Judeo-Kashani

Judeo-Kashani ("Kashi") is a subvariety of Judeo-Iranian spoken by the Jews of Kashan (Kāšān). Diachronically, Judeo-Kashani is a Median language,^[1] belonging to the Kashanic branch of the Central Plateau Language Group^[2] spoken across Central Iran.

Judeo-Kashani is distinct from Persian (and Judeo-Persian for that matter) and bears typological similarity to the varieties spoken by Jewish communities in other cities such as Hamadan and Isfahan. Owing to the quick disappearance of the Jewish community from Kashan in the mid-twentieth century, Judeo-Kashani is only spoken by elder Kashani Jewish immigrants in North America and Israel, and it is moribund.^[3][4]

Kashani Jews currently use Persian as their native language. Those in diaspora are exposed to English in North America and Hebrew in Israel, to which new generations are shifting. The Jewish community of Kashan, like other Persian Jews.,^[5] historically (until the 1930s) wrote in Judeo-Persian for religious, literary, and economic purposes. Judeo-Persian is simply the Persian language written in Hebrew script; it should not therefore be confused with Judeo-Kashani, which belongs to the Median branch of Iranian languages^[6]

The term Jidi was the endomic name of Judeo-Kashani; this term has nothing to do with Judeo-Persian (a confusion practiced by various authoritative references, including Ethnologue).^[6]