Judeo-Portuguese

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judeo-Portuguese
Judeu-Português
Spoken in: Netherlands, England, North America
Total speakers: less than 2,000 users in a very limited liturgical context


unknown numbers elsewhere,

Language family: Indo-European
 Italic
  Romance
   Italo-Western
    Western
     Gallo-Iberian
      Ibero-Romance
       West Iberian
        Portuguese-Galician
         Judeo-Portuguese 
Writing system: Latin alphabet (Portuguese variant) Hebrew alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2:
ISO 639-3:

Judeo-Portuguese or Lusitanic is the generally extinct Jewish language of the Jews of Portugal.

Contents

[edit] Description

The Judeo-Portuguese language was vernacular to the Jews in Portugal before the sixteenth century and also in many places of the Judeus da Nação Portuguesa diaspora. Texts were written in Hebrew letters (aljamiado português) or in Latin script.

As Portuguese Jews intermixed with other expelled Sephardim, it influenced the Judeo-Spanish or Ladino language, but was distinct from it, since the Portuguese Jewry was never expelled, but rather forced to convert to Christianity, through a mass baptism decreed by King Manuel I in 1497. Many of New Christians, also known as conversos or marranos, continued to observe Judaism in secret. When the Inquisition was established in Portugal in 1536, a migratory movement to France, Netherlands, and later to England and the New World began.

Due to close similarity of Portuguese, Judeo-Portuguese died out in Portugal, surviving in the every-day usage in the diaspora until the early 19th century. It also influenced Papiamento and Saramaccan.

[edit] Characteristics

[edit] Hebraisms

Judeo-Portuguese Hebrew English meaning
cados kodesh holy
esnoga - (of Greek origin) synagogue
jessiba yeshiva Religious School
massó matzah ritual bread
misvá mitzvah commandments
ros rosh head
rassim rashim heads
rossaná rosh hashanah Jewish New Year
sabá Shabbat Saturday
sedacá tzedakah charity
queilá qehila congregation
quidus kiddush blessing over the wine
tebá tevah central platform in the synagogue

[edit] Influences from Ladino

Judeo-Portuguese Portuguese Ladino English meaning
ay hay there is
Dio Deus (arch. Deo) Dio God
manim mãos manos hands

[edit] Portuguese archaisms

Judeo-Portuguese Modern Portuguese English meaning
algũa alguma any
angora agora now
apartar separar to separate
aynda ainda yet
dous dois two
he é is
hũa uma a, an

[edit] See also

[edit] References