Present Status
Judeo-Latin, Zarphatic, Shuadit, Catalanic and Judeo-Aragonese are all now dead languages. Judeo-Latin since ancient times, Zarphatic and Judeo-Aragonese in the Middle Ages, and Shuadit, upon the death of its last speaker in 1977.
Judeo-Portuguese remain primarily only as vestiges in the speech of the Crypto-Jewish communities of Portugal.
Italkian, spoken only two generations ago by as many as 5,000 Italian Jews is, today, spoken by fewer than 200, mostly elderly.
Ladino or Judezmo is spoken by the remaining Sephardic communities of the Maghreb in northern Africa, in the Middle East, especially in Turkey, and in the State of Israel itself by as many as 150,000 people, the vast majority of whom are at least bilingual.
Like most Jewish languages, the future of the Judeo-Romance languages is uncertain. Given the rise to dominance of Hebrew as a means of communication among Jewish communities in the Middle East, and the increasing prestige of English, as well as the economic importance of local vernaculars (especially Turkish), the situation appears grim.
Read more about this topic: Judaeo-Romance Languages
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or status:
“Ambition is an uncomfortable companion many times. He creates a discontent with present surroundings and achievements; he is never satisfied but always pressing forward to better things in the future. Restless, energetic, purposeful, it is ambition that makes of the creature a real man.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
—A.J. (Arthur James)