Although not as prominent in popular consciousness due to a lower number of native speakers, Ladino remains one of the most important cultural markers of Jewish culture. It is the common language spoken by the Sephardic Jews who trace their ancestry to the Iberian nations of Spain and Portugal.
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A spoken and written language sometimes called Judeo-Spanish, Ladino became exclusively tied to the Iberian Jews following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. The language is tied to the Sephardim as Yiddish is to the Ashkenazim, having united the people in cultural solidarity for much of the Middle Ages.
Ladino is a Romance language, heavily derived from Medieval Spanish and Hebrew, with many linguistic influences from Aragonese, Astur-Leonese, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese, and Mozarabic. Due to the settlement of Sephardic communities across the Mediterranean, the Ladino vocabulary has words derived from other prominent languages in the region such as Ottoman Turkish, French, Italian, Greek, and Serbo-Croat.
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Historically, Ladino has been written in Hebrew script, usually in Rashi or Solitreo, although it is today sometimes written mainly in Roman letters as Spanish is. It has a formalized literary dialect and several colloquial ones that sprang up throughout the diaspora.
In spite of its cultural ties with the Sephardic community, the language itself is largely forgotten. The speakers of Ladino number a few hundred in the United States and about 100,000 in Israel itself. Movements have emerged to protect Ladino from linguistic extinction via being subsumed into Spanish. A linguistic revival spearheaded by several Sephardic communities has also taken root to keep the language alive.
Ronald Safdieh heads Dameron Fine Art. Follow this Twitter account for more updates on Sephardic Jewish issues.
