Judaeo-Catalan ( he, קטלאנית יהודית; ca, judeocatalà, ), also called Catalanic or Qatalanit ( he, קאטאלנית; ca, catalànic or '), was a presumed

Jewish language Jewish languages are the various languages and dialects that developed in Jewish communities in the diaspora. The original Jewish language is Hebrew, supplanted as the primary vernacular by Aramaic following the Babylonian exile. Jewish langua ...

spoken by the Jews in Northern Catalonia and what is today Northeastern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, especially in

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

and the Balearic Islands. Linguistically, it has been described as sharing many features in common with early

Judaeo-Provençal Shuadit (also spelled ''Chouhadite'', ''Chouhadit'', ''Chouadite'', ''Chouadit'', and ''Shuhadit''), also called Judæo-Occitan or less accurately Judæo-Provençal or Judæo-Comtadin, is an extinct Occitan dialect historically spoken by French ...

. This would be the case of the Jews living in Old Catalonia, stretching between Perpignan and Barcelona, linked with Occitania at least until the battle of Muret in 1213. Most Jewish texts in this area are written in

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

with Hebrew

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

. However, in western and southern Catalonia, Judaeo-Catalan should have been quite distinct from Judaeo-Provençal, mostly as a result of the Moorish conquest of Iberia. The golden age of Judaeo-Catalan is supposed to have been between the early 12th century and 1492, when the Jews were expelled from Spain by Alhambra Decree. However, the very existence of the Judeo-Catalan is debated. While authors like Paul Wexler defend its existence, it is usually understood that "''the evidence of its existence is scarce, although texts are known that mix Catalan and Hebrew, and the subject is rather controversial''". In one of the few investigations on the subject, Feliu and Ferrer (2011) analyzed a set of notarial texts of 1443, and concluded that their analysis "''allows us to sign the death certificate of a linguistic ghost – the supposed 'Judeo-Catalan dialect' that never was''". Another subsequent study of some songs from the same period suggests the existence of a "''linguistic repertoire of the Jews of medieval Catalonia''", although it does not prove the existence of a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

proper.

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* * * * Catalan language Extinct Romance languages Judaeo-French languages Judaeo-Spanish languages {{Catalonia-stub

See also

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