- Shuadit language
Infobox Language
name=Shuadit
nativename=שואדית
states=formerly southernFrance
region=Europe
extinct=1977 , on the death ofArmand Lunel
familycolor=Indo-European
fam2=Italic
fam3=Romance
fam4=Italo-Western
fam5=Western
fam6=Gallo-Iberian
fam7=Ibero-Romance
fam8=Oc
iso1=oc|iso2=oci|iso3=sdtShuadit, also spelled Chouhadite, Chouhadit, Chouadite, Chouadit, and Shuhadit is the extinct
Jewish language of southernFrance , also known as Judæo-Provençal , Judéo-Comtadin, Hébraïco-Comtadin. The language is known from documents dating to as early as the11th century inFrance , and after suffering drastic declines beginning with the charter of theInquisition in France, finally died out with the death of its last known speaker,Armand Lunel , in1977 .Early history
The exact development and age of Shuadit is unclear to historians.
Latin , as the language ofcommerce and administration of theRoman Empire , spread to the region following the conquest of Transalpine Gaul byJulius Caesar , completed by 50 BC. There is, however, little evidence of whether Shuadit developed through the adoption and alteration of Latin by the local Jewish community, or whether it is a descendant of the much earlierJudæo-Latin language. Another possibility is that the language developed as a result of the influence of the exegetical school atNarbonne . ("For further discussion, refer to Blondheim and Banitt in References below. See also the Judæo-French article atZarphatic .")Varieties
Shuadit writings consist of two distinct varieties: religious texts and popular prose. As with most
Jewish languages , both forms were written exclusively using modifications of theHebrew alphabet .Religious texts contain a significantly higher incidence of Hebrew
loanword s, and reflect an overall more "educated" style, containing many words fromOld French ,Provençal , Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic andLatin . These texts include a fragment of a14th century poem lauding Queen Esther, as well as a woman'ssiddur . This siddur contains an uncommon blessing, found in few other locations (including medieval Lithuania), thanking God, in the morning blessings, not for making her "according to His will" (she-asani kirtzono), but for making her as a woman. Even today, among the more "liberal" branches ofAshkenazi Judaism (Reform Judaism andReconstructionist Judaism ), this blessing is often worded as "she-asani betzalmo" ("who has made me in His image"), rather than "she-asani isha" ("who has made me a woman").The extant texts comprising the collections of popular prose contain far fewer non-Provençal borrowings, and are essentially Provençal written using the Hebrew alphabet, possibly indicating a Jewish preference, prevalent at the time, for not using the
Roman alphabet , regarded widely as synonymous with the oppressiveChristian régimes. These texts demonstrate the extent to which the Jewish community of Provence was thoroughly familiar with Hebrew, as well as the extent to which the community was thoroughly integrated into the larger surrounding Christian culture of the region.Phonology
Shuadit displays a number of phonological characteristics that make it unique among
Jewish languages . The name "Shuadit" literally means "Jewish", and is the Shuadit pronunciation of the Hebrew word "Yehudit". This is because initial /j/ becomes IPA|/ʃ/, and /h/ is often elided between vowels, so Yehudit -> Shehudit -> Sheudit -> Shuadit (through a later vowel system change).In words inherited from Hebrew and Aramaic, the letters "samekh", "sin" and "thav" are all pronounced IPA|/f/, the same as "fe". The conjecture is that the two former IPA|/s/ phonemes merged with the IPA|/θ/ phoneme, and then merged with the phoneme IPA|/f/. This observation gives particular validity to the theory that Shuadit is an outgrowth of a much older
Judæo-Latin language, rather than an independent development within southernFrance , since the second step also occurred during the development of Latin fromProto-Italic .In words derived from Latin, there is a tendency to
diphthong ize IPA|/l/ followingplosive s, and to de-lateralize IPA|/ʎ/ to IPA|/j/. Additionally, the phonemes IPA|/ʒ/ and IPA|/ʃ/, as well as IPA|/dʒ/ and IPA|/tʃ/, are reduced to the single phoneme IPA|/ʃ/. Thus, the Provençal words "plus", "filho" and "juge", are rendered as "pyus", "feyo" and "šuše", respectively, in Shuadit.Evidence
A fundamental source for inferring information about the
phonology of Shuadit is the comedy "Harcanot et Barcanot ". ("See Pansier in the References section of this article.")The earliest evidence of Shuadit as a distinguishable spoken language is probably in the comic poem, "
Lou Sermoun di Jusiou " ("The Jew's Sermon"), likely written in thesixteenth century . Given its content, this poem was likely composed by a non-Jew. Numerous parodies of Jewish speech appear also in recordings ofChristmas carol s.The Emperor
Dom Pedro II of Brazil recorded a number of bilingual Hebrew-Shuadit religiouspoem s Fact|date=April 2008.Decline
In
1498 , the Jews were formally expelled from southernFrance . Although the community was not finally compelled to depart until1501 , much of the community had by then become dispersed into other regions, notablyGenoa and the "less-civilized" regions ofGermany . However, theComtat-Venaissin was then under the direct control of thePope , and a small Jewish community continued to live there in relative isolation. From the time of theFrench Revolution , when Jews were permitted to live legally anywhere in France as full citizens, the status of Shuadit began to decline rapidly. The extinction of the language was noted in1977 , upon the death of its last known native speaker,Armand Lunel .External links
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=sdt Ethnologue report for Shuadit]
References
*Banitt, M. 1963. Une langue fantôme: le judéo-français. Revue de linguistique romane 27: 245-294.
*Blondheim, D. S. 1928. Notes étymologiques et lexicographiques. Mélanges de linguistique et de littérature offerts à M. Alfred Jeanroy par ses élèves et ses amis. Paris: Champion. 71-80.
*Pansier, P. 1925. Une comédie en argot hébraïco-provençal de la fin du XVIIIe siècle. Revue des études juives 81: 113-145.
* [http://www.jewish-languages.org/judeo-provencal.html Jewish Language Research website's page on Judæo-Provençal]
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/languages.htm omniglot.com]
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