Fun Facts

Throughout the summer of 2021, the Jewish Language Project presented "Fun Fact of the Day" - interesting insights about languages, words, and pronunciations from Jewish communities around the world. Jewish Language Project intern Sofia Rubio selected these facts based on this website, several books (see bibliography below), and suggestions from visitors, and she designed the images and posted them on social media: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Read the posts below to learn about the existence of languages you've never heard of, written texts from magic to newspapers, words stemming from Hebrew and Aramaic, archaic pronunciations, and evidence of historical migrations and contact between Jewish communities. We are now posting such facts occasionally, and we welcome suggestions from visitors like you.

Bentsch.png

Yiddish

Malay Notebook.png

Malay

Israeli Sign Language.png

Israeli Sign Language

alamák.png

Jewish Latin American Spanish

O livro de magika.png

Judeo-Portuguese

Qırmızı Qəsəbə.png

Juhuri/Judeo-Tat

From Hebrew to Judeo-Greek.png

Judeo-Greek

Medieval Judeo-Italian.png

Judeo-Italian

una pastora yo ami.png

Ladino

Maloche.png

Western Yiddish

Judeo-Tat Newspaper.png

Juhuri/Judeo-Tat

Hebrew Revival.png

Hebrew

Judeo-Greek.png

Judeo-Greek

Mezuzah.png

Judeo-Italian

Shabbat Stew.png

Comparative Languages

knis, kensia, knishta.png

Comparative Languages

Llanito-3.png

Llanito

Calavassa.png

Judeo-Piedmontese

Ge'ez.png

Biblical Ge'ez

Judeo-Tat.png

Juhuri/Judeo-Tat

Karaeo-Hebrew-2.png

Karaeo-Hebrew

Medieval Pizza.png

Italian

Spells and Rituals.png

Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and Judeo-Arabic

Lybɛlo.png

Juhuri/Judeo-Tat

Shomayim.png

Judeo-Tajik/Bukharian

cumbia tules.png

Jewish Latin American Spanish

Judeo-Amharic Congratulatory Message.png

Jewish-Amharic

Luterā'i.png

Judeo-Iranian

Haverkodik.png

Hungarian

Jewish Papiamentu.png

Jewish Papiamentu

Shakespeare.png

Hebrew

Franbreu.png

Franbreu

Hebrew Loanwords in Israeli Russian-2.png

Israeli Russian

Tavsili.png

Jewish Georgian

'Poor Little Thing'.png

Jewish Latin American Spanish

Kaifeng Jewish Community.png

Kaifeng Jewish Community

Syrian Judeo-Arabic-2.png

Syrian Judeo-Arabic

Leonard Nimoy.png

Yiddish

Moses's Little Cow.png

Yiddish

Khma Ebraelisa.png

Jewish-Georgian

Mashalá.png

Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews

The Jewish Community of Yemen.png

Yemenite Hebrew

pomegranate.png

Judeo-Greek

Toilet Euphemism.png

Judeo-Italian

Jewish Malayalam Verbs.png

Jewish Malayalam

Karanhy Bulut.png

Southwest Karaim

Iranian Kurdistan.png

Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Modern Palestinian Judeo-Arabic Speakers.png

Modern Palestinian Judeo-Arabic

Qesim-2.png

Hebraized Amharic

Berakha.png

Jewish Persian

Hulaula 8-31.png

Jewish Neo-Aramaic

Bibliography

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Benor, Sarah Bunin, ed. 2002-. Jewish Language Website. Los Angeles: Jewish Language Project. 

Hary, Benjamin, and Sarah Bunin Benor, eds. Languages in Jewish Communities, Past and Present. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2018.

Kahn, Lily, and Aaron Rubin, eds. 2015. Handbook of Jewish Languages. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

Lowenstein, Steven M. The Jewish Cultural Tapestry: International Jewish Folk Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Rubin, Aaron D., and Lily Kahn. 2021. Jewish Languages from A to Z. London: Routledge.