Judeo-Spanish: A Vital and Living Language

摘要

This course finds its origin in my perceived need to highlight the relevance of JudeoSpanish less as an exotic token of contemporary multiculturalism or trauma voyeurism than in terms of a representative sample of the polyphonic nature of both medieval and modern Iberia.?Informed by the above-described spirit, this course will address both faces of the Judeo-Spanish coin, i.e., the historical and linguistic origins of JudeoSpanish in medieval Iberia on the one hand, and contemporary expressions of JudeoSpanish, on the other (as well as the continuity between the medieval and the modern periods). Thus, as regards the first section, this course is concerned with the place that JudeoSpanish occupies within the convivencia narrative, the terminological dispute between the notions of Ladino, JudeoSpanish, protoSpanish and Djudezmo (to name but a few), the brief characterization of the grammatical, lexical and alphabetical elements of JudeoSpanish, and the nature of the Alhambra Decree of Expulsion. Concerning the presence and prospects of JudeoSpanish in the contemporary world, this syllabus addresses the koinétic origins of JudeoSpanish as an indiaspora lingua franca, the evolution of music written in JudeoSpanish, the development and emergence of (new) genres of Sephardic literature and poetry, the place of JudeoSpanish in worldwide academia, its relevance for glottopolitical purposes and ideological struggles, its role visàvis the recently issued Right of Return and, of course, its relationship with the Holocaust, as well as its overall survival prospects.