| Yevanic | |
|---|---|
| Romaniyot, Judaeo-Greek | |
| יעואני גלוסא, γεβανί γλώσσα yevani glosa | |
| Native to | Originally Greece, recently Israel, Turkey, United States |
Native speakers | "A few semi-speakers left in 1987 [in Israel], and may be none now [as of 1996 or earlier]. There may be a handful of elderly speakers still in Turkey."[1] |
| Hebrew alphabet Greek alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | yej |
yej | |
| Glottolog | yeva1238 |
| ELP | Yevanic |
| Linguasphere | 56-AAA-am |
Yevanic, also known as Judaeo-Greek, Romaniyot,[2] Romaniote, and Yevanitika,[3] is a Greek dialect formerly used by the Romaniotes and by the Constantinopolitan Karaites (in whose case the language is called Karaitika or Karaeo-Greek).[4][5] The Romaniotes are a group of Greek Jews whose presence in the Levant is documented since the Byzantine period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Jewish Koine spoken primarily by Hellenistic Jews throughout the region, and includes Hebrew and Aramaic elements. It was mutually intelligible with the Greek dialects of the Christian population. The Romaniotes used the Hebrew alphabet to write Greek and Yevanic texts. Judaeo-Greek has had in its history different spoken variants depending on different eras, geographical and sociocultural backgrounds. The oldest Modern Greek text was found in the Cairo Geniza and is actually a Jewish translation of the Book of Ecclesiastes (Kohelet).[6]