LL-L "Language contacts" 2003.03.26 (03) [E/French/Spanish]

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From: Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc. <roger.thijs at village.uunet.be>
Subject: LL-L "Language contacts" 2003.02.08 (06) [E]


> From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Language contacts
> It would surprise me to find out that they, the Sephardim of the
Netherlands
and those that lived in German coastal cities like Hamburg until WW II still
spoke Ladino.  For one thing, their communities were and are relatively
small.  Secondly, Ladino really blossomed around the Mediterranean Sea,
especially in North Africa, Turkey and Greece, where it acquired its very
special, "charming" characteristics (just as the surviving varieties of
Yiddish acquired much of their "charm" in Eastern Europe).  However, I have
not yet given up my search for Jewish-specific Lowlands-specific language
varieties, and it never hurts to ask.
--
I got this book in today:
Moïse Rahmani, Les Juifs du Soleil, Portrait de Sépharades de Belgique, Dec.
2002, Filipson Editions, ISBN 2-87415-268-4, 232 pp.

It focusses on family histories of sephardish people, not on the Ladino
language, so I just found a few interesting elements. The book is written in
French, and I'm not sure to what degree Ladino words are eventually
frenchified. ("kosher" becomes "cachère" etc.)

The sephardish communities in Belgium group people of very different
origines.
For Brussels the "Congolais" ("Rodesli") is a very important group. They are
originated from Rhodos, moved to the Belgian Congo in the beginning of last
century and came to Belgium at the end of the colonial period (1960)
Original core of the (little) Antwerp sephardish community are the
"Turkinos", who came fron Turkey and Saloniki to Antwerp an the end of the
19th century. They founded the synagogue Bet Moshe in the Antwerp
Hoveniersstraat. The were joined by Romanian students around 1925, who
migrated to Antwerp because of the numerus clausus for jewish students in
Romania at the time.

The book ends with a little dictionary pp. 221-227. Most of the words
explained are hebrew.

Ladino is listed not as "language" but as "word-to-word" translation
Hebrew-Spanish:
LADINO: judéo-espagnol calque. Traduction mot à mot des textes liturgiques
de l'hébreu en espagnol. À ne pas confondre avec le judéo-espagnol qui est
la langue parlée.

Words in the list identified as "judéo-espagnol":
BOREKA: petit pâté en forme de croissant farci à la viande, au fromage ou au
fromage et aux pommes de terre.
BOYO: feuilleté au fromage blanc ou aux épinards et au fromage.
ETCHAR LACHON: litt. jeter la langue. Bavarder, faire conversation.
KETUBA DE LA LEY: contrat de mariage avec la Loi.
KOMIDIKA: nourriture.
MELDAR: litt. lire. Commémoration du décès de quelqu'un.
PASTELE: petit pâté rond, enrobé de graines de sésame, farci à la viande ou
aux aubergines.

Words in the list identified as "yiddish":
FRIM: juif religieux
GEFILTE FISH: carpe farcie. Plat typique des familles ashkénazes. Se déguste
le Chabbat et les jours de fête.
YEKE: surnom donné aux Juifs allemands.

Except for a few dispersed words, it has two text samples:

1. A commemorative stone:
Ke este lugar, ande los nazis eksterminaron un milyon i medio de ombres, de
mujeres i de kriaturas la mas parte djudyos de varyos payizes de la Europa,
sea para syempre, para la umanidad un grito de dezespero i unas sinyales -
Auschwitz - Birkenau - 1940-1945
Que ce lieu où les nazis ont assassiné un million et demi d'hommes, de
femmes et d'enfants, en majorité des Juifs de divers pays d'Europe, soit Ã
jamais pour l'humanité un cri de désespoir et un avertissement. Auschwitz -
Birkenau 1940-1945

2. Le Seder se termine par la récitation d'un vieux chant Had Gadya dont
voici la derniere strophe en judéo-espagnol et en français:

I vino en Santo Benditcho El
I degoyo el Malah hamavet
ke degoyo al chohet
ke degoyo la vaka
ke se bevio la agua
ke amato al fuego
ke kemo el palo
ke aharvo al pero
ke mordrio al gato
ke se komio el kavretiko
ke lo merko mi padre
por dos levanim, por dos levanim
Had Gadya, had gadya.

