Este arroz arreyeva muncho kaldo. Understandings and Misunderstandings: confounding differences between Spanish and Ladino

DIFFERENT HISTORY HISTORY Complete isolation from Spain Non-hispanic environment Multi-lingual environment Jewish language

DIFFERENT evolution DIFFERENT EVOLUTION Retention of Medieval Iberian forms Alteration over time Influence of other languages Dialects

DIFFERENCES DIFFERENCES FROM MODERN SPANISH (CASTELLANO) Phonological ( pronunciation, phonemes, stress, intonation ) Lexical ( words, word forms, meanings ) Grammatical ( verb conjugations, syntax, etc.)

Notes on spelling - Used to be in Hebrew letters, until the early XXth century. –Print - in standard meruba “square” letters or in Rashi type –Cursive - soletreo - Now in Latin alphabet, phonetically reproduced, for proper pronunciation. (use of k, j, dj, sh, h; no silent h)

Ladino in Hebrew type El AKUZADO SİN KULPA -- ONZEN ROMANSO kompuesto por ELİYA R. KARMONA EDITORES: ARDITI I KASTRO ≈ EMPRIMERIYA ARDİTİ Estambol Marpucilar Salih Efendi Han Numero 9,10,11,12 KOSTANTİNOPLA

Soletreo

Phonological characteristics Ladino retains certain archaic features of the Castilian-Andalusian language of the fifteenth century, on which it is based. Among these features are the following four phonemes (sounds) no longer part of modern Spanish (Castellano): j [ž or ʒ ] (like the French j, as in je, juif, etc.) ʒ Sh [š or ʃ ] (“sh” as in English) ʃ dj [dz, or d ͡ʒ ] (as j in English: jar, joke, etc.)d ͡ʒ Z [z] (as “zoo” in English) Also, a clear distinction between [b] and [v]

1. j [ž or ʒ ] (This is the French sound of j; in English it sounds like the s in ‘measure’) ʒ in words such as: ajeno (alien, foreign) ajo (garlic) Dirijir (manage; Sp. dirigir) espejo (mirror) gajo (segment, as in orange )ija (daughter), ijo (son) mujer (wife, woman) ojo (eye) relijion (Sp. Religión) viejo (old)

2. [š or ʃ ] (“sh” as in English) ʃ in words such as:

3.dj [dz, or d ͡ʒ ] in words such asd ͡ʒ

[z] z as in the English ‘zoo’. There is a clear distinction between the pronunciation of s and z in Ladino The z sound usually comes between two vowels

There’s also a clear distinction between b and v b to v: v to b:

 There is no hard and fast rule for converting the pronunciation of words in Castellano to their counterparts in Ladino.

OTHER PHONOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES

Some Lexical Peculiarities of Ladino

Medieval Forms Agora, avagar, merkar, trokar, … Kovdo, sivdad, bivda, …. So, vo, esto, ….

Vocabulary differences “ Eighty percent of Ladino words are Spanish-based. ” Yet, many of these are different from modern Spanish, in form and/or meaning. Of the other 20 percent, most are from Turkish, Hebrew, and French.

Some Spanish-based Ladino words that have different meanings:

“ embarasada (taken from Ladinokomunita messages) ”

Ordinal numbers Primer Segundo Treser Kuarten Sinken Seshen/seje n Sieten Ochen Mueven Diezen Onzen Dodjen

Some Grammatical Peculiarities of Ladino Congjugations

Many Ladino words are non-Hispanic, entirely or in derivation Can you find the non-Spanish words? Mete asukar al chay ma no lo karishtreyes. Ke haber? Son tres haveres en la butika. Le agrada azer benadamlikes. El ke se kema en la chorva asopla en el yogurt. Si te dan, toma; si te aharvan, fuye.

Some messages from Ladinokomunita about confusion with Castellano “Ainda konfuzo muy frekuentemente el espanyol i el sefaradi ya ke son linguas tan similares.” Alfred Ratz, Viena (07 )

“Spanish can be dangerous”