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1. History and Linguistic DescriptionJudeo-Spanish, also known as Judezmo in the former Ottoman Empire and as Ḥaketía in the Maghreb, is a Jewish language that arose in medieval Spain through the contact between Jews, Ibero-Romance-speaking Spaniards, and Arabic-speaking Moors. It grew increasingly distinct after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, primarily as a result of borrowing from local languages in new areas of settlement. The earliest evidence of Judeo-Spanish is to be seen in the Ibero-Romance kharjas (final stanzas) in Hebrew characters at the end of H…

1. Judeo-Arabic (Ninth to Thirteenth Century)In ancient and medieval times, Jews translated the Hebrew Bible into their spoken tongues, such as Greek, Aramaic, and Arabic (as well as many other languages and vernaculars employed in specific periods and places). Unlike the various degrees of prohibition regarding scriptural translation in Islamic (as well as Christian) medieval lore and theology, there was no halakhic or theological prohibition of scriptural translation per se among the Jews, although ther…