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Judeo-Tat or Juhuri (''cuhuri'', , ) is the traditional language of the
Mountain Jews Mountain Jews or Caucasus Jews also known as Juhuro, Juvuro, Juhuri, Juwuri, Juhurim, Kavkazi Jews or Gorsky Jews ( he, יהודי קווקז ''Yehudey Kavkaz'' or ''Yehudey he-Harim''; russian: Горские евреи, translit=Gorskie Yevrei ...
of the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
and Dagestan, now mainly spoken in Israel. The language is a dialect of
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
which belongs to the southwestern group of the Iranian division of the
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
, albeit with heavy Jewish influence. The Iranic Tat language is spoken by the Muslim Tats of
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
, a group to which the Mountain Jews were mistakenly considered to belong during the era of
Soviet historiography Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union (USSR). In the USSR, the study of history was marked by restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Soviet historiography i ...
though the languages probably originated in the same region of the Persian empire. The words ''Juvuri'' and ''Juvuro'' translate as "Jewish" and "Jews". Judeo-Tat has Semitic (
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 ...
/
Aramaic The Aramaic languages, short Aramaic ( syc, ܐܪܡܝܐ, Arāmāyā; oar, 𐤀𐤓𐤌𐤉𐤀; arc, 𐡀𐡓𐡌𐡉𐡀; tmr, אֲרָמִית), are a language family containing many varieties (languages and dialects) that originated in ...
/
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
) elements on all linguistic levels. Judeo-Tat has the Semitic sound “ ayin/ayn” (ع/ע), whereas no neighbouring languages have it. Judeo-Tat is an endangered language classified as "definitely endangered" by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.


Distribution

The language is spoken by an estimated 101,000 people: * Israel: 70,000 in 1998 *
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...
: 24,000 in 1989 * Russia: 2,000 in 2010 * United States: 5,000 * Canada


Phonology


Alphabet

In the early 20th century Judeo-Tat used the
Hebrew script The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish ...
. In the 1920s the
Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern I ...
was adapted for it; later it was written in Cyrillic. The use of the Hebrew alphabet has enjoyed renewed popularity.


Influences and etymology

Judeo-Tat is a Southwest Iranian language (as is modern
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
) and is much more closely related to modern Persian than most other Iranian languages of the Caucasus
Talysh_Talysh_may_refer_to: *Talysh_people *_History_of_Talysh *Talysh_language *Talysh_Khanate,_in_existence_from_1747_to_1828 *Talysh-Mughan_Autonomous_Republic,_a_self-declared_autonomy,_which_existed_briefly_in_the_south_of_Azerbaijan_in_1993 *Talysh__...
,_
Talysh_Talysh_may_refer_to: *Talysh_people *_History_of_Talysh *Talysh_language *Talysh_Khanate,_in_existence_from_1747_to_1828 *Talysh-Mughan_Autonomous_Republic,_a_self-declared_autonomy,_which_existed_briefly_in_the_south_of_Azerbaijan_in_1993 *Talysh__...
,_Ossetian_language">Ossetian,_and_Kurdish_language.html" "title="Ossetian_language.html" ;"title="Talysh_language.html" "title=".g. Talysh language">Talysh Talysh may refer to: *Talysh people * History of Talysh *Talysh language *Talysh Khanate, in existence from 1747 to 1828 *Talysh-Mughan Autonomous Republic, a self-declared autonomy, which existed briefly in the south of Azerbaijan in 1993 *Talysh ...
, Ossetian language">Ossetian, and Kurdish language">Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...
]. However, it also bears strong influence from other sources: Persian language, Medieval Persian: Postpositions are used predominantly in lieu of prepositions e.g. modern Persian: باز او > Judeo-Tat ''æ uræ-voz'' "with him/her".
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: like in modern Persian, a significant portion of the vocabulary is Arabic in origin. Unlike modern Persian, Judeo-Tat has almost universally retained the original pharyngeal/uvular phonemes of Arabic e.g. "honey" (Arab. ), "morning" (Arab. ).
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 ...
: As other Jewish dialects, the language also has many Hebrew loanwords e.g. "table" (Heb. ''shulḥan''), "luck" (Heb. ''mazal''), "rich" (Heb. ''ʻashir''). Hebrew words are typically pronounced in the tradition of other Mizrahi Jews. Examples: and are pronounced pharyngeally (like Arabic ‎, respectively); is pronounced as a
voiced uvular plosive The voiced uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is G\. is a rare sound, even ...
(like Persian ). Classical Hebrew () and ( kamatz), however, are typically pronounced as /v/ and /o/ respectively (similar to the Persian/Ashkenazi traditions, but unlike the Iraqi tradition, which retains and ) Azerbaijani:
Vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
and many loan words
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
: Loanwords adopted after the Russian Empire's annexation of Daghestan and Azerbaijan
Northeast Caucasian languages The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in ...
: e.g. "small" (probably the same origin as the medieval Caucasian city name "Sera-chuk" mentioned by Ibn Battuta, meaning "little Sera") Other common phonology/morphology changes from classical Persian/Arabic/Hebrew: * > /o/, /æ/, or /u/ e.g. "book" (Arab. ), "road/path" (Pers. ''rāh''), "sacrifice" (Arab. or Aramaic ) * /o/ > /u/ e.g. "Absalom" (Heb. ''Abshalom'') * /u/ > /y/, especially under the influence of
vowel harmony In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
* Stress on final syllable words * Dropping of the final /n/, e.g. /soχtæ/ "to make" (Pers. ''sākhtan'')


Dialects

Being a variety of the Tat language, Judeo-Tat itself can be divided into several dialects: *Quba dialect (traditionally spoken in
Quba Quba () is a city and the administrative centre of the Quba District of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the north-eastern slopes of Shahdag mountain, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, on the right bank of the Kudyal river. It has a po ...
and
Qırmızı Qəsəbə Qırmızı Qəsəbə (, ), translated as "Red Town" (russian: Красная Слобода, ; he, , ), is a village and municipality in the Quba District of Azerbaijan. It has a population of approximately 3,598 people. Outside of Israel and th ...
). *Derbent dialect (traditionally spoken in the town of Derbent and the surrounding villages). *Kaitag dialect (spoken in the
North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
). The dialects of Oğuz (formerly Vartashen) and the now extinct Jewish community of Mücü have not been studied well and thus cannot be classified.Language of the Mountain Jews of Dagestan
by E.Nazarova


See also

*
Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik dialect) Bukharian (autonym: Bukhori, Hebrew script: בוכארי, Cyrillic: бухорӣ, Latin: ''Buxorī'') is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from —and largely mutually in ...


References


Further reading

* *


External links

* Judeo-Tat literature
Горско-еврейский язык
(словарь, грамматика, библиотека)
JUHURO.RU - Информационно развлекательный портал горских евреев
Горские Евреи Израиля population ~70,000
Горские Евреи Нальчика
Mountain Jews of Nalchik.
Горские Евреи Америки
Mountain Jews of the US.
Сайт Горских Евреев
Культура новости
Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World: "Juhūrī (Judeo-Tat or Judeo-Tātī)", p 16 sq
print: Brill, Leiden 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Juhuri Language Judeo-Persian languages Languages of the Caucasus Endangered Iranian languages Languages of Azerbaijan Languages of Russia : : : Persian language