>Zhomron at 02:25, 1 March 2021

2021-03-01T02:25:09Z

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=February 2019}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Judeo-Malayalam
| nativename = യെഹൂദ്യമലയാളം (''yehūdyamalayāḷaṃ'')<br />പഴയ ഭാഷ (''paḻaya bhāṣa'')<br />מלאיאלאם יהודית (''malayalam yəhûḏîṯ)<br />
| pronunciation =
| states = [[Kerala]], [[Israel]]
| ethnicity = [[Cochin Jews]]
| speakers = a few dozen
| date = 2009
| ref = <ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://shemer.mslib.huji.ac.il/dissertations/W/JMS/001489509.pdf|title=Jewish Malayalam – Womens's Songs|last=Gamliel|first=Ophira|date=2009|publisher=[[Hebrew University]]|access-date=19 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326052302/http://shemer.mslib.huji.ac.il/dissertations/W/JMS/001489509.pdf|archive-date=26 March 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| familycolor = Dravidian
| fam2 = [[Southern Dravidian languages|Southern Dravidian]]
| fam3 = [[Tamil–Kannada languages|Tamil–Kannada]]
| fam4 = [[Tamil–Kodagu languages|Tamil–Kodagu]]
| fam5 = [[Tamil–Malayalam languages|Tamil–Malayalam]]
| fam6 = [[Malayalam languages]]
| script = [[Malayalam alphabet]]<br />[[Hebrew alphabet]]
| isoexception = dialect
| glotto = none
| notice = Indic
| map = Judeo-Malayalam map.svg
| mapcaption = Judeo-Malayalam speaking communities in [[Kerala]] (largely historical) and Israel (current)
}}

{{Jews and Judaism sidebar}}
'''Judeo-Malayalam''' ({{lang-ml|links=no|യെഹൂദ്യമലയാളം}}, ''{{transl|ml|yehūdyamalayāḷaṃ}}''; {{lang-he|links=no|מלאיאלאם יהודית}}, ''{{transl|he|malayalam yəhūḏīṯ}}'') is the traditional language of the [[Cochin Jews]] (also called '''Malabar Jews'''), from [[Kerala]], in southern [[India]], spoken today by a few dozens of people in [[Israel]] and by probably fewer than 25 in India.

Judeo-Malayalam is the only known [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] [[Jewish languages|Jewish language]]. (The only other Dravidian language spoken regularly by a Jewish community is [[Telugu language|Telugu]], spoken by the small, and only very newly observant Jewish community of east-central [[Andhra Pradesh]]. ''See related article: [[Telugu Jews]]''.)

Since it does not differ substantially in [[grammar]] or [[syntax]] from other colloquial [[Malayalam language|Malayalam]] dialects, it is not considered by many linguists to be a [[language]] in its own right, but a [[dialect]], or simply a language variation. Judeo-Malayalam shares with other Jewish languages like [[Ladino (language)|Ladino]], [[Judeo-Arabic]] and [[Yiddish]], common traits and features. For example, verbatim translations from Hebrew to Malayalam, archaic features of Old Malayalam, Hebrew components agglutinated to Dravidian verb and noun formations and special idiomatic usages based on its Hebrew loanwords. Due to the lack of long-term scholarship on this language variation, there is no separate designation for the language (if it can be so considered), for it to have its own language code (''see also [[SIL International|SIL]] and [[ISO 639]]'').

Unlike many [[Jew]]ish languages, Judeo-Malayalam is not written using the [[Hebrew alphabet]]. It does, however, like most Jewish languages, contain many [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[loanword]]s, which are regularly transliterated, as much as possible, using the [[Malayalam script]]. Like many other Jewish languages, Judeo-Malayalam also contains a number of [[vocabulary|lexical]], [[phonology|phonological]] and [[syntax|syntactic]] archaisms, in this case, from the days before Malayalam became fully distinguished from [[Tamil language|Tamil]].

In spite of claims by some Paradesi Jews that their ancestors' [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]] influenced the development of Judeo-Malayalam, so far no such influence, not even on the superficial lexical level, is found. There is, however, affiliation with [[Mappila Malayalam]], especially of North Malabar, in words such as ''khabar'' or ''khabura'' (grave), and formations such as ''[[wikt:mayat|mayyatt]] āyi'' (മയ്യത്ത് ആയി) used by Muslims and ''[[shalom|śalōṃ]] āyi'' (ശലോം ആയി) used by Jews for ''died'' (മരിച്ചു പോയി, ''mariccu pōyi'' in standard Malayalam). As with the parent language, Judeo-Malayalam also contains loanwords from [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] and Pali as a result of the long-term affiliation of Malayalam, like all the other Dravidian languages, with Pali and Sanskrit through sacred and secular Buddhist and Hindu texts.

Because the vast majority of scholarship regarding the Cochin Jews has concentrated on the ethnographic accounts in English provided by [[Paradesi Jews]] (sometimes also called ''White Jews''), who immigrated to Kerala from Europe in the sixteenth century and later, the study of the status and role of Judeo-Malayalam has suffered neglect. Since their emigration to Israel, Cochin Jewish immigrants have participated in documenting and studying the last speakers of Judeo-Malayalam, mostly in Israel. In 2009, a documentation project was launched under the auspices of the [[Ben-Zvi Institute]] in Jerusalem. Digital copies can be obtained for any scholar who wishes to study Judeo-Malayalam.

==See also==
* [[Suriyani Malayalam]]
* [[Arabi Malayalam]]

==References==
{{Refbegin}}
*[http://www.jewish-languages.org/jewish-malayalam.html "Judeo-Malayalam page"], Jewish Language Research
*[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=mal "Malayalam" page], Ethnologue
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081006093028/http://www.omniglot.com/writing/languages.htm#hebrew Hebrew (omniglot.com)]
*[http://www.the-south-asian.com/March2001/Jews_of_India-Intro.htm "Jews of India"], ''The South Asian''
{{Refend}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
[https://archive.org/details/Jewish_Womens_Malayalam_Song_Notebook An old manuscript of Jewish Women's Malayalam Song Notebook]

{{Dravidian languages}}
{{Jewish languages}}
{{Languages spoken in Kerala}}
{{Malayalam Literature |state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Cochin Jews]]
[[Category:Dravidian languages]]
[[Category:Jewish languages]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in India]]
[[Category:Languages of India]]
[[Category:Malayalam dialects]]
[[Category:Languages of Kerala]]
[[Category:Judaism in Kerala]]
[[Category:Endangered languages of India]]

Judeo-Malayalam - Revision history

>Zhomron at 02:25, 1 March 2021