Judeo-Spanish in Thessaloniki: A Survey of the Speakers of the Dialect Today

Authors

Randall Craig Meister, Brigham Young University
Dr. David Eddington, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Judeo-Spanish, Thessaloniki, dialect, Greece

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics and English Language

Abstract

“Pero Salonik no kanta mas¹,” said an elderly speaker of Judeo-­‐Spanish in Thessaloniki, as she reflected with me during a discussion concerning her life as a Sephardic Jew after World War II. This expression embodies the historical and cultural awareness of the dwindling Judeo-­‐Spanish speaking Sephardic community in Thessaloniki, Greece². After 500 years of prevalence in Thessaloniki, Greece, the Spanish-­‐ peaking Sephardic Jews have endured centuries of Muslim rule, Greek cultural assimilation, a horrific Holocaust, and starkly diversified linguistic exposure. This plethora of diversity and circumstances has created a dwindling community of speakers, but a community, which embodies the social constructs of endangered languages all over Europe and the world. Given this background, this research set out to understand the status of the language in Thessaloniki today in terms of number of speakers, speaker sociolinguistic, historical, and cultural awareness of the speakers, and current transmission methods of the language today.

Recommended Citation

Meister, Randall Craig and Eddington, Dr. David (2013) "Judeo-Spanish in Thessaloniki: A Survey of the Speakers of the Dialect Today," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 939.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/939