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A Survey of Judeo-Arabic

By

Bassam Al Saideen

Submitted for

TRIP 580

Prof. Bryan Kirschen

FALL 2015

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A Survey of Judeo-Arabic

Purpose of the study: The aim of this study is to describe the linguistic situation of some

of the Jewish communities that existed in the Arab world for a long time, dating as far back

as pre-Islamic era until the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948. Issues to be investigated

here include the historical background, development, and the status of Judeo-Arabic in

Jewish communities in Arab countries. The study will try to answer the following questions:

1- What is Judeo-Arabic?

2- Is Judeo-Arabic a distinct Jewish language alongside Hebrew and Yiddish?

3- Is Judeo-Arabic an endangered language in the present time?

The paper starts with a brief history of Jews in Arab lands to pave the way to discussing

Judeo-Arabic.

Historical background:

According to Abdo & Kasmieh (1971), Jewish communities have existed as an

integral part of the greater Arab communities, speaking the same language, and living the

same economic, social, and political circumstances. Since Arabs and Jews share the same

origins, Jews existed in what is now called the Arab World before and after the Islamic

conquest of the Middle East and North Africa after the 7th century. During these times, as

well as during the rule of the Ottoman Empire over the these regions, Jews enjoyed peace

and protection, in addition to religious tolerance. Such circumstances allowed Jewish

communities to flourish and significantly contribute to the Arabic civilization.

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The origins of the Jewish people in in these lands date as far back as almost 1950

years B.C.E in Mesopotamia, or Southern Iraq. Around that time, Abraham rejected the

polytheistic and idolatrous worships, which were dominant in that area. He eventually took

his family and few followers and crossed the Euphrates River, thus acquiring the name

Hebrew which means ‘crossers’. They travelled through Syria to the land of Canaan, which

is now Negev or south of Israel. Jews prospered in the new land, and their tribes spread in

the north and south of Palestine (Haddad, 1984).

However, Jews were displaced on different occasions throughout their history. One

major occasion was in 586 B.C.E., when the Jews of Jerusalem were exiled to Babylon. By

that time, some Jews had already left Palestine to neighboring areas because of commercial

reasons. Another occasion was in 1492, when Jews were expelled from Spain after suffering

the Spanish Inquisition with the fall of the Islamic state. They scattered to different parts of

the Ottoman Empire, where they were welcomed, including Egypt, Syria, Greece, Palestine,

and North Africa. There is no reliable census for the number of Jews who lived in Arab

countries in ancient and medieval times. The only sources were reports from travelers, which

varied greatly because of the “inaccuracy of the reports or the instability of the Jewish

population” (ibid, p. 21).

Although many Jews were indigenous to Arab communities, many others came from

different parts of the world, particularly from Europe whenever they faced hardships, and

they always found refuge in the Arab lands. The biggest wave of Jewish immigrants came

from Spain with the expulsion of 1492. Those were called Sephardim (Jews of Spain) and

Marranos (Spanish Jews converts to Christianity who remained secretly loyal to Judaism).

They settled in Turkey and in many Arab countries, particularly Iraq, Yemen, Morocco,

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Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt. These Jews lived in small villages and towns in Arab countries.

However, by World War I, they began to move to major cities. In Egypt for example, 96

percent of the Jewish population lived in Cairo and Alexandria; in Iraq, they mostly lived in

Baghdad and Basra. This movement to urban areas led to better conditions for Jews,

economically, socially, and educationally (Haddad, 1984).

Stillman (1979) provides a detailed account of the Jewish presence in the Islamic

State from the seventh century to the end of the nineteenth century. He maintains that Jews,

alongside other ethnic and religious groups, were assimilated in the new Islamic community,

and took part in creating the new Islamic Medieval civilization. The Jewish culture

flourished in the Islamic High Middle Ages (ca. 850-1250), and “during this time, the

Babylonian Talmud gradually became the constitutional foundation of Diaspora

Judaism…… Jewish theology was systemized, Jewish laws codified, and Hebrew language

and literature underwent its greatest revival prior to its rebirth in modern times” (p. xv).

