Judeo-Shirazi is a variety of Fars. Some Judeo-Shirazi speakers refer to the language as Jidi, though Jidi is normally a designation used by speakers of Judeo-Esfahani. It is spoken mostly by Persian Jews living in Shiraz and surrounding areas of the Fars Province in Iran.
Judeo-Shirazi | |
---|---|
Jewish Achomi | |
Jidli | |
Native to | Israel, Iran |
Native speakers | 200 (2023)[1] |
Hebrew | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | jude1270 |
ELP | Judeo-Shirazi |
Judeo-Shirazi is descended from Medieval Shirazi.[2] In 1900, there were an estimated 10,000 speakers of Judeo-Shirazi, but in 2023 that estimate has dwindled to less than 200. Like speakers of other Jewish-Iranian languages, many Judeo-Shirazi speakers immigrated to Israel or North America in the late 20th century. Today, around 4,000 individuals of Shirazi descent are living in Brooklyn, New York.[1]
Unlike other Judeo-Iranian languages, Judeo-Shirazi has history of literature.[3]
Unlike the other Judeo-Iranian languages, which are part of the Median languages, Judeo-Shirazi is a Southwest Iranian language, like Persian. Highlighting this are the lexical isoglosses Judeo-Shirazi exhibits, such as go- “say” and geyra “weeping”. Despite this affiliation, Judeo-Shirazi is distinct from Persian in its grammar.[2]
The following list of words indicates a few isoglosses distinguishing Judeo-Shirazi from the dialect of Judeo-Esfahani.[4]
English | Esfahani | Judeo-Shirazi |
---|---|---|
Big | bele | gonde |
Dog | kuδe | keleb |
Cat | meli | gorbe |
Shirt | perhan | piran |
Throw | xuθ | ba- |
Judeo-Shirazi displays several features of Southwest Iranian languages, as well as several features of Old Shirazi which has now been replaces by Persian.[5] Judeo-Shirazi has little mutual intelligiblity with Persian.[6]
Judeo-Shirazi displays split ergativity in the past tenses of transitive verbs. This feature is a common link between Fars varieties. Additionally, Judeo-Shirazi marks person in the past transitive using a proclitic, which otherwise functions as an oblique pronominal suffix. Other grammatical features of note:[4]
Judeo-Shirazi articulates sibilants (s, z) as intra-dental (θ, ð). Given that Persian, and other Southwest Iranian languages, distinguished these phonemes, it is suggested that Judeo-Shirazi came from the old dialect of Shiraz. The systematic replacement of /s z/ by /θ ð/ in Judeo-Shirazi may be a result of two processes: the post-vocalic fricativatization found in other Fars dialects, like Davāni, and the original phoneme /θ/ stemming from proto-Shirazi.[7]
Though it has been to some extent influenced by Persian, over the years, Judeo-Shirazi has remained relatively stable. The language resembled the 14th century national poet Hafiz more than Standard New Persian does, suggesting that Judeo-Shirazi preserved many characteristics of Old Persian. Other phonological features contribute to evidence of its descendance from proto-Shirazi and other old Fars dialects:
Additional features similar to Fars dialects include the fronting of back vowels and final -a and -e.[4]
Judeo-Shirazi is now Moribund with only 200 speakers as of 2023.[3] The language is poorly documented but there is currently linguistic study being done by the Endangered Language Alliance, among the Shirazi jewish community of New York.[6]
Judeo-Shirazi[6] | Persian[6] | English[6] |
---|---|---|
har-kodom-ešu ešu–go dišna xow-e bad | har-kodâm-ešân goft-and dišab xâb-e bad | Both (lit. each) of them said: Last night we dreamed a bad dream |