What is Ladino?

Judeo-Spanish, commonly referred to as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. During the second half of the nineteenth century and then the twentieth century, Judeo-Spanish blossomed into a language of journalism and popular literature, resulting in a bibliography of almost four hundred periodical titles and a corpus of novels, theatrical plays, poems, and other minor genres. Originally spoken in the former territories of the Ottoman Empire (the Balkans, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa) as well as in France, Italy, Netherlands, Morocco, and the UK, today it is spoken mainly by Sephardic minorities in more than 30 countries, most of the speakers residing in Israel. Although it has no official status in any country, it has been acknowledged as a minority language in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Israel, Spain, Turkey, and France.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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16 Comments

William Laughlin

It's interesting you should raise the issue with this question, since it is decidedly not about anything American! In answer to your question, it is most likely that more Americans are submitting questions. For a broader range, try submitting a few questions of your own, instead of just complaining. By the way, your caps lock is on. It makes it look as though you're screaming.

Karen Mulhollem

So true! wondered myself why he thinks this question is about Americans?

Rafi Manory

It's actually the Spanosh language as spoken in the 15th century, before the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1493.

Mary Ruth Martell

Good Q and A!

George Oliver Prince

Simply pays to read, actually picked it up out of a novel

Douglas Oaten

I knew that one. Although I'm not Jewish, I have many Jewish friends and a few of them are Sephardic Iberian descendants. Some of the older people still speak Ladino, which is relatively easy to understand when fluent in Spanish (like I am)

Bill Hays

Ladino is also a variety of clover

Rob Farr

A very good trivia question and explanation ... thank you.

David Holmes

Gery Tillmanns, I thought that this is an international quiz.

Eric Arvidson

I googled it and the first thing up was variety of clover cultivated in N America

Michael Garmaise

I already knew the answer but for those who are guessing, a connection could be made between Ladino and Latin, the progenitor of the Romance languages.