Contents

Judeo-Tat

Persian-derived Jewish language of the eastern Caucasus

Judeo-Tat
Cuhuri, Жугьури, ז׳אוּהאוּראִ‎
Native to	Azerbaijan, Russia – North Caucasian Federal District, spoken by immigrant communities in Israel, United States (New York City)
Ethnicity	Mountain Jews
Native speakers	80,000 (2010–2018)[1]
Language family	Indo-European Indo-Iranian Iranian Western Iranian Southwestern Iranian Persian[2] Tat Judeo-Tat
Writing system	Latin, Cyrillic, Hebrew
Language codes
ISO 639-3	jdt
Glottolog	jude1256
ELP	Judeo-Tat
Judeo-Tat is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Part of a serieson
Jewish culture
Languages Hebrew Modern Ashkenazi Sephardi Mizrahi Yemenite Tiberian Medieval Mishnaic Biblical Samaritan Babylonian Palestinian Judeo-Aramaic Hulaulá Lishana Deni Lishán Didán Barzani Betanure Lishanid Noshan Targum Biblical Talmudic Palestinian Galilean Judeo-Arabic Yahudic Judeo-Baghdadi Judeo-Moroccan Judeo-Tripolitanian Djerbian Yemenite Other Jewish diaspora languages Yiddish Ladino Haketia Tetuani Yevanic Catalanic Italkian Piedmontese Knaanic Gruzinic Karaim Dzhidi Bukhori Juhuri Zarphatic Golpaygani Shirazi Hamedani Shuadit Judeo-Marathi Judeo-Berber Judeo-Malayalam Krymchak Koiné Greek
Mythology Baal El Genesis Adam and Eve Lilith Garden of Eden Tree of Life Forbidden Fruit Patriarchs Abraham Promised Land Gog and Magog Nimrod Tower of Babel Sodom and Gomorrah Noah's Ark Cain and Abel Moses Burning bush Ten Plagues Crossing the Red Sea The Exodus Mount Sinai Golden calf Ten Commandments Tabernacle Conquest of Canaan Yahweh Moloch Gehenna Gathering of Israel Daniel Gideon Saul David and Goliath Solomon Samson Esther Haman Mordecai Job Satan Ezra Ruth Azrael Michael Gabriel Dobiel Ouza Jewish folklore Dybbuk Golem Behemoth Leviathan Shedim Tannin Rahab Bagdana Estries Belial Samael Re'em Baal Berith Lilin Bar Juchne Ziz Naamah Mazzikin Arariel Se'irim Dumah Armilus Broxa Elioud Alukah Rephaite Pardes Yossele Valley of the ants
Literature Biblical Hebrew American Ladino Judeo-Tat Yiddish English Yemenite Musar Rabbinic Jewish poetry Biblical Piyyutim Al-Andalus Yemenite Epic Medieval Hebrew Modern Hebrew Holocaust
Philosophy Haskalah Philosophers Maimonides Strauss
Music Secular Religious Mizrahi Sephardic Klezmer Niggun Zemirot
Art Ancient Jewish art Yiddish theatre Judeo-Tat theatre Jewish dance Humour List of Jews in the visual arts List of Jewish film directors Jews in American cinema
Science Medicine Astronomy Biblical cosmology Mathematicians Scientists
Sport List of Jews in sports Association football Baseball Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Maccabiah Games Jewish athletes and Yom Kippur
Cuisine Ancient Israelite Sephardi Mizrahi Ashkenazi
Other aspects Symbolism Clothing Architecture
Portal:Judaism Category:Jewish culture
v t e

Judeo-TatorJuhuri (Cuhuri, Жугьури, ז׳אוּהאוּראִ) is a Judeo-Persian dialect of the Tat language historically spoken by the Mountain Jews, primarily in Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and today in Israel.^[1] It belongs to the southwestern group of the Iranian division of the Indo-European languages with heavy influence from the Hebrew language. In the era of Soviet historiography, the Mountain Jews were mistakenly considered to be related to the Muslim Tats of Azerbaijan. However, they do not share a common linguistic heritage, as the Mountain Jews kept their native language (which itself was derived from their ancestors adopting Persian at an earlier date), while the Muslim Tats eventually adopted contemporary Persian. The words Juvuri and Juvuro translate as "Jewish" and "Jews".

Judeo-Tat features Semitic elements in all linguistic levels of the language. Uniquely, Judeo-Tat retains the voiced pharyngeal approximant, also known as ayin (ع/ע), a phoneme whose presence is considered to be a hallmark of Semitic languages such as Arabic and no longer found in Modern Hebrew; no neighbouring languages in Azerbaijan or Dagestan feature it. ^[3]

Judeo-Tat is an endangered language^[4][5] classified as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.^[6]

Distribution[edit]

The language is spoken by an estimated 101,000 people:

• Israel: 70,000 in 1998
• Azerbaijan: 24,000 in 1989
• Russia: 2,000 in 2010^[1]
• United States: 5,000^[7]
• Canada 2,500^[8]

Phonology[edit]

Alphabet[edit]

In the early 20th century, Judeo-Tat used the Hebrew script. In the 1920s, the Latin script was adapted for it; later it was written in Cyrillic. The use of the Hebrew alphabet has enjoyed renewed popularity.

Influences and etymology[edit]

Judeo-Tat is a dialect of the Southwest Iranian language family, which includes Persian. Compared to other Iranian languages spoken in the Caucasus [for example, Talysh, Ossetian, and Kurdish], Judeo-Tat has more similarities to modern Persian. Howeverer, it also bears strong influence from other sources:

Medieval Persian: Postpositions are used predominantly in lieu of prepositions, for example in modern Persian: باز او > Judeo-Tat æ uræ-voz "with him/her".

Arabic: like in modern Persian, a significant portion of the vocabulary is Arabic in origin. Unlike modern Persian, Judeo-Tat has almost universally retained the original pharyngeal/uvular phonemes of Arