Judaeo-Piedmontese was the vernacular language of the
Italian Jews
Italian Jews ( it, Ebrei Italiani, he, יהודים איטלקים ''Yehudim Italkim'') or Roman Jews ( it, Ebrei Romani, he, יהודים רומים ''Yehudim Romim'') can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in I ...
living in
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, from about the 15th century until
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
.
It was based on the
Piedmontese language
Piedmontese (; autonym: or , in it, piemontese) is a language spoken by some 2,000,000 people mostly in Piedmont, northwestern region of Italy. Although considered by most linguists a separate language, in Italy it is often mistakenly regard ...
, with many loanwords from ancient
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Provençal, and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. Most of the speakers were murdered during the war, and as of 2015 it is virtually extinct.
Small vocabulary
The dialect never had written phonetic rules; the words in this list are written according to 's short satirical poem (''The great battle of the Jews of Moncalvo'', in Italian) and
Primo Levi
Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...
's book ''
The Periodic Table''.
Pronunciation:
(kh) as in German "Nacht".
(ñ) nasal, as in English "sing"; not to be confused with the Spanish .
(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".
* - blessing
* - God, Lord
* - 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
Sources
La gran battaja d’j’abrei d’Moncalv
Judaeo-Italian languages
Languages of Piedmont
Piedmontese language
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