Zarphatic language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Zarphatic
Judæo-French
צרפתית Tzarfatit
Native to
England
EthnicityAshkenazi Jews
Extinct14th century[1]
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3zrp
Glottologzarp1238

Zarphatic, or Judeo-French (Zarphatic: Tzarfatit), is an

Yiddish.[4]

Etymology

The term Zarphatic, coined by

Hebrew name for France, Tzarfat (צרפת), which was originally used in the Hebrew Bible as a name for the city of Sarepta, in Phoenicia
.

Writing

Zarphatic was written using a variation of the

Moshe HaDarshan and Rashi. The language became secularised during the 13th century
, becoming used in varied domains such as poetry, medicine, astronomy, and commerce.

Most linguists agree that Zarphatic was not fundamentally different from

Judeo-Romance
language.

It seems that Zarphatic was probably never a

vernacular language, and that the Jews of the area did not speak a differing language or dialect, at least not one distinguished by phonology or lexicon beyond that specific to a community.[7]
Rather, it acted more as a liturgical language, for exegesis and literature. Its primary use was for explanation and vulgarisation of biblical and rabbinical literature.

See also

  • Judeo-Romance languages

References

  1. ^ Kiwitt, Marc; Zwink, Julia. "Judeo-French". Jewish Languages. Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. Archived from the original on 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Oil". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2022-10-08. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
  3. ^ Hillaby (2013), pp. 1, 112, 194-5.
  4. ^ Katznelson, Itzhak (2008). "Yiddish Language". Encyclopaedia iudaica.
  5. ^ S. A. Birnbaum, Yiddish: A Survey and a Grammar, Second Edition (University of Toronto Press, 2016), p. 33.
  6. ^ M. Weinreich et S. A. Birnbaum, cited by Marc Kiwitt, cf sources
  7. ^ Jean Baumgarten in La question du judéo-français vue par les philologues allemands et français, citing M. Bannitt; cf bibliographie

External links