Ladino: Language, History, and Music

Carey AverbookMoroccan Music Mini-term 2008

NCSSM

The Language

• Judeo-Spanish in essence

•Ottoman Empire

• Spoken primarily by Sephardic Jews (Modern Day)

•“preserves many old words, proverbs, songs, legends, and romances.”

Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Various Names of ‘Ladino’

•Called Ladino in Balkans and Turkey, to distinguish from Latin•Known as Yahudice (Jewish language) in the Ottoman Empire•Called Haquitiya in Tangier and Tetuan (both cities in Spanish Morocco)•Northern AfricaThis is a map of the

Ottoman Empire, early 1920s: Comprised of N Africa, Mediterranean, Balkans, and Middle East

Who are Sephardic Jews:The primary speakers of Ladino

Originally referred to Jews living and expelled from Iberian Peninsula from 1492-1496Expelled from Spain in 1492Expelled from Portugal in 1496

Iberian Peninsula is present day Portugal and Spain

It now refers to the Jewish exiles and their descendants who settled in the Ottoman Empire as well as indigenous Jews who already lived in the countries.

Some of these Jews fled to the New World

History- Origins

• Origins in 1492, when Jews were expelled from Spain; they took their language with them:

• To the Ottoman Empire

•Regional dialects

•It was the common language of Salonika (a city in Northern Greece) during Ottoman rule.

• Ladino remained widely spoken

History- 20th Century

• Number of speakers declined due to the Holocaust.

• Ladino is in danger of extinction• Olim

• However, there has been a minor revival in Sephardic communities

• Various countries in Latin America still use the Ladino language

Carey averbook

History- Modern

• Some Sephardic families have lived in Jerusalem for centuries, preserving Ladino, even though they use Hebrew in everyday life.

The Language TodayAbout 200,000 speakers in the world, mostly in

Israel

Number of speakers has diminished:Pre WWI: 770,000 spoke Ladino in Greece alone

Other countries with native speakers include Turkey, Bulgaria, Israel, Romania, Greece, Morocco, and Latin American Countries

The borrowing of other languages is so heavy; about 30% Ladino is of non-Spanish origin.

The Writing of LadinoWritten using the Hebrew alphabetRetains much of 15th Century Spanish

vocabulary and Spanish spellingsMediterranean influences

Ladino LiteratureFocused on religious services and philosophy

up to the 18th Century:Literature in Ladino appeared in the 18th

centuryThree major categories:

Translations of sacred textsRabbinic literatureFolk tales, fables, proverbs, poems, and short

stories

Examples of Ladino LiteratureTranslations of Hebrew Bible, High Holiday

prayer book, Passover HaggadahPoetry of Shmuel HaNagid (993-1056), Shlomo

ibn Gabirol (1021-1058), and Yehuda Halevi (1075-1141), and treatises by Yehuda Halevi, Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), and Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410/1411)

Me'am LoezEjoha, otherwise known as Joha

Ladino Literature Today

• In 2001, the Jewish Publication Society• Matilda Koén-Sarano

• Writers are struggling to keep Ladino literature alive

• Ladino is not usually published alone, but with a Spanish or Hebrew work

Ladino Music• Songs are divided into 

•Romansas/ ballads (dramatic narrative poems) •Kantigas (lyric songs,) •Muwashshahat (poetical forms)

•Survived for centuries• In The Sephardic Experience, there are many “references to foods which were staples of the Ottoman Sephardic diet”

• The Ladino music embodies themes of “Sabbath food, tragic births in the royal palace, joyous, wicked, seductive, rejected and spiritual love, and mischievous, intoxicated, boisterous pre– and post–nuptial hijinks.”

http://www.harmonies.com/releases/13169.htm

ComparisonThe Mourner’s

Kaddish: Hebrew Text

http://www.613.org/cantor/kadish-s.ram MUST USE FIREFOX AND VLC PLAYER

• This audio clip is a Ladino version of the Mourner’s Kaddish/ Yitgadal ve-yitgadash

• Try to hear the Hebrew Influences

Glorified and sanctified be God's great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for usand for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

English Translation:

Kantigas Una Matica De Ruda:

Una matica de rudaUna matica de florHija mia mi queridaDime a mi quen te la dio

Me la dio un mancevicoQue di mi s'enomoro

Hija mia mi queridaNo t'eches a la perdicionMas vale un mal maridoQue un mancevo de amor

Mal marido, la mi madreUn pilisco y la maldicionMancevo de amor, la mi madreUna mansana y el buen limon

MUSIC! A sprig of rue, a flowering sprig

My dear daughter, tell me, who gave it to you

It was given me by a lad who fell in love with me

My dear daughter, don't fall into ruinIt's better to have a bad husband than a young lover

A bad husband, mother, is a pinch and a curseA young lover, mother, is like a (ripe) apple and a (fragrant) lemon 

RomansasPor Una Ninya (For One

Beautiful Girl)

Por una ninya tan ermoza l'alma yo la vo a dar un kuchiyo de dos kortes en el korason entro.

No me mires ke'sto kantando es yorar ke kero yo los mis males son muy grandes no los puedo somportar.

No te lo kontengas tu, ijika, ke sos blanka komo'l simit, ay morenas en el mundo ke kemaron Selanik.

For a beautiful girl I would give my soul a double-edged knife pierced my heart.

Don't look at me singing, crying is what I want to do, my sorrow is so great I can't bear it.

Don't hold your sorrow, young girl, for you are white like bread, there are brunette girls in the world who set fire to Salonika.

Muwashshahat Includes a typical musical ABA form,

intricate melodies that are based on traditional rhythmic modes, and performance by a chorus, with or without soloists

Information and Music

Popular Song: Cuando el Rey Nimrod

When King Nimrod walked through the fieldsLooking into the skies, reading into the stars,He saw the good star shining onto the JewsThey where to give birth to Abraham Avinu...

Abraham Avinu, beloved father,Blesssed is thy name, light to Israel...

Terachs wife knew she was pregnantday to day he would ask her- Why do you have such a full blessed faceShe was well aware the good she was given.

http://www.savethemusic.com/ladino/bin/music.cgi?Page=reynimrod&Singerbio=reynimrod_ncastel

“is a Ladino song that celebrates the birth of Abraham. It incorporates many elements taken from the Nimrod midrashim. This song is sung as a Shabbat z'mira (table song) and at circumcisions. The exact date of its origin is unknown but it probably dates from the 16th or 17th century.”

Romansa

http://www.savethemusic.com/ladino/bin/music.cgi?Page=reynimrod&Song=about_reynimrod

Example of Sheet Music

BibliographyMicrosoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006

Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.sephardicstudies.org/images/

grandees-ladino2.jpg http://www.goldenland.com/pictures/

sons_sepharad.jpg http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/f/l

adino.htm

http://www.library.fau.edu/news/images/110707a.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladino_language

Bibliography Cont.http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Ottoman.jpghttp://www.jewishgen.org/Sephardic/sephardi

c_roffe.HTMhttp://www.ou.org/yerushalayim/kadish.htmhttp://myjewishlearning.com/culture/literatur

e/EuropeanLit/LadinoLiterature.htmhttp://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=

en&ModuleId=10005422http://www.harmonies.com/releases/13169.ht

m