The Iranian languages spoken by the Jews are often lumped under the term “Judeo-Persian.” Yet properly construed, the latter term refers to forms of Persian written with the Hebrew script. The corpus of Judeo-Persian texts is significant for both linguistic and literary reasons, because it includes some of the earliest documents of New Persian, and because it constitutes a sizable literature written by Persian Jews. However, there are also several spoken languages, different from Judeo-Persian, that also belong to the Iranian stock and are associated with Jewish populations in Iran. What we refer to here as “Judeo-Median” are a number of languages that have their core in central Iran and are/were spoken by the Jewry of Isfahan, Kashan, Yazd, and outlying western towns. All of these varieties are on the verge of extinction, both in their original homeland and in diaspora. Belonging to the Northwest group of Iranian languages, Judeo-Median differs from Persian (a Southwest language) not only in pedigree but also in its vocabulary and grammar—rendering it unintelligible to Persian monolinguals. This article studies the Judeo-Median dialects collectively, exhibiting their major similarities and differences, and attempting to enumerate and arrive at a tentative classification.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Abrahamian Roubène Dialectologie Iranienne: dialectes des Israélites de Hamadan et d’Isphahan et dialecte de Baba Tahir 1936 Paris Adrien-Maisonneuve
Borjian Habib “Isfahan xx. Geography of the Median Dialects of Isfahan Province” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2007 xiv 1 84 93
Borjian Habib “Median Succumbs to Persian after Three Millennia of Coexistence: Language Shift in the Central Iranian Plateau” Journal of Persianate Studies 2009 2 1 62 87
Borjian Habib “Kashan ix. The Median Dialects of Kashan” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2011a xvi 1 38 48
Borjian Habib “When and How Did the Vernacular of Isfahan Shift from Median to Persian?” Irānšenāsi 2011b 22 4 639 654 (in Persian)
Borjian Habib “Judeo-Kashani: A Central Iranian Plateau Dialect” Journal of the American Oriental Society 2012 132 1 1 21
De Planhol Xavier “Hamadān iii. Historical Geography” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2003 xi 6 605 607
Ebrāhimi Ayyub Eṣfahān neṣf-e jahān: Farhang-e vāžehā o eṣṭelāḥāt-e jidi, guyeš-e yahudiān-e Maḥalle-ye Eṣfahān 2006 2nd ed Los Angeles Design Printing
Endangered Language Alliance Jewish Languages 2012 accessed 29 November 2013 Judeo-Median, http://elalliance.org/projects/jewish-languages/judeo-median-iran/
English Paul Ward City and Village in Iran: Settlement and Economy in the Kirman Basin 1966 Madison, WI University of Wisconsin Press
Ethnologue: Languages of the World accessed 29 November 2013 https://www.ethnologue.com/language/jpr
Fischel Walter “Isfahan, the Story of a Jewish Community in Persia” The Joshua Starr Memorial Volume 1953 New York Jewish Social Studies Publications 111 128
Gindin Thamar E. Shaked S. & Netzer A. “Ergative Constructions in the Jewish Dialect of Yazd?” Irano-Judaica v: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages 2003a Jerusalem Ben-Zvi Institute 105 119
Gindin Thamar E. Hourcade Bernard “A Unique Plural Form in Judeo-Yazdi” Iran: Questions et Connaissances 2003b 3 45 56 Studia Iranica, Cahier 27
Grjunberg A.L. Jazyk severoazerbajdžanskix Tatov 1963 Leningrad Science Academy
Ḥasandust Moḥammad Farhang-e taṭbiqi-mowżuʿi-e zabānhā o guyešhā-ye irāni-e now 2010 2 vols. Tehran Farhangestān
Hopkins Simon Shaked S. & Netzer A. “The Neo-Aramaic Dialects of Iran” Irano-Judaica 1999 iv Jerusalem Ben-Zvi Institute 311 327
Sotude M. Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam 1983 Tehran Ṭahuri
Iṣṭaxri de Goeje M.J. Kitāb masālik al-mamālik 1967 3rd ed. Leiden Brill Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum
Iṣṭaxri Afšār I. Medieval Persian Kitāb masālik al-mamālik 1963 Tehran Bongāh-e tarjeme o našr-e ketāb Medieval Persian translation by Moḥammad Tostarī Masālek o mamālek
Ivanow W. “The Gabri Dialect Spoken by the Zoroastrians of Persia” Rivista degli Studi Orientali 1935 16 31 97
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906 The unedited full-text of the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com
Kalbāsi Irān Guyeš-e Kalimiān-e Eṣfahān 1994 Tehran Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies
Kiā Ṣādeq Vāženāme-ye šaṣt-o-haft guyeš-e irāni 2011 Tehran Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies
Lazard Gilbert “Le Dialect des Juifs de Kerman” Monumentum Georg Morgenstierne 1981 Paris Brill 333 46 Acta Iranica 21
Lazard Gilbert Netzer A. “The Dialectology of Judeo-Persian” Pādyāvand 1996 i Costa Mesa, CA Mazda 33 59
Maman A. Synoptic Dictionary of the Hebrew Component in Jewish Languages 2013 Jerusalem Magnes Press Eda ve-Lashon 31
Mansour Iris “Struggling to Preserve an Iranian Jewish Language before It Goes Extinct” Tablet 2013 accessed 15 November 2013 (22 July 2013), http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/136371/endangered-jewish-languages