Et vint le Saint Béni soit-il
Qui tua l'Ange de la Mort
Qui avait tué le boucher
Qui avait tué le boeuf
Qui avait bu l'eau
Qui avait étaint le feu
Qui avait brûlé le bâton
Qui avait frappé le chien
Qui avait mordu de chat
Qui avait mangé le cabri
Que mon père avait acheté pour
deux levanim (ou deux zouzim)
Un cabri unique, un cabri unique

(I'm just wondering if there are etymological links between:
palo (stick) and Dutch "paal" (post, stake)
gato / Fr. chat and Dutch "kat".)

The author of the book publishes a trilingual (French, Ladino & English)
quarterly magazine "Los Muestros, la voix des Sépharades".
Website of the Institut Sépharade Européen: http://www.sefarad.org

Regards,

Roger

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language contacts

Thanks for the very interesting information (above), Roger!

As you can see, "ordinary" (non-religious and non-philosopical) Ladino texts
can for the most part be understood fairly easily by speakers of Modern
Spanish (if it is transliterated from Hebrew script):

> Ke este lugar, ande los nazis eksterminaron un milyon i medio de ombres,
de
> mujeres i de kriaturas la mas parte djudyos de varyos payizes de la
Europa,
> sea para syempre, para la umanidad un grito de dezespero i unas sinyales -
> Auschwitz - Birkenau - 1940-1945

My (probably poor) Spanish translation:
"Para que este lugar donde los Nazis exterminaron un millón y medio de
hombres, de mujeres y de niños, la mas parte judíos de varios países de
Europa, sea para siempre un grito de desesperación y una advertencia a la
humanidad. Auschwitz - Birkenau, 1940-1945"

"So that this place where the Nazis exterminated one and a half million men,
women and children, the greater part of them Jews of various countries of
Europe, will forever be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity.
Auschwitz - Birkenau, 1940-1945"

Note _kriaturas_ for 'children' (= Spanish _criaturas_ 'creatures').

Phonologically there are some significant differences between Ladino and
Spanish, mostly because Ladino preserves medieval Castilian pronunciation,
such as what in the French transliteration above is shown as <j> (and
happens to coincide with Modern Spanish <j> for the velar fricative [x]) is
in international transliteration shown as <ž> (z-hachek) representing the
sound of <j> in French _jour_ and <s> in English _leisure_, thus e.g.
_mužer_ 'woman'.

> I vino en Santo Benditcho El
> I degoyo el Malah hamavet
> ke degoyo al chohet
> ke degoyo la vaka
> ke se bevio la agua
> ke amato al fuego
> ke kemo el palo
> ke aharvo al pero
> ke mordrio al gato
> ke se komio el kavretiko
> ke lo merko mi padre
> por dos levanim, por dos levanim
> Had Gadya, had gadya.

Spanish (?):
Y viniera el Santo Bendijo, El
Que mató al Angel de la Muerte
Que mató al carnicero
Que mató la vaca
Que bebida el agua
Que extinguió (?) el fuego
Que quemó el palo
Que golpeó el perro
Que mordido el gato
Que comido el cabrito
Que mi padre compró para dos levanim (o dos zuzim)
Un cabrito único, un cabrito único

English:
And the Blessed Saint came, He
Who killed the Angel of Death
Who killed the butcher
Who killed the cow
That drank the water
That put out (?) the fire
That burned the stick
That struck the dog
That bit the cat
That ate the kid
That my father bought for two levanim (or two zuzim)
A unique kid, a unique kid

> (I'm just wondering if there are etymological links between:
> palo (stick) and Dutch "paal" (post, stake)

Apparently these and related Germanic words come from Latin _palus_.

> gato / Fr. chat and Dutch "kat".)

This one may go a long way back in Indo-European, though some suspect it
came from Latin _cattus_ ‘cat’.

> BOREKA

This comes from Greek _boreka_, related to Turkish _börek_.

> BOYO

= Spanish _bollo_ 'bun', 'roll'

Explanations and recipes:
http://www.joods.nl:9673/rubrieken/eten-feesten/printartikel?nr=327
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/recipes.htm
http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/comidas.htm

Regards,

Reinhard/Ron

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