However, the decline of the Islamic state in the late thirteenth century marked a

decline of the standards of the life of Jewish people in Arab lands. Moreover, with the rise

of Western civilization, and later, Western colonization of most of the Arab world, Jews in

Arab countries embraced Western culture and values. By the late nineteenth and early

twentieth century, political events set Jews and Arabs on a collision course. Crowned with

the foundation of Israel in 1948, these events led to mass Jewish emigration from Arab

countries to the new state, in addition to other parts of the world (ibid). Some thousands of

Arab Jews however, remained in their home countries after 1948, varying from one country

to another, but gradually emigrated following each Arab-Israeli confrontation. Currently, the

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biggest Jewish population in an Arab country is the one in Morocco, reaching 3.500 people

(Jimena, n.d.).

Judeo-Arabic:

With the expansion of the Islamic state in the Middle East and North Africa, many

nations living in the area came under the rule of Arabs. Some of these nations abandoned their

languages and switched to Arabic. Jews were among those who resisted using Arabic, and

held on to Hebrew and Aramaic (Myhill, 2004). However, Blau (1978) states that it was

natural for the nations that came under Islamic rule to switch to Arabic. Jews were not an

exception. They too switched to Arabic instead of Hebrew and Aramaic, and used it in their

writings, both religious and secular. Judeo-Arabic, which later developed among Jews in Arab

communities, became distinct from Arabic by using Hebrew script and the frequent

occurrence of Hebrew and Aramaic words and phrases. Newby (1971) states that al-

yahudiah was more like a dialect of Arabic rather than a distinct language like Hebrew or

Aramaic. Along these lines, Myhill (2004) also states that there was not a big difference

between Arabic and Judeo-Arabic, but there was a difference between the dialects of Arabic

that was paralleled by a difference between the varieties of Judeo-Arabic in their respective

communities.

However, Hary (1992) insists that JA (Judeo-Arabic) varieties were different from

Muslim Arabic varieties, and thus amount to be considered distinct languages. He divides

its development into five periods: Pre-Islamic, Early, Classical, Later, and Modern Judeo-

Arabic (1997). Stillman (1989: 98) quotes Ben Sasson who states that “once an initially alien

language gained acceptance, it became not only a vehicle of Jewish cultural and religious

creativity …… but also a mark of Jewish identity that even formed barriers to later

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assimilation.” Accordingly, this had the same validity in the case of Judeo-Arabic in its

Muslim Arabic setting.

According to Isaac (2006, p. 396), Judeo-Arabic refers to “an umbrella term for an

ethnolect with various regional dialects written and spoken by Jews of Arabic speaking

countries” (also Hary, 2003). Stillman (1988) argues that JA has a special significance over

Yiddish and Ladino because it has the longest recorded history, from the ninth century to the

present time; it was used over a large geographical area, including Morocco, Egypt, Yemen,

Syria, and Iraq; and it was the medium of most of the creative literary Jewish production.

He maintains that JA was distinct from other local Arabic dialects by the use of the Hebrew

script for writing and by incorporating many lexical items from Hebrew and Aramaic.

With the rise of the Islamic state, Jews wrote in the Arabic script. However, when

the Islamic state started to decline in the thirteenth century, they switched to Hebrew script,

particularly for religious and scholarly purposes. Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) was

probably the single most influential Jewish thinker who wrote exclusively in Judeo-Arabic,

his native language (Myhill, 2004).

Whether a language is deemed Jewish or not depends on how it is defined.

Definitions propsed by scholars varied according to their theoretical orientation. Some

suggested that a language is Jewish if it provides its Jewish users with the means to express

whatever they need to express by language. Others maintained that such a language must be

used in diglossia with and influenced by Hebrew and Aramaic, and written in Hebrew letters.

(Benor, 2011; Gold, 1981a). Benor (2011: 95) quotes Fishman’s definition, which focuses

on both form and function:

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I define as ‘Jewish’ any language that is phonologically, morpho-syntactically,

lexico-semantically or orthographically different from that of non-Jewish

sociocultural networks and that has some demonstrably unique function in the

role-repertoire of a Jewish sociocultural network, which is not normatively

present in the role-repertoire of non-Jews and/or is not normatively discharged

via varieties identical with those utilized by non-Jews.

I think it is safe to say that JA is a Jewish language since it meets the conditions posed by

these definitions. JA did furnish its speakers with the linguistic elements they needed to

communicate as Jews, it used the Hebrew script, and was greatly influenced by Hebrew and

Aramaic.

