Jewish Languages
We learn in A Global Evolution of Writing that Paleo Hebrew (essentially Hebrew) was the original language of the Hebrews in Canaan for what must have been centuries before they adopted the 22-letter abgad in 1850 BCE.
After Hebrews (in both kingdoms: Israel and Judah) were scattered all over the world, the Hebrew language was lost as a living language for nearly all but those who remained in the Land of Israel.
Survival of Hebrew in the Diaspora
After the Roman defeat of the Jews in the year 70 CE, many left and/or were forced to leave Judah to live in the diaspora where, astonishingly, Hebrew remained central to their communities. For nearly two thousand years, Jewish communities in diverse locations—from Japan, to India, to Yemen, Eurasia, to the New World—continued to study and pray in Hebrew.
Hebrew has been zealously preserved by communities unwilling to part with their heritage, but it was not the language in which most diaspora Jews would buy groceries, say “I love you,” or use Hebrew in their everyday lives. The language was preserved via religious practices, but also injected to local languages, organically, forming dozens of hybrid languages.
Examples of Languages Developed by Jewish Communities in the Diaspora
Yiddish
About 1,000 years ago, Yiddish (“Jewish”) developed organically as the primary language spoken by Jews in German-speaking European lands. As Jews pushed or were pushed beyond the Rhine region, Yiddish traveled with them and expanded to include much of northeastern Europe.
Yiddish applies the syntax and grammar of the previous millennium’s Middle High German, a vocabulary that encompasses German, Hebrew, Slavic, and is written using the Hebrew alphabet.
Today, Yiddish is dying out, with only a few communities still using the language in their daily lives. Whether or not you know Yiddish, you can enjoy its warmth and humor in Yiddish Wit.
Ladino
The name Ladino (Judeo Spanish, or affectionately “Speebrew”) refers to a language that had been spoken in Jewish communities throughout the Ottoman Empire. More specifically, the Jews who had been driven out of Spain, due to the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition, brought Ladino to the lands where they found refuge (primarily northern Africa and southeastern Europe).
Ladino is how the Jews of pre-Inquisition Spain studied and worked. In their private lives, these Jews spoke typical Spanish languages, like their neighbors. However, study and translation were conducted in Ladino, an archaic form of Spanish, combined with a revised word order that is in line with Hebrew. And, yes, plenty of Hebrew loan words made their way into Ladino. Written using the Roman alphabet (like English), Ladino is easily recognized by those who know Spanish, in spite of its unusual spellings of familiar Spanish words.
Like Yiddish, Ladino today is on its last legs. Singer/songwriter Yasmin Levi has done an tremendous job at introducing new and old songs in Ladino to new audiences.
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Judeo-Malayalam
I was unable to find much about this language of the Cochin Jews, the oldest of a number of Jewish Indian communities. It is said that Jews migrated to Cochin, India after the destruction of the First Temple in 587 BCE, followed by many more of their brethren after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. It is unclear to me how or when, over this span of thousands of years, this language evolved.
It is noteworthy that India is one of the few locations in the world where anti-Semitism never flourished. Jews and other immigrant communities lived peacefully in India with their neighbors.
India and Israel gained independence within months of one another, and India’s Jews left for Israel, for the most part. There’s just a handful of Jews who speak Judeo-Malayalam in India today.
Haketia
Haketia is a variety of Ladino that borrows heavily from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, and lightly from Hebrew. Haketia was originally written using Hebrew letters.
Today, Israeli-Moroccans like Tamar Bloch (stage name LALA) are rediscovering this colloquial language of their ancestors.
A Reawakening: Hebrew as a Spoken Language
Perhaps inspired by the Age of Enlightenment that brought to light many new ideas in Europe, the Jewish Enlightenment came to be in the 19th century CE. Jewish Enlightenment was characterized by learning and exploration of all things, and led to the advent of Zionism—a movement rooted in the belief that Jews are entitled to the right of self-determination and statehood in their ancestral homeland. Idealistic Jews from all over the world poured into and bought land in Israel, then ruled by the Ottoman Turks. After much debate, it was agreed to reestablish Hebrew as the common local language.
Outside of Israel, enlightened European Jews started to treat Hebrew as a literary language, writing contemporary stories and poetry in Hebrew. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who emigrated to Israel from Lithuania, is credited as the reviver of Hebrew as a spoken language. Ben-Yehuda added words and functionality to the Hebrew language, as necessary (e.g., the ancient texts didn’t mention freezers or ice cream), bringing the language into the 20th century.
And as we organically grow and modernize Hebrew, scholars continue to pore into Hebrew’s roots, comparing and contrasting archeological findings, surviving literature, and more.
Today, Hebrew is a language on the rise. The Academy of the Hebrew Language is s Israel’s official institution for the cultivation and guidance in usage of the Hebrew language.