Yevanic, otherwise known as Judeo-Greek, was the dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the Hellenistic period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Hellenistic Koine (Ελληνική Κοινή) and includes Hebrew elements as well. It was mutually intelligible with Greek of the Christian population. The Romaniotes used Hebrew alphabet to write Greek and Yevanic texts.
The term "Yevanic" is an artificial creation from the Biblical word Yāwān referring to the Greeks and the lands that the Greeks inhabited. The term is an overextension of the Greek word Ἰωνία (Ionia in English) from the (then) easternmost Greeks to all Greeks.
There are no longer any native speakers of Yevanic, for the following reasons:
- The assimilation of the tiny Romaniote communities by the more numerous Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews;
- The emigration of many of the Romaniotes to the United States and Israel;
- The murder of many of the Romaniotes during the Holocaust;
- The adoption of the majority languages through assimilation.
Famous quotes containing the word language:
“Language makes it possible for a child to incorporate his parents’ verbal prohibitions, to make them part of himself....We don’t speak of a conscience yet in the child who is just acquiring language, but we can see very clearly how language plays an indispensable role in the formation of conscience. In fact, the moral achievement of man, the whole complex of factors that go into the organization of conscience is very largely based upon language.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)