Tsunoda (2005) mentions that a language can be at one of four levels: a) healthy,

safe, flourishing, b) weakening, sick, c) moribund, dying, d) dead, extinct (p. 13). In the

present time, JA is no longer used in the countries where it originated since almost all Arab

Jews emigrated to Israel and some other destinations. In Israel, with the hegemony of

Hebrew as the formal language, the use of JA is confined to limited home communication

by the first and second generations of immigrants. The language is not passed on to the third

generation who acquired Hebrew as their mother tongue. JA thus, can be placed at the third

level which specifies that a language is moribund or dying if it is not growing or changing.

Myhill (2004) concludes that the number of JA speakers is decreasing. Those speakers are

aging and dying. It is reasonable to assume that JA will die out in the foreseeable future with

the death of its last speaker.

Egyptian Judeo-Arabic:

Jews inhabited Egypt since the sixth century B.C. During the Arab and Ottoman rule

over Egypt, their social and economic circumstances improved significantly, to the point that

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many Jews from Europe and other parts of the world moved to Egypt, raising their

population to around 80,000 before 1948. They mainly lived in two major communities in

Cairo and Alexandria, and were well educated and economically well furnished. Their

economic activities included commerce, finance, industries, among others. They belonged

to three distinct classes: the aristocrats, who were French-cultured, the bourgeoisie who were

very rich, and the lower class, who were mostly indigenous living in Cairo. Socially, they

maintained friendly relations with their non-Jewish compatriots, and no anti-Jewish

activities were witnessed. In spite of the growing Arab-Jewish conflict in the first half of the

twentieth century, less than two thousand Jews left Egypt until 1948. However, the

foundation of Israel, the wars that broke between Arabs and Israelis, and the activities of the

Zionists in Egypt led to waves of Jewish emigration from the country after 1948. Today less

than 100 Jews remain in Egypt (Abdo & Kasmieh 1971; Jimena.org).

According to Rosenbaum (2002) Jews in Arab lands spoke distinctive Arabic

dialects, and the Arabic spoken by Jews in Egypt in the twentieth century was distinct from

that spoken by non-Jew Egyptians. Most Egyptian Jews lived in Cairo and Alexandria and

spoke two dialects that shared many linguistic elements. These include the use of the Hebrew

script, Hebrew loan words, and some pronunciation patterns. Still, the two dialects of EJA

remained distinct from the surrounding varieties. Phonologically, EJA (Egyptian Judeo-

Arabic) is almost identical to EA (Egyptian Arabic), except for some differences, which may

be due to phonemic, morphological, and lexical non-Arabic interference and borrowings,

mainly from Hebrew. For example, the consonant (q = ق) is pronounced as a velar stop (q

or k) as in ‘kaddish’ (a liturgical prayer), instead of the more common EA uvular stop /’/, as

in ‘addish. Other examples on variation in pronunciation include using the vowel /u/ instead

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of EA /e/ as in ‘šubbäk’ v.s. šebbäk (window), and ‘mušţ’ v.s. ‘mešţ’ (comb). Another

example is the Hebrew definite article ‘ha’, which is usually used before Hebrew nouns as

in the oath ‘be’ emet hatora’ (by the Torah!), (although the Arabic definite article sometimes

preceded the Hebrew article).

Lexically, the following dialogue Rosenbaum (ibid, p. 44) cites as part of a Jewish

festival shows how intelligible EJA to Arabic speakers is:

– gayy-e mnen? (Where are you coming from?).

– min misrayim. (From Egypt.).

– werayeh fen? (And where are you going?).

– ’ala yerusalayim. (To Jerusalem).

However, EJA incorporates hundreds of words and expressions from Hebrew, e.g., makket

(hit or beat), as well as from other languages like French, Italian, and Ladino. Such

incorporation makes it distinct from the local variety. In addition, many Arabic words

acquired different meanings when used by Jews than by non-Jews. For example, the word

gabal which means ‘mountain’ in EA is used by Jews to denote ‘cemetery’, thus, tele’ el

gabal means ‘went to visit the cemetery’ instead of the literal ‘went up the mountain.’

