Deal with Dialects
How to identify varying Ladino dialects from
ante-1492 and five centuries later
- Locating a Source
- Where to Look
- Lexicography is an Ally
- Helpful Links
Also See: Rashi Script 101 | Reader’s Ladino
Locating a Source
Though they may not seem far geographically, the Judeo-Spanish in Thessaloniki (and broadly in the Balkans) is considered as the “Western dialect” which would sound more like Portuguese or Spanish from the South of Spain versus the “Eastern dialect” commonly found in Thrace and greater Smyrna which sounds closer to central (some say Castilian) Spanish.
As there is not an established Judeo-Spanish orthography, the same word may have a number of different spellings (especially prominent in the Kosovo dialect); definitive articles (neuter –ma suffix in Greek); or it may be replaced by a local (or sometimes French) equivalent depending on the region.
If you are having trouble understanding a source, try to have a vague idea about where the author of your source is from and whereabouts it was published. You should also take the source’s ideological agenda into consideration, which can go a long way in helping you identify the dialect used. For instance, it is well-known that the popularisation of the Paris-based Alliance israélite universelle introduced a considerable number of French lexemes to the Judeo-Spanish lexicon.
Needless to say, it is ideal to have, say, a Romanian dictionary, if you already determined that your source uses the Bucharest dialect. If you don’t know what dialect your source had, continue on to the next section: Dr. Rey Romero published an informative chapter (in Spanish) on Judeo-Spanish in the Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica (2016). I translated and summarised his notes which can help you distinguish between different dialects:
Thrace and Asia Minor [Tracia y Asía Menor]:
Istanbul: Characteristically, the first /f/ is dropped. The lexicon closely resembles Castilian. Plenty of loan-words from Turkish and French.
Balkan Dialects [Dialectos balcánicos]:
Thessaloniki: Characteristically, the first /f/ is kept. The lexicon has similarities with Galician-Portuguese and dialects such as Leonese and Aragonese. Many loan-words from Greek, Turkish, French, and Italian.
Bitola (Monastir): Maintains the initial /f/ in most cases, like the Thessaloniki and Bucharest dialects. When unstressed, the letters /e/, /o/ and /a/ respectively become /i/, /u/ and /e/. The letter /g/ (if not precedented by a nasal sound) becomes the peculiar allophone [ʁ].* A great portion of the lexicon comes from Galician-Portuguese.
* Lynn’s note: The voiced uvular fricative, [ʁ], is a type of guttural R sound that doesn’t naturally occur in English. It is similar to the sound of the resh in Hebrew ”פרה” [pah-RAH] and comparable to the /r/ pronunciation in French.
Bucarest: Like the Thessaloniki dialect, the initial /f/ is conserved in most cases. The letters /e/ and /o/ may be unstressed such as estuve becoming stuvi.* Numerous loan-words from Romanian.
* Lynn’s note: For clarification, the most common Judeo-Spanish spelling of estuve (I was) is estuvi in my experience.
Additionally, you can find another Judeo-Spanish dialect in southern Bulgaria.
Where to look
The words are there, rendered back to their standardized spellings, but the picture isn’t getting any clearer? Etymologically, the problem words do not look like calques on or localisms? As you know, Ladino is a diasporic language, evolving out of contact with the Spanish from Iberia, where Ladino has most of its lingual roots.
As might be expected, the written forms of many Judeo-Spanish words tend to mirror now antiquated Medieval Spanish spellings. Furthermore, some Ladino vocabulary from Old Castilian and Galician-Portuguese, are now obsolete and therefore unknown to Modern Spanish speakers.
And what to do about it? It is well-established that fluency in Modern Spanish does not make you a Ladino speaker right off the bat, nonetheless, if you have at least a working knowledge of the language, you can look up Judeo-Spanish words via Medieval Spanish Dictionaries. Therefore, I am a big fan of Real Academia Española’s online dictionary which also covers the antiquated versions of words. For the less patient reader, there is also the more compact Dirae.
Lexicography's an ally
If your research concerns multiple sources from manifold locations, it can be beneficial to build up your own dictionary. Essentially, you want to create a functional database of all alternative spellings and regional terms you come across. Make sure you take note of where (source) you found what (word/expression in context) in a way that you can look them up easily (categorize). While jotting down each and every lexeme can feel tedious at first, your reading pace will surely accelerate once you have a well-organized glossary at your disposal.
For this purpose, I find a five-column spreadsheet to be the most useful. I initially write down and translate each new vocabulary in the context that they were used (Columns 1-3). Next, I take note of differences in grammar and spelling; in this case, I compared spelling changes from Ladino’s Medieval Spanish to Modern Spanish (Column-4). Finally, I mark the geographical origin of the lexeme (broadly) and cross-reference any other source where I encountered the same word (Colum 5).
To give a quick example, below you can find 50 selected entries from my own glossary for Judeo-Spanish / Ladino.
Abbreviations Used: Desus.: Desusado (Obsolete) |Pt.: Portuguese | Sp.: Spanish |Tr.: Transitivo (Transitive)
Meaning in Context
Modern Spanish
Djudeo-Espanol
Notes on Vocabulary and Grammatical Rules
Possible Origin and Use in Sources
|
Abbreviations Used: Desus.: Desusado (Obsolete) |Pt.: Portuguese | Sp.: Spanish |Tr.: Transitivo (Transitive)
Also See:
Rashi Script 101: Learn How to Read the Rashi Script and Use it on Your Computer
Reader’s Ladino: Practice Reading Judaeo-Spanish through the Rashi Script Translation of The Little Prince
sources:
Romero, Rey. “Judeoespañol” in Enciclopedia de Lingüística Hispánica Vol 2 (Routledge, 2016)., pp. 661-668.