Speaking Ladino, or the older Castilian dialect, may indicate possible Jewish ancestry
Ladino, also sometimes known as Judeo-Spanish,
Sephardic, Crypto-Jewish, Judezmo, Hakitia, or Spanyol, had its origins in 1492,
when Jews were expelled from Spain. Over the centuries, the Spanish of the late
15th century as spoken by those Jews underwent changes as it was influenced by
the various languages of the countries to which the Sephardic Jews
emigrated.
Ladino meets the criteria of a distinct language,
and is not merely a dialect of Spanish. Yet it and Spanish are not so different
that speakers of the two can't communicate with each other. There are strong and
obvious similarities, just as there are, for example, between Spanish and
Portuguese.
The language of the
Sephardim
When the 150,000 to 300,000 Jews left Spain, they
took with them their languages. They took Hebrew, the language of prayer and
study, which was not used at home or in the streets. The language of daily use
was Castilian Spanish as it was spoken in the late 15th century. The language
that many Jewish exiles took with them as they left Spain in 1492 still
coincided with Castilian in many particulars, but had followed its own evolution
down from Judeo-Latin, combined with Hebrew, Aramaic, the various peninsula
dialects, and Judeo-Arabic over the centuries. In each of its new homes, it
acquired elements from the surrounding languages, while preserving its Iberian
core. It became a unique expression of Jewish traditions, lifestyle, culture,
institutions and beliefs.
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