préstecs a jueus i a moros. Consta de 137 folis dels quals 180 planes contenen alguna anotació. La llengua del manuscrit és el judeoàrab tot i que els noms de lloc, de persona, els mesos de l'any, mesures i algunes festivitats cristianes apareixen en català i part del lèxic en hebreu. Les dates de les anotacions corresponen al calendari gregorià i els préstecs registrats van des de l'any 1360 fins l'any 1391. Pel que fa a la paleografia l'escriptura emprada és la cursiva sefardí i hi apareixen afegitons de dos escrivans més. La tesi està dividida en dues seccions principals. La primera secció inclou: a) l'estudi i la descripció codicològica i paleogràfica del manuscrit, b) un estudi lingüístic de les tres llengües que hi apareixen (l'hebreu, el català i el judeoàrab), c) una anàlisi del contingut que inclou l'edició d'unes cèdules i un estudi dels préstecs, d) un apartat sobre la metrologia i e) un estudi de l'onomàstica. La segona secció conté l'edició facsímil del manuscrit, la transcripció paleogràfica, els índexs onomàstics i la bibliografia. En un estudi paral•lel al del manuscrit es publiquen unes cèdules en judeoàrab custodiades també a l'ARM i que són contractes d'obligació o de "comanda" de quatre dels préstecs anotats al còdex. El prestamista autor del manuscrit és el mateix, el jueu en Magalluf Mili i els notaris que van custodiar aquestes cèdules foren en Jordi Nadal i en Julià Font Cuberta. En el còdex hi apareixen préstecs realitzats sota la supervisió de 31 notaris cristians tot i que molts són realitzats en obligació al Veguer de la Cort, al Governador o en obligació a la ciutat on són duts a terme. Els prestamistes són 3, en Magalluf Mili, el rabí Se'adià Mili i la dona Havà. Aquests préstecs van ser realitzats a 28 poblacions mallorquines. Aquest treball de tesi presenta una relació de totes les operacions de préstec contingudes al manuscrit i un estudi comparatiu per poblacions. D'aquest es desprèn que més de tres quartes parts del total dels préstecs foren duts a terme a Ciutat de Mallorca on s'hi registren préstecs referents a cabassos de farina, préstecs realitzats a la Llotja del comerç i garanties. De les anotacions s'ha pogut deduir que l'interès que s'aplicava era variable i oscil•lava entre el 10 i el 20%. Pel que fa a l'estudi onomàstic es presenten les principals fonts documentals que havien servit fins ara de base per a l'estudi de l'antroponímia mallorquina del segle XIV i es remarca la importància que representa per aquesta disciplina del cabal d'antropònims aportat pel còdex 122. Un total de 768 noms de cristians, 19 moros i 81 jueus conformen una llista que es presenta als índexs onomàstics amb referències al número de foli on són registrats. El període que reflecteix el manuscrit, la segona meitat del segle XIV, va ser un temps de revoltes que va representar gairebé el final de la comunitat jueva de Mallorca. L'any 1391 van arribar a l'illa els avalots que s'havien estès a les jueries peninsulars. Durant aquests avalots habitants de la part forana de l'illa van arribar a la capital per tal d'alliberar-se dels contractes d'obligació. Van assaltar la jueria i van matar més de 300 jueus. La major part dels supervivents van ser forçats a batejar-se i acceptar el cristianisme. Els nous conversos van ser obligats a declarar davant del Governador i aquesta declaració s'ha conservat en els Pregons de 1391 de l'arxiu de l'antiga Cúria General de Mallorca. Entre les declaracions se'n troben dues que fan referència a l'autor del manuscrit, en Magalluf Mili. Segons aquestes declaracions se suposa que aquest va morir durant els avalots de 1391 deixant vídua a na Vitala, la seva esposa.<br>This thesis presents the editing and philological study of the codex 122 of the Archive of the Kingdom of Majorca (ARM). The manuscript is a book of accounts or pinqás written by a Jewish Majorcan moneylender in the second half of the fourteenth century. This is the personal record of this Jew where noted loans made mostly to Christians although there are also loans to Jews and Moors. It consists of 137 folios including 180 pages contain some annotation. The language of the manuscript is Judaeo-Arabic although place names, anthroponyms, months of the year, the measures and some Christian festivals are in Catalan and lexicon in Hebrew. The dates registered correspond to the Gregorian calendar and the loans are recorded between 1360 and 1391. In regard to paleography writing is the Sephardic Cursive script and there are additions of two more scribes. The thesis is divided into two main sections. The first section includes: a) the study of the manuscript including a codicological and paleographic description, b) a linguistic study of the three languages that appear (Hebrew, Catalan, and Judaeo-Arabic), c) a content analysis that includes the publication and study of some warranty documents of loans, d) a section on metrology and e) a study of onomastics. The second section contains the facsimile edition of the manuscript, a paleographic transcription, the name indexes and bibliography. Published here are some warranty documents of loans in Judaeo-Arabic that are contracts of obligation or "command" of 4 loans registered in the codex. The lender is the author of the manuscript itself, the Jewish Magalluf Milli. In the codex are registered loans made under the supervision of 31 Christian notaries although many are made in obligation to the Veguer of the Court, the Governor or in obligation to the city in wich they are made. Lenders are 3, Magalluf Milli, Rabbi Seadiah Milli and a woman named Khavah. Loans are made in 28 villages of Mallorca. In the comparative study of the loans it follows that more than 75% were made in the City of Mallorca. From the annotations is also clear that the interest was variable and ranged between 10 and 20%. The codex presents a rich onomastic resource, greatly expanding our knowledge of anthroponomy of the era. The thesis adds this source to the index available from previously documented material. A total of 768 Christians, 19 Muslims and 81 Jews make up a list displayed in the index of names.

