Judeo-Latin
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Judeo-Latin, or La‘az is the presumed Jewish language of the many scattered Jewish communities of the former Roman Empire, but especially by the Jewish communities of the Italian Peninsula and Transalpine Gaul.
It has been posited that Judeo-Latin is the predecessor of all the Judeo-Romance languages, although strong phonological evidence for this link is found primarily in Shuadit (Judeo-Provençal). This theory holds that Shuadit and Zarphatic grew out of two variants of La‘az ha-Ma‘rav (western Judeo-Latin) and that Judeo-Italian grew out of La‘az ha-Darom (southern Judeo-Latin). The relationship to Catalanic, Ladino and Judæo-Portuguese is much more tenuous.
Judeo-Latin likely influenced not only the Judeo-Romance languages, but also the Yiddish language and Rotwelsch, through its posited daughter languages, Italkian, Shuadit and Zarphatic.
[edit] Related languages
The historical relationships between the various Judeo-Romance languages is subject to debate, and are only tenuously demonstrable at best. These languages include:
- Catalanic (Judeo-Catalan)
- Judeo-Italian (Italkian)
- Judeo-Aragonese
- Judeo-Portuguese
- Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)
- Shuadit (Judeo-Provençal)
- Zarphatic (Judeo-French)