Judeo-Spanish is Revived in Turkey

Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, the language spoken by Spanish Jews, is currently experiencing a revival in Istanbul after decades of abandonment. The Instituto Cervantes is supporting this process during the First Conference on Sephardic Culture. Ladino is treasured today as a relic, as Sephardics speak nearly the same medieval Spanish of the Catholic Kings and Christopher Columbus

The majority of Spanish tourists who visit Istanbul believe that their only chance to hear their own language is at the Grand Bazaar, where crafty merchants are willing to learn a bit of the language of Cervantes to sweet-talk their clients. However, in what was once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, there is a large community of people whose mother tongue is, in fact, Spanish.

This community is the Sephardim: the Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 by virtue of the Alhambra decree who have preserved their language and customs over the centuries. Their language is treasured today as a relic, as they speak the same medieval Spanish of the Catholic Kings and Christopher Columbus

According to the tale, Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II said, 'It is a loss for those who send them, and it is my gain," when he opened the doors of the Ottoman Empire to the Sephardim. He was correct: the Spanish Jews made a significant contribution to the economic development of the empire that welcomed them.

One of the aims of the First Conference of Sephardic Culture, organized by the Instituto Cervantes of Istanbul, is to help preserve the Ladino language.

To commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Sephardic seminary Shalom, the papers presented during the conference will cover the topic of the Judeo-Spanish press. Attendees include Ben Gurion University professor Tamar Alexandre and CSIC researcher Elena Romero.

However, in spite of the fact that Ladino is the mother tongue of 20,000 Sephardim residing in Turkey, it is often abandoned by young people who prefer to speak in Turkish, the official and most widely spoken language in the country.

"Up until the generation born in the 1960s, Ladino was one of the languages spoken in Sephardic households. However, it is spoken less and less, because it is no longer the language spoken in our households, and thus, a young Sephardi who wants to learn Ladino must take a class," explains Karen Gerson Sarhon with a certain sadness in her voice. She speaks in Judeo-Spanish, which is quite similar to Old Spanish.

Gerson Sarhon is in charge of the publication in Ladino "El Amaneser" and the director of the Research Center for Ottoman-Turkish Sephardic Culture. She is also one of the most well-known defenders of Judeo-Spanish culture.

According to Sarhon, there are several reasons why Judeo-Spanish was abandoned, including the influence of French during the XIX century, the replacement of the ‘Rashi’ alphabet with the Latin alphabet, and the implementation of the Turkish national education program after the republic was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

"When the Republic of Turkey was founded, there was a change in the philosophy of the Sephardic community, and its leaders decided to open up the community and integrate with Turkish society," explains Sarhon.

"The Sephardim wanted to make it clear that they were Turkish citizens ‘of the Jewish faith’ but loyal to the Republic of Turkey," continues the Judeo-Spanish intellectual. "So they began to learn Turkish, because even though they spoke a bit of the language, they did so with a strong Spanish accent."

This abandonment was also owed to the tarnished prestige of the Ladino language – aggravated by the exodus of many Sephardim to Israel, where Hebrew won out over Judeo-Spanish – which lasted until the 1990s.

"We were about to lose our entire culture, but thanks to the work of different people across the globe, our language has now been at least partially recovered," says Sarhon.

In fact, some young Sephardim who no longer speak Ladino at home are taking classes to learn modern-day Spanish.

"If they learn modern-day Spanish, the Sephardic legacy will be accessible for them, because language is not something abstract: language is what allows us to produce culture and to create the way we think. And we are a Mediterranean people that speak Spanish," she says.

Sepharad, the Spanish land that the Judeo-Spaniards left behind centuries ago, persists in the memory of the Sephardim.

"When we Sephardim go to Spain, we experience something very strange: we feel at home there, not as if we are in another country," explains Sarhon.

If young Sephardim in Turkey do not forget their origins, it could mean the revival of Ladino because, to quote a Judeo-Spanish saying that the journal ‘El Amaneser’ takes its name from: 'Kuando muncho eskurese es para amaneser' (When it grows very dark, dawn is near).





 

El Arca – Also published in Idiomas y comunicación, Buenos Aires