Judeo-Berber language

Judeo-Berber
Judeo-Shilha
RegionIsrael
Native speakers
none[1]
L2 speakers: 3,000 (2018)[2]
Hebrew alphabet
(generally not written)
Language codes
ISO 639-3jbe
Glottolog(insufficiently attested or not a distinct language)
jude1262
Map of Judeo Berber speaking communities in the first half of the 20th century

Judeo-Berber or Judeo-Amazigh (Berber languages: ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ ⵏ ⵡⵓⴷⴰⵢⵏ tamazight n wudayen, Hebrew: ברברית יהודית berberit yehudit) is any of several hybrid Berber varieties traditionally spoken as a second language in Berber Jewish communities of central and southern Morocco, and perhaps earlier in Algeria. Judeo-Berber is (or was) a contact language; the first language of speakers was Judeo-Arabic.[1] (There were also Jews who spoke Berber as their first language, but not a distinct Jewish variety.)[1] Speakers immigrated to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. While mutually comprehensible with the Tamazight spoken by most inhabitants of the area (Galand-Pernet et al. 1970:14), these varieties are distinguished by the use of Hebrew loanwords and the pronunciation of š as s (as in many Jewish Moroccan Arabic dialects).

  1. ^ a b c Chetrit (2016) "Jewish Berber", in Kahn & Rubin (eds.) Handbook of Jewish Languages, Brill
  2. ^ Judeo-Berber at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed access icon

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