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TWENTY-ODD
YEARS ago my Istanbul-born parents arrived in England with the
intention of setting up home. Although they had left their families
behind in Turkey, they brought with them elements of the Sephardi
tradition which I feel are an integral part of my Jewish identity.
One of the ones closest to my heart is Ladino.
Ladino is
to Sephardim what Yiddish is to Ashkenazim, an ancient dialect
of Spanish which the Jews of Spain took with them when they
were dispersed during the Spanish Inquisition (1492). Like any
language, Ladino has evolved over the centuries, and words of
Hebrew have been incorporated into its vocabulary, as well as
words and sayings from the local tongues of the areas where
Jews settled.
The result
is a language which varies from country to country, and indeed
from household to household. To any modern Spanish-speaker the
language sounds archaic yet familiar, probably the equivalent
of "Olde English" to an English Literature Student.
It is apparently closer to Latin American Spanish than to Spanish
spoken in Spain, and is also said to have Portuguese strains
to it.
Ladino was
used in both home-life and religious ceremonies. I particularly
love "Bendigamos" ("We Bless"), a song of
praise sung during grace after meals in the Sephardi community.
Here, as
they say, is the deal: Ladino, as my grandfather often tells
me, is dying out. While both my sets of Turkish grandparents
- one in Istanbul, one in Israel - speak it within the family,
few Sephardim of my parents' generation actually speak it, even
if they can understand. My grandparents were delighted when
I announced I was doing Spanish GCSE in an attempt to get closer
to my roots. It seemed to me the only way, living so far away
from my Ladino-speaking elders, to get a good basic grounding,
which I could then endeavour to corrupt by mixing into it words
and phrases of Ladino.
It was perhaps a little optimistic of me to expect I could just
pick the language up, but my knowledge of Sephardi idiom and
proverb has certainly increased since I took an active interest
in my Hispanic past; I paid homage to my Spanish ancestors by
doing a small research project on the dispersal of Jews after
the Inquisition for my Spanish GCSE Oral exam.
Ideally
I would like to commit myself to learning Ladino, both for myself
and for my family (while browsing an Oxford prospectus I came
across a Ladino and Judeo-Hispanic course - tempting…),
but at present it just doesn't seem possible. Should I fail
to learn the language of my ancestors before I have children
of my own, I will definitely be imparting to them the little
Judeo-Espagnol I do know - I know my grandmothers would both
be proud to hear my children say to their offspring in times
of trouble, "Cuando nada, nada, cuando muncho, muncho".
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Ladino
Spirit