Local Jewish languages emerges in communities in other countries
Not Just Yiddish and Ladino
A Jewish language is a language spoken by Jews in addition to the language of their local surroundings. Jewish languages began to emerge in the First Temple period when Jews fleeing the wars in the Land of Israel settled in other countries. Over the years, local Jewish languages were created in nearly all lands of the Jewish diaspora.
For the most part, Jewish languages are written in Hebrew letters. Their vocabulary is a mix of local, Hebrew and Aramaic words. They have unique syntactic structures and contain distinct Jewish expressions.
Jewish languages that still exist today include Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Ge’ez (spoken by Ethiopian Jews), Neo-Aramaic, Judeo-Marathi, Judeo-Greek, Judeo-Bukharian, Judeo-Georgian, Judeo-Italian and Judeo-Persian.