Modern Varieties of Judaeo-Arabic Author: Anna Morávková Abstract The thesis deals with modern variants of Judeo-Arabic. The theoretical part puts the Judeo-Arabic into a broader historical, social and linguistic context and emphasizes its significance with respect to the Arabic dialectology. The practical part compares the phonological and morphological features of the individual variants of Judeo-Arabic that occur in two dialectal areas (Mesopotamian and North Africa). It is aimed at pointing out the differences between these variants and also their divergence from the major Muslim dialects and, concerning Mesopotamia, also other communal dialects.

The sixth and concluding chapter outlines systematically how these six lines of striking similarity cohere to maintain and perpetuate a cohesive standard language ideology among the Hebrew grammarians (who wrote in Judeo-Arabic) and the Arabic grammarians of the ʿAbbasid period. An argument is also made that at least some of these similarities are not the merely due to a shared cultural framework but actually the result of direct influence of the Arabic grammatical tradition on the Hebrew grammatical tradition. Such findings have profound implications not only for how we conceive of the history of the study of Hebrew grammar and its institutionalisation, but for the interface between Hebrew/Jewish and Arabic/Muslim communities in the Middle Ages as well.

Judezmo, or Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, is the traditional language of the Sephardic or Iberian Jews who after 1492 resettled in the Ottoman Empire, many of them remaining in the region into the 21st century. Structurally, Modern Judezmo is composed mostly of elements of popular medieval Ibero-Romance, Ibero-Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic, Turkish and Balkan languages, and Italian and French. Into the first half of the 20th century, the language was written primarily in the Hebrew alphabet; from the second half of the 19th century, Romanization was also used, leading to the unique Romanization which predominates today. The language was not taught formally in the speech community until the 19th century; instead language study focused on Hebrew. In the late 1970s, popular social pressure led the Israeli government to acknowledge the important role played by Judezmo in the Sephardic Diaspora by introducing Judezmo courses in Israeli universities. The chapter focuses on the challenges of teaching Judezmo at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.