Zarphatic, also called Judeo-French (Zarphatic: ''Tzarfatit'') or Western Loez, is a language that was spoken by the

French Jews The history of the Jews in France deals with Jews and Jewish communities in France since at least the Early Middle Ages. France was a centre of Jewish learning in the Middle Ages, but Persecution of Jews, persecution increased over time, includ ...

of northern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and in parts of west-central

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, such as

Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and Aix-la-Chapelle. It was also spoken by French Jews who moved to

Norman England The territory today known as England became inhabited more than 800,000 years ago, as the discovery of stone tools and footprints at Happisburgh in Norfolk have indicated.; "Earliest footprints outside Africa discovered in Norfolk" (2014). B ...

. Some have conjectured that the language influenced the development of

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

Etymology

The term ''Zarphatic'', coined by

Solomon Birnbaum Solomon Asher Birnbaum, also ''Salomo Birnbaum'' ( ''Shloyme Birnboym'', December 24, 1891 – December 28, 1989) was a Yiddish linguist and Hebrew palaeographer who was born in Vienna and died in Toronto.Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

name for France, (), which was originally used in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Sarepta Sarepta (near modern Sarafand, Lebanon) was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre, also known biblically as Zarephath. It became a bishopric, which faded, and remains a double (Latin and Maronite) Catholic titula ...

, in

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

. Unlike most other

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

which had many loan words from

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, it had relatively few. This has led to the conclusion that it may not have been a far-distant language but, instead, a dialect of

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

History and use

Zarphatic was written using a variation of the Hebrew alphabet. It first appeared in this form in the 11th century in Gloss (annotation), glosses of the Torah and Talmud written by the rabbis Moshe HaDarshan and Rashi. The language became secularised during the

13th century The 13th century was the century which lasted from January 1, 1201 (represented by the Roman numerals MCCI) through December 31, 1300 (MCCC) in accordance with the Julian calendar. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan, which stretched ...

, becoming used in varied domains such as poetry, medicine, astronomy, and commerce. Most linguists agree that Zarphatic was not fundamentally different from

, and that it was more of a writing system and literary tradition that reflected the Jewish culture of the day. According to some researchers, it was different from the Christian majority dialect, and thus a specific Judeo-Romance language. However, other linguists contend that it was essentially the same as Christian dialects of the same regions, with only some Hebrew influences. It seems that Zarphatic was probably never a

vernacular language Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken form of language, particularly when perceived as having lower social status or less prestige than standard language, which is more codified, institutionally promoted, literary, or formal. More n ...

, and that the Jews of the area did not speak a differing language or dialect, at least not one distinguished by

phonology Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

beyond that specific to a community. Rather, it acted more as a liturgical language, for exegesis and literature. Its primary use was for explanation and vulgarisation of biblical and rabbinical literature. Most of the elements from the Hebrew language are found in the function words (articles, prepositions, etc.), though there are some changed to verbs and vocabulary.

Extinction

Due to the constant persecution, killing and expulsion of Jews from FranceHistory
Total expulsion of Jews from France by King Charles VI on 17 September 1394 and other European nations, the Zarphatic language likely went extinct in the 14th century; documentation of the language slows in the mid-14th century. The last known example of Zarphatic is a recipe for '' charoset'' written in 1470.

Writing system

Zarphatic was written using the Hebrew writing system and the Tiberian system for

diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

al markers and reflected some Latin writing traditions that help to distinguish it from a solely phonetic reproduction of spoken language. Not all Hebrew graphemes are used in Zarphatic: the graphemes

kaph Kaph (also spelled kaf) is the eleventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''kāp'' 𐤊, Hebrew ''kāp̄'' , Aramaic ''kāp'' 𐡊, Syriac ''kāp̄'' ܟ, and Arabic ''kāf'' (in abjadi order). It is also related to the Anc ...

(כ),

samekh Samekh or samech is the fifteenth Letter (alphabet), letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician ''sāmek'' 𐤎, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew ''sāmeḵ'' , Aramaic alphabet, Aramaic ''samek'' 𐡎, and Syriac alphabet, Syr ...

(ס), and tav (ת), are rare, and ḥet (ח) and ʕayin (ע) are omitted entirely.

References

*Information for this article draws heavily on the information presented on th
Jewish Languages project Judeo-French page
* * Philippe Bobichon, ''Controverse judéo-chrétienne en Ashkenaz (XIIIe s.). Florilèges polémiques : hébreu, latin, ancien français'', Bibliothèque de l’EPHE-SR, Paris, 201
online

External links

* Menahem Banitt and Cyril Aslanov (1972, 2006)

, from ''

Encyclopaedia Judaica The ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' is a multi-volume English-language encyclopedia of the Jewish people, Judaism, and Israel. It covers diverse areas of the Jewish world and civilization, including Jewish history of all eras, culture, Jewish holida ...

''; via

Jewish Virtual Library The Jewish Virtual Library (JVL, formerly known as JSOURCE) is an online encyclopedia published by the American foreign policy analyst Mitchell Bard's non-profit organization American–Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE). It is a website cove ...