From World War I to the present, Judeo-Spanish has been marked by a gradual shift from Hebrew orthography to Roman script and by an increase of French and Italian influence that replaced local Turkish, Greek, and sometimes Hebrew elements by more "Romanicized" forms (Hassán 1995).

​

At the turn of the 21st century, the number of speakers is gradually decreasing and the quantity of creative writing is growing smaller. Today the youngest native speakers are over fifty years old; with their death, Judeo-Spanish will cease to exist as a native language.  Harris  (1994: 197-229) lists 24 reasons for the present status of Judeo-Spanish, including the attitude towards Judeo-Spanish and what it represented, the geographical dispersion of speakers, their assimilation into other communities, and their decrease in number after the Holocaust.

​

Orthography and Spelling

Judeo-Spanish has been written in Hebrew characters later referred to as Rashi script and in handwriting called Solitreo. Printed materials were written in either Rashi script or in square Hebrew letters, rarely vocalized. Judeo-Spanish developed a conventional spelling system to represent Judeo-Spanish words in Hebrew characters, which became standardized only during the 19th century (Pascual Recuero 1988, Bunis 2004). During the 20th century many of the Judeo-Spanish texts were written in Roman characters rather than Hebrew ones, and this orthographic change is controversial among scholars. The most popular conventions used are those established in Aki Yerushalayim (Shaul, ed., 1979-), though other options are in common use, especially by the Spanish school for Sephardic philology (Hassán 1978).

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

Literary Genres

Sephardic Jews, like other Jewish communities, considered Hebrew to be the language of learning, the holy language. Therefore, a great amount of the literature written by Sephardic Jews was in Hebrew rather than in Judeo-Spanish (Romero 1992a). Very little was preserved in Judeo-Spanish prior to the expulsion, some exceptions being Coplas de Yosef by an anonymous writer (Girón-Negrón and Minervini 2006), Proverbios Morales by Sem Tob de Carrión (Ardutiel) (Díaz-Mas 1993, 2001; Díaz-Mas & Mota 1998), and various other aljamiado texts (Minervini 1992). The Kharjas and Valladolid Statutes (Taqanot) show the interaction among languages used by the Jews. Some texts were published by and for converted Jews in Latin script but they are more Spanish, rather than Judeo-Spanish, e.g. Sefer Tešubah ( Lazar  1993a). 

​

After the expulsion from Spain, a variety of Judeo-Spanish texts were published and preserved:

• Ladino translations of the Bible, prayer books, and other liturgical texts like the Passover Haggadah and Pirke Avot (Lazar 1964, 1992a, 1992b, 1993b, 1995a, 1995b, 2000; Hassán 1994; Revah 1970; Sephiha 1973, 1979; Schwarzwald 1989, 2008, 2012; Bunis 1996)

• Rabbinical literature (Yaari 1934: 28-37), including Meam Loez (Romero 1998, 2001; Landau 1980; Romeu Ferré 2000; García Moreno 2004;  Quintana  2006-2007), and other law books (Šmid 2012).

• Edited translations of Halakhic and moral literature, like Ḥovat Halevavot and Shulḥan Arukh (Schwarzwald 2017).

• Drama and belles lettres (Romero 1979, 1993; Barquín López 1977)

• Press (Gaon 1965)

• Popular genres including poetic literature such as romansas (or romances), coplas (or complas) and cantigas (or canticas) (Díaz-Mas 1992: 105-106, 119; 1994; Romero 1991, 1992b; Pedrosa 1995; Armistead & Silverman 1971, 1979, 1982; Armistead, Silverman & Hassán 1981; Refael 1998), proverbs (Alexander-Frizer 2004; Alexander-Frizer and Bentolila 2008), folk tales (Haboucha 1992), riddles, fables, jokes, etc.

​

Current publications in Judeo-Spanish are the result of some staunch believers in preserving Judeo-Spanish. The most prominent publication is Aki Yerushalaim: Revista Kulturala Djudeo-Espanyola, founded in 1979 by the editor Moshe Shaul as a supplement for the Israeli Radio broadcasting in Judeo-Spanish. Other publications around the world focus on Judeo-Spanish and Sephardic culture. Shalom (Şalom) Turkish Jewish newspaper in Istanbul includes one page in Judeo-Spanish by Silvio Ovadya. Los Muestros: La boz de los sefardim published in Brussels and edited by Moise Rahmani, is a multilingual quarterly. The articles on history, culture, language, folklore, music, and literature appear in French, English, Spanish, and Judeo-Spanish.

A number of poets, such as Margalit Matityahu, Matilda Koen-Sarano, and Avner  Perez  in Israel, Rita Gabbai Simantov in Greece, Clarisse Nikoidski in France, and Gloria Ascher in the United States, write or wrote Judeo-Spanish poetry. Since 2001 there has been an active Internet discussion list in Judeo-Spanish, Ladino komunita, moderated by Rachel Bortnick. In several places around the world, there are Sephardic language and culture clubs where Judeo-Spanish is the main mode of communication.

​

Linguistic Features

Several linguistic features are common to all Judeo-Spanish dialects and distinguish Judeo-Spanish from other varieties of Spanish. A few of the features are listed here (Crews 1935; Benoliel 1977; Zamora Vicente 1985: 349-377; Bunis 1992: 414-420; Bunis 1999; Bunis 1999, 2018: 199-202; Marcus 1965: 70-95; Wagner 1990(I): 116-135; Penny 2000: 174-193; Quintana-Rodríguez 2006: 3-23; Schwarzwald 2018: 152-154). The phonemes /š/ (English sh), /dğ/ (English g in George), and /ž/ (French j in journal) were retained in Judeo-Spanish (in Spanish they became /x/). The phonemes /š/ (English sh), /dğ/ (English g in George), and /ž/ (French j in journal) were retained in Judeo-Spanish (in Spanish they became /x/). The phonemes  /v/ and /b/ are distinct, while in Spanish they are allophones ([β] and [b]). The equivalents of the Spanish letters <ç> and <z> are pronounced /s/ and /z/, and often Spanish /s/ is realized as [z] between vowels. Historical /s/ before /k/ is pronounced š, and the Spanish swe and fwe (spelled sue, fue) is realized in Judeo-Spanish as [sxwe], [sfwe], or [xwe]. Metathesis occurred in many consonant clusters with d and r ([rd] > [dr]). In some dialects, the Latinate /f/ is preserved in words like favlar ('to speak') and fizhos ('sons'), which became hablar and hijos in Spanish.

​

Verbs are conjugated with some modifications. The suffixes -í (1st person), -tes (2nd person singular), and -teš (2nd person plural) are used in the preterit instead of -é, -ste and -eis in Spanish. The tense system of Judeo-Spanish is less elaborate than Spanish, and compound verbs are frequently formed with the verb tener ('to have, own'), rather than haber ('to have'). The Spanish ustedes formal polite form is absent. Although nos ('us') and nuestro ('our') are used in literary styles, the vernacular forms are mos and muestro, respectively. The Judeo-Spanish diminutive is -iko/-ika rather than Spanish -ito/-ita.

​

Judeo-Spanish retained a good deal of medieval Spanish vocabulary. Also, a considerable Hebrew-Aramaic component was integrated into the language (Bunis 1993). Hebrew influence is revealed through loan translations as well, as in El Santo Bendicho El ('God'), a reflection of Hebrew haqadoš barux hu ('The Holy One Blessed Be He'), kamino de leche i miel ('good journey', literally: 'a way of milk and honey'), a reflection of ḥalav udvaš ('milk and honey').