What’s in a Name (Again)? About Judeo-Spanish and Sephardic Linguistic Culture
Abstract
This article examines the Judeo-Spanish language and the linguistic culture of its speakers. It puts forward three ideas that have shaped language use and multilingual practices among Sephardic Jews in the Balkans. The first concerns the centrality of Hebrew, the language of the Torah, which ceased to be spoken around 400 CE yet continued to hold supreme ontological and theological authority as the ‘Holy Tongue’. The second, rooted in the experience of exile from the Iberian Peninsula, highlights the special status accorded to Sephardic Spanish as a specifically ‘Jewish’ language. The third points to the strong sense of loyalty to the spoken vernacular that emerged among Judeo-Spanish speakers in the late nineteenth century. The discussion of these three ideas provides a framework for understanding the range of terms employed by both present-day speakers and scholars to designate this language: Ladino, Judeo-Spanish, and Judezmo.
Presentato: 20 Giugno 2025 | Accettato: 30 Luglio 2025 | Pubblicato 03 Novembre 2025 | Lingua: en
Keywords Linguistic culture • </p> • Espanyol • Judezmo • Judeo-Spanish • <p>Sephardic Jews • Sephardic Jews • Ladino
Copyright © 2025 Ana Stulic. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/BES/2785-3187/2025/01/003