Rosenbaum concludes that, in spite of the similarities, EJA was distinctive in many ways

from EA used by non-Jews, and that this distinction became obvious when Jews

communicated among each other using more words of Hebrew origin.

Some greetings used by Jews after the Sabbath prayer, although intelligible to Arabic

speakers, are Jewish-specific: e.g. Gum’ etak hadra (Have a good week. Lit.: green week),

and the response is: Wugum ‘etak hadra (May you also have a green week). Jews also shared

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some greetings with non-Jews Egyptians in which words like full (jasmine) or ‘eŠta (cream

on top of the milk) were used (ibid).

Moroccan Judeo-Arabic:

Jews arrived in Morocco in the form of migratory waves that followed hardships they

faced in different ages, such as the destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E., the Spanish

exodus of 1492, and the Holocaust in modern times. Their population in Morocco was

estimated at 203.000 people in 1947, mainly in Fez and Marrakesh. Their socio-economic

conditions were a lot better than those of their Muslim neighbors, and their children were

even educated in Hebrew and religious subjects (Abdo & Kasmieh 1971).

After the independence of Morocco in 1956, Jews were assured that they would enjoy

equal rights and citizenship. They actively participated in public and political life in the

following years. No anti-Jewish discrimination was noticed despite Arab-Israeli conflict and

wars during the second half of twentieth century. This integration of the Jews in the

Moroccan greater community may explain the large number of Jews who remained in

Morocco, despite Zionists efforts urging them to migrate to Israel. Only 1000 Jews left

Morocco before 1947. However, large numbers of Jews emigrated mostly to Israel in the

decades following the foundation of the new state in 1948. Today, only 3.500 Jews remain

in Morocco (ibid; Jimena, n.d.).

According to Stillman (1988), although Jews were politically active in Morocco, they

were almost completely socially and psychologically isolated. He maintains a common

language divides Jews and Arabs. The language they spoke was referred to as ‘l- arabiyya

dyalna’ (our Arabic). A variety of this language was spoken in each city where Jewish

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communities existed including Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, and Sefrou, among others. These

varieties make up Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, and together they share the use of Hebrew script

and a large number of Hebrew and Aramaic vocabulary. Stillman argues that these varieties

are specifically Jewish because they refer to a Jewish sociocultural universe, and are thus

distinct from other Muslim dialects.

In his study of the Sefriwi variety of Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, Stillman cites

examples on differences between this variety and Muslim Arabic to show that they are

distinct languages. Phonetic differences, although not so many, include the uvular /’/

replacing /q / (ق), / z / replacing / ž /, / s / replacing / š /, as in the following examples:

‘al for /qal/ (he said),

za for /ža/ (he came),

sims for / šims/ (sun).

Other differences found in Sefriwi Judeo-Arabic are included in the following table:

SJA Muslim Arabic Meaning

Verb system kel kla to eat

ra šaf to see

niftãr teweffa to pass away

Nouns meshaf kitab book

hadĭta hkãya story

batta keswa dress

Pronouns di li, ǝlli my

The Arabic definite article /l/, as in the case of Egyptian Judeo-Arabic, precedes

Hebrew nouns, as in ‘l – eres’ (Land of Israel). However, what mostly distinguishes

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Moroccan Judeo-Arabic is the 2000 Hebrew words, which are distinctively used for Jewish

religious and social concepts, e.g. ‘sxűt’ (blessed merit), ‘gűf’ (body), and ‘gibbor’ (strong

person). In addition, some Hebrew words acquired new meanings in Judeo-Arabic, e.g. me

’ara (cave in Hebrew) became ‘a Jewish cemetery’. Sometimes an Arabic verb is combined

to a Hebrew noun as in ‘birk l-gifen’ (to recite kiddush). Stillman concludes that language

was one means employed by Jews to distinguish themselves from the surrounding

communities (Stillman 1989: p. 105; stillman 1988).

Judeo-Arabic in Iraq:

As mentioned earlier, the Jewish presence in Iraq goes back to the Babylonian

captivity in 586 B.C. Jews of Iraq flourished over the ages, particularly during the Arab rule

over the area. Their population was estimated at 118.000 people before 1948. Their

community was homogeneous, as Iraq did not witness any Jewish immigration waves. They

did not live in separate quarters, but sometimes tended to congregate in certain

neighborhoods. In the early twentieth century, Jewish communities in Baghdad, Basra,

Mosul, and Diala enjoyed a kind of internal independence, governed by a chief Rabbi, an

elected council, and a financial council. They lived in prestigious communities, and played

a prominent role in the economy of Iraq as bankers, businessmen, and financiers. They

considered themselves a segment of the Iraqi people and had strong ties with the rest of the

Iraqi people, and spoke Arabic as their mother tongue (Abdo & Kaslieh, 1971).

