- Judeo-Latin
Judeo-Latin, or La‘az is the presumed
Jewish language of the many scatteredJew ish communities of the formerRoman Empire , but especially by the Jewish communities of theItalian Peninsula and Transalpine Gaul. "La`az" (לעז) is Hebrew for "foreign language" ("i.e.", specifically, "non-Hebrew language").It has been posited that Judeo-Latin is the predecessor of all the
Judeo-Romance languages , although strong phonological evidence for this link is found primarily inShuadit (Judeo-Provençal). This theory holds that Shuadit andZarphatic grew out of two variants of La‘az ha-Ma‘rav (western Judeo-Latin) and that Judeo-Italian grew out of La‘az ha-Darom (southern Judeo-Latin). The relationship toCatalanic , Ladino andJudæo-Portuguese is much more tenuous.Judeo-Latin likely influenced not only the Judeo-Romance languages, but also the
Yiddish language andRotwelsch , through its posited daughter languages, Italkian, Shuadit and Zarphatic.Related languages
The historical relationships between the various Judeo-Romance languages is subject to debate, and are only tenuously demonstrable at best. These languages include:
*Catalanic (Judeo-Catalan)
*Judeo-Italian (Italkian)
*Judeo-Aragonese
*Judeo-Portuguese
*Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)
*Shuadit (Judeo-Provençal)
*Zarphatic (Judeo-French)
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.