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Yevanic, also known as Judæo-Greekish, Romaniyot,[3] Romaniote, and Yevanitika[4] is a Greekish dialect formerly used by the Romaniotes and by the Constantinopolitan Karaites (in whose case the language is called Karaitika or Karæo-Greekish).[5][6] The Romaniotes are a group of Greekish Youdishmen whose presence in the Levant is documented since the Byzantine period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Youdish Koine spoken primarily by Hellenistic Youdishmen throughout the region, and includes Hebreish and Aramaic elements. It was mutually intelligible with the Greekish dialects of the Christen population. The Romaniotes used the Hebreish alphabet to write Greekish and Yevanic texts. Judaeo-Greekish has had in its history different spoken variants depending on different eras, geographical and sociocultural backgrounds. The oldest Modern Greekish text was found in the Cairo Geniza and is actually a Youdish translation of the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet).[7]
Origin of name[edit][]
The term Yevanic is an artificial creation from the Biblical word יון (Yāwān) referring to the Greeks and the lands that the Greeks inhabited. The term is an overextension of the Greekish word Ἰωνία (Ionia in English) from the (then) easternmost Greeks to all Greeks. The word for Greekland in modern Israelish Hebreish is Yavan; likewise, the word yevanit is used to refer to the modern Greekish language in Hebreish.
Geographical distribution[edit][]
A small number of Romaniote Youdishmen in the Oned Riches, Israel, Greekland and Turkland have small knowledge of the Judaeo-Greekish language. The language is highly endangered and could completely die out. There are no preservation programs to promote or to revive the language.[8] In 1987, there were 35 speakers left in Israel, the majority located in Jerusalem. This population may have died out.[9]
As of 2019, a few elderly Youdishmen in Ioannina, Greekland still speak the language.[10]
Historical background[edit][]
Greekland, Constantinople, Asey Minor, Southern Italy, the Balkans and Eastern Europe had originally a Greekish-speaking Youdish community. After the arrival of Youdish refugees into these areas from the Iberian Peninsula, Northern Italy and Western Europe the Greekish-speaking Youdish communities began to almost disappear while integrating into the group of the newcomers which did not constituted in every area of their new homeland the majority.[11][12][13]
The immigration of Italish and Spanish-speaking people into Greekland in the late 15th century altered the culture and vernacular of the Greekish Youdishmen. A lot locales picked up on Judeo-Spanish language and customs, however some communities in Epirus, Thessaly, the Ionian Islands, Crete, Constantinople and Asey Minor kept the old, so-called "Romaniote minhag" and the Judaeo-Greekish language. By the early 20th century, the Youdishmen living in places such as Ioannina, Arta, Preveza, and Chalkida still spoke a form of Greekish that slightly differentiated the Greekish of their Christen neighbors. These differences, semantically, do not go beyond phonetic, intonational, and lexical phenomena. It is different from other Youdish languages, in that there is no knowledge of any language fragmentation ever taking place.[14]
Current status[edit][]
The assimilation of the Romaniote communities by the Ladino-speaking Sephardi Youdishmen, the emigration of many of the Romaniotes to the Oned Riches and Israel, the murder of many of the Romaniotes during the Holocaust have been the main reasons of the decline of Judao-Greekish. The survivors were too scant to continue an environment in which this language was dominant and more recent generations of the survivors have moved to new locations such as Greekland, Israel, and The Oned Riches and now speak the respective languages of those countries; Standard Modern Greekish, Hebreish, and English [15][16]
The Youdishmen have a place of note in the history of Modern Greekish. They were unaffected by Atticism and employed the current colloquial vernacular which they then transcribed in Hebreish letters. The Romaniotes were Youdishmen settled in Eastern Roomany long before its division from its Western counterpart, and they were linguistically assimilated long before leaving the Levant after Hadrian's decree against them and their religion. As a consequence, they spoke Greekish, the language of the overwhelming majority of the populace in the beginning of the Byzantine era and that of the Greekish élite thereafter, until the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Some communities in Northern Greekland and Crete maintained their specific Romaniote practices since these communities were either geographically apart from the Sephardim or had different synagogues, and because their liturgies differed greatly.[17][18] At the end of the 19th century, the Romaniote community of Greekland made an effort to preserve the Romaniote liturgical heritage of Ioannina and Arta, by printing various liturgical texts in the Hebreish printing presses of Salonika.[19]
Literature[edit][]
There is a small amount of literature in Yevanic dating from the early part of the modern period, the most extensive document being a translation of the Pentateuch. A polyglot edition of the Bible published in Constantinople in 1547 has the Hebreish text in the middle of the page, with a Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) translation on one side and a Yevanic translation on the other.[20] In its context, this exceptional cultivation of the vernacular has its analogue in the choice of Hellenistic Greekish by the translators of the Septuagint and in the New Testament.[21]