Measures were taken by the Iraqi government and Jewish leaders to limit the

consequences of the Arab-Jewish conflict on the Jewish communities in Iraq. Therefore,

anti-Jewish activity in Iraq was minimal, and only 8.000 Jews left to Palestine by 1948.

However, the fear, which Zionist propaganda aroused among Iraqi Jews finally led to a mass

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exodus in the years that followed the foundation of Israel. Around 5.000 Jews remained in

Iraq by 1952. Today less than ten Jews live in Iraq (ibid; Jimena, n.d.).

According to Mansour (1991), Jews in Baghdad spoke a dialect of Arabic called JB

(Jewish Baghdadi) that was distinct, and developed independently, from the MB (Muslim

Baghdadi). One reason for this distinction is the fact that the Jewish population in Iraq

experienced no migration, and their language remained unchanged through centuries.

Another reason is that Iraqi Muslims held on to Classical Arabic (CA) as their ideal pure

language. Jews on the other hand, allowed for more deviation from CA, which may account

for some of the differences between JB and MB. The influence of Hebrew and Aramaic on

JB also substantially accounts for such a distinction. These two languages were used for

religious purposes and “left their mark on the spoken language of the Jews” (P. 26). The

differences between JB and MB were manifested at phonological, morphological, syntactic,

and lexical levels.

At the phonological level for example, the /k/ sound as in /kãn/ (he was) retained its

Classical Arabic (CA) origin in JB, but it changed to /č/ in MB as in /čãn/. Similarly, the /q/

sound as in /qǝltu/ (I said) remained unchanged in JB, while it became /g/ in MB as in /gǝlǝt/.

Still, some sounds like /r/ did change in JB. This sound, as in /ras/ (head) became /ǵãs/. In

addition, some sounds like /p/ did not exist in MB and were borrowed from Hebrew, e.g. /p/

as in /paṣūq/ (verse). At the lexical level, JB included loan words for everyday use from

Turkish and Persian such as the following examples: /’azaxãna/ (pharmacy) Turkish, /čakūč/

(hammer) Turkish and Persian, /mēz/ (table) Persian. However, what distinguished JB from

MB were mostly the Hebrew and Aramaic elements, as in /kabōd/ (honor), /meṣwa/ (good

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deeds), and /Šabbãt/ (Saturday). Words borrowed from these two languages were basically

used for religious purposes and later became part of the Jewish dialect (ibid).

Conclusions:

- Judeo-Arabic is an umbrella term that refers to dialects of Arabic that were spoken by

Arab Jews who lived in Arab countries until the 1950s. Despite the similarities, JA was

distinct and developed independently from its local Muslim Arabic varieties. The

distinction between JA and MA varieties are attributed to the use of Hebrew script,

vocabulary borrowed from Hebrew, and other languages, in addition to phonetic,

morphological, and semantic changes.

- Judeo-Arabic can be considered a Jewish language according to the definitions proposed

by scholars in the field, since it meets the conditions required for a language to be deemed

Jewish.

- Arab Jews did not show continuous loyalty to Judeo-Arabic as they usually switched to

other more prestigious languages following certain political changes; they switched to

Spanish in Spain after 1492, to French during French colonization of North Africa, and

to Hebrew in Israel after 1948 (Myhill; 2004).

- With the mass emigration of Arab Jews to Israel after 1948, JA started to fade out and

stopped to be used in its natural context. In Israel, Hebrew is the formal and dominant

language. New generations of Arab Jews acquired Hebrew as their mother tongue, while

part of the older generations switched to Hebrew and without a feeling of loss. The older

generations who still speak JA are aging and will soon die out. Even Jews who remained

in some Arab countries like Morocco switched to French. Myhill states: “It is safe now

to say, that Judeo-Arabic will soon die as a vernacular language” (ibid: 119).

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