Judaeo-Piedmontese

Judaeo-Piedmontese
Native to	Italy
Region	Piedmont
Language family	Indo-European Italic Latino-Faliscan Latin Romance Italo-Western Western Romance Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Italic Lombard–Piedmontese?[1] Piedmontese Judaeo-Piedmontese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

Judaeo-Piedmontese was the vernacular language of the Italian Jews living in Piedmont, Italy, from about the 15th century until World War II. It was based on the Piedmontese language, with many loanwords from ancient Hebrew, Provençal, and Spanish. Most of the speakers were murdered during the war, and as of 2015 it is virtually extinct.^[2]

Small vocabulary

The dialect never had written phonetic rules; the words in this list are written according to Agostino della Sala Spada [it]'s short satirical poem La gran battaja d’j’abrei d’Moncalv (The great battle of the Jews of Moncalvo, La gran battaglia degli ebrei di Moncalvo in Italian) and Primo Levi's book The Periodic Table.

Pronunciation:

(kh) as in German "Nacht".

(ñ) nasal, as in English "sing"; not to be confused with the Spanish ñ.

(ô) as in English "loom".

(u) like the French u or the German ü.

(sc) like the English sh.

(j) as in German "Jung" or in English "young".

• (a)brakhà - blessing
• Adonai Eloénô - God, Lord
• bahalòm - in a dream (used for jokes)
• barakhùt - blessed
• barôcabà - Welcome! (literally: Blessed be he who comes!)
• batacaìn - cemetery
• beemà - beast
• berìt - pact, penis (vulgar)
• Cadòss Barôkhù - God
• cassèr - community, ghetto
• ganàv - thief
• ganavé - to steal
• ghescér - bridge
• gôì - non-Jewish man
• gôià - non-Jewish woman
• gojìm - non-Jewish people
• hafassìm - jewels (lit. "stuff")
• hamòr - donkey
• hamortà - stupid woman (lit. female of donkey)
• hasìr - pig
• hasirùd - rubbish
• havertà - rough and dissolute woman
• khakhàm - rabbi (lit. "learned one")
• khalaviòd - breasts (from Hebrew "halav", milk)
• khaltrùm - Catholic bigotry
• khamisà - five
• khamissidò - slap
• khanéc - neck (pregnant with meaning, used to swear)
• khaniké - to hang (kill)
• khèder - room
• kinìm - lice
• lakhtì - (exclamation) go away!
• Lassòn Acòdesh - Sacred Language
• macòd - blows
• maftèkh - key
• mahané - neck (generic and neutral)
• mamsér - bastard
• mañòd - money
• medà meshônà - accident (lit. "strange death")
• menaghèm / meraghèl - spy
• Milca - Queen
• morénô - rabbi (lit. "our master")
• nainé - to look at
• ñarél - non-circumcised
• nero - evil, bad
• pakhàt - fear
• pegartà - dead woman
• pôñaltà - dirty, shabbily-clothed woman
• pôñèl - dirty, shabbily-clothed man
• rabbenù - rabbi
• rashàn - non-pious
• rôkhòd - winds
• ruàkh - wind
• samdé - to baptize (lit. "destroy")
• sarfatìm - guards
• saròd - disgraced
• scòla - synagogue, temple
• sefòkh - toddler vomit
• sôrada - appearance, look
• sôtià - crazy woman
• tafùs - prison, jail (it is a Hebrew loanword in Piedmontese jargon. Ca tafus meaning "jail", from ca house, although the piedmontese word is përzon)
• takhôrìm - haemorroids
• tanhanè - to argue

See also

• History of the Jews in Asti

References

1. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2023-07-10). "Glottolog 4.8 - Piemontese-Lombard". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7398962. Archived from the original on 2023-10-29. Retrieved 2023-10-29.
2. Duberti, Nicola; Milano, Maria Teresa; Miola, Emanuele (2015). "A linguistic sketch of Judeo-Piedmontese and what it tells us about Piedmontese Jews' origins". Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie. 131 (4). doi:10.1515/zrp-2015-0072. hdl:11585/646734. S2CID 164003803. Retrieved 15 November 2021.

Sources

• La gran battaja d’j’abrei d’Moncalv^{[permanent dead link]}