Yevanic language

Jevanisch, as Romaniotisch or Jewish - Greek called (Greek ρωμανιώτικα or γεβανικά ), was a Greek dialect, which was spoken by the Romaniotes, a group of Greek Jews whose existence is documented in Greece since the Hellenistic period. Historically, the language dialect is due to the Hellenistic Koine ( Ελληνική Κοινή ), mixed with Hebrew elements. The Jevanische and the Greek of the Christian population were mutually intelligible. The Romaniotes used its own version of the Hebrew alphabet for writing both jevanischer and Greek texts.

The language name " Jevanisch " is derived from the Hebrew word Yawan (Hebrew יָוָן ), which in many Near and Middle Eastern languages ​​the word for " Greek" and "Greece" is in a similar form (also known in Sanskrit as Yavana ), is based on the proper name of the Greek tribe of Ionians.

Today, there are many reasons not jevanischen native speakers more:

• Many of the small jevanischen communities were culturally and linguistically assimilated by the larger of the ladinosprachigen Sephardic Jews.
• The languages ​​of the majority population, ie Greek, Turkish or Bulgarian were taken.
• Many Romaniotes emigrated to Israel or the United States.
• The Zionist program that proclaimed Hebrew as the language of all Jews were taken into account.
• Many Romaniotes were deported and murdered during the German occupation of Greece between 1941 and 1944.