Judeo-French language

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Information for Authority record

Name (Hebrew)
שפה צרפתית-יהודית
Name (Latin)
Judeo-French language
Name (Arabic)
اللغة اليهودية-الفرنسية
Other forms of name
Western Loez language
Zarphatic language
See Also From tracing topical name
French language
Jews Languages
See Also From tracing place name
France
Germany
MARC
MARC

Other Identifiers

Wikidata: Q36994
Library of congress: sh2009009021
Sources of Information
  • Work cat.: Levy, R. Trésor de la langue des juifs français au Moyen Âge, 1964.
  • Jewish virtual library website, Oct. 27, 2009(Judeo-French, the Old French spoken and written by medieval French and Rhenish Jewry. It should be stated from the outset that there probably never existed a Judeo-French dialect, with specific Jewish traits. The term applies only to Jewish activities in medieval France, which had French as their vehicle; the Jews preferred Hebrew characters, the Latin ones being too strongly identified with the Church. This transliteration had undergone its own evolution from the Latin period and obeyed its own orthographic rules.)
  • Jewish language research website, Oct. 27, 2009(Judeo-French. During the Middle Ages, the Jewish communities of Northern France - the territory of the langue d'oïl - developed an extensive Old French textual tradition written in Hebrew script, which is known as Judeo-French. Other designations for Judeo-French include Zarphatic (S.A. Birnbaum) and Western Loez (M. Weinreich). The Judeo-French texts are independent of Christian Old French literature both in their content and in their distinct writing system, which adapts the Hebrew script and the Tiberian system of pointing to the phonological characteristics of the Old French language. While some scholars regard Judeo-French as an Old French social dialect different from its Christian counterparts, or even as a separate Judeo-Romance language, most linguists seem to agree that the language of the Jews of Medieval France did not differ significantly from Old French. According to this view, the main particularity of Judeo-French lies in its distinct writing system)
  • WikiVerb website, Oct. 27, 2009(Language: Judeo-French. Alternate names: Zarphatic. Judeo-French was the language used by the Jews who lived during the Middle Ages in a territory corresponding with the northern regions of modern France. It was also spoken in parts of what is now west-central Germany, in such cities as Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, and Aachen. Judeo-French is a variant of the langue d'oïl version of Old French and it is recorded in a rich collection of short texts, mainly glosses to Hebrew commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud that were written in Hebrew script. Judeo-French has been extinct since the Middle Ages)
  • Ethnologue, Oct. 27, 2009(Zarphatic. An extinct language of France. Alternate names: Judeo-French. Classification: Indo-European, Italic, Romance, Italo-Western, Western, Gallo-Iberian, Gallo-Romance, Gallo-Rhaetian, Oïl, French. Comments: Jewish)

Wikipedia description:

Judeo-French, also called Zarphatic or Western Loez, is a variant of Old French spoken in the Middle Ages by the Jews of northern and eastern France. It was also spoken by French Jews who moved to Norman England. The Jewish communities of the early medieval Rhineland, such as Mainz, Worms and Speyer, may also have been French-speaking before shifting to German, although this is disputed. Judeo-French left lexical traces in Yiddish, but its role in the formation of that language is debated. Judeo-French was largely identical to Old French, with French Jews adopting the same regional variants as their non-Jewish neighbours. Its main distinguishing features are its use of Hebrew script and an independent literary tradition, with limited Hebrew influence to verbs and vocabulary.

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