Moreen Vera Basch Iranian Jewry’s Hour of Peril and Heroism: A Study of Bābāi Ibn Luṭf’s Chronicle (1617-1662) 1987 New York The American Academy for Jewish Research
Morgenstierne Georg “Stray Notes on Persian Dialects” Nork Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap 1960 19 73 140
Netzer Amnon Shaked S. “An Isfahāni Jewish Folk-Song” Irano-Judaica: Studies Relating to Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages 1982 Jerusalem Ben-Zvi Institute 180 203
Paul Ludwig A Grammar of Early Judaeo-Persian 2013 Wiesbaden Reichelt
Rzehak Lutz Baldauf I., Grammer M. & Loy T. “The Linguistic Challenge: Bukharan Jews and Soviet Language Policy” Bukharan Jews in the 20th Century 2008 Wiesbaden Reichelt Verlag 37 55
Sahim Haideh Shaked S. & Netzer A. “The Dialect of the Jews of Hamedan” Irano-Judaica iii: Studies Relating to the Jewish Contacts with Persian Culture throughout the Ages 1994 Jerusalem Ben-Zvi Institute 171 81
Salāmi ʿAbd-al-Nabi Ganjine-ye guyešhā-ye Fārs 2004-2011 i–vi Tehran Farhangestān (Pur-e Davān)
Sarshar Houman “Hamadān viii. Jewish Community” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2003 xi 6 616 623
Schwartz Martin “Loteraʾi” Encyclopaedia Iranica Online 2012 accessed 3 September 2013 http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/loterai
Shaked Shaul Sundermann W., Duchesne-Guillemin J. & Vahman F. “An Early Geniza Fragment in an Unknown Iranian Dialect” Barg-e sabz. A Green Leaf. Papers in Honor of Prof. Jes P. Asmussen 1988 Leiden Brill 219 235 Acta Iranica 28
Shaked Shaul Sundermann W., Hintze A. & de Blois F. “Classification of Linguistic Features in Early Judeo-Persian texts” Exigisti monumenta. Festschrift in Honour of Nicholas Sims-Williams 2009 Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 449 461 Iranica 17
Stilo Donald “Hamadān ix. Jewish Dialect” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2003 xi 6 623 627
Stilo Donald “Isfahan xix. Jewish Dialect” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2007a xiv 1 77 84
Stilo Donald “Isfahan xxi. Provincial Dialects.” Encyclopaedia Iranica 2007b xiv 1 93 112
Tafazzoli Ahmad “Fahlaviyāt” Encyclopaedia Iranica 1999 ix 2 158 162
Vahman Fereydun & Asatrian Garnik Notes on the Language and Ethnography of the Zoroastrians of Yazd 2002 85 Copenhagen Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Historisk-filosofiske Meddelesser
Yarshater Ehsan Gignoux P. & Tafazzoli A. “The Jewish Communities of Persia and Their Dialects” Mélanges Jean de Menasce 1974 Louvain 453 66
Yarshater Ehsan “The Hybrid Language of the Jewish Community of Persia” Journal of the American Oriental Society 1977 97 1 1 7
Yarshater Ehsan “Azerbaijan vii. The Iranian Language of Azerbaijan” Encyclopaedia Iranica 1988 iii 3 238 245
Yarshater Ehsan Meyer L. & Haerinck E. “The Dialect of Borujerd Jews” Archaeologia Iranica et Orientalis: Miscellanea in Honorem Louis Vanden Berghe 1989 ii Ghent Peeters Presse 1029 1046
Yeroushalmi David The Jews of Iran in the Nineteenth Century 2009 Leiden Brill
Žukovskij Valentin A. Materialy dlja izučenija persidskix’ narečij 1922 ii Petrograd Russian Science Academy
Gindin 2003a.
From Yarshater 1974:465. Apparently, intra-dental fricative δ is transcribed as d.
Morgenstierne 1960:130–131.
See Maman 2013:60–61.
See Maman 2013:238.
Yarshater 1977: 2.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 744 | 161 | 24 |
Full Text Views | 193 | 7 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 101 | 17 | 0 |
The Iranian languages spoken by the Jews are often lumped under the term “Judeo-Persian.” Yet properly construed, the latter term refers to forms of Persian written with the Hebrew script. The corpus of Judeo-Persian texts is significant for both linguistic and literary reasons, because it includes some of the earliest documents of New Persian, and because it constitutes a sizable literature written by Persian Jews. However, there are also several spoken languages, different from Judeo-Persian, that also belong to the Iranian stock and are associated with Jewish populations in Iran. What we refer to here as “Judeo-Median” are a number of languages that have their core in central Iran and are/were spoken by the Jewry of Isfahan, Kashan, Yazd, and outlying western towns. All of these varieties are on the verge of extinction, both in their original homeland and in diaspora. Belonging to the Northwest group of Iranian languages, Judeo-Median differs from Persian (a Southwest language) not only in pedigree but also in its vocabulary and grammar—rendering it unintelligible to Persian monolinguals. This article studies the Judeo-Median dialects collectively, exhibiting their major similarities and differences, and attempting to enumerate and arrive at a tentative classification.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 744 | 161 | 24 |
Full Text Views | 193 | 7 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 101 | 17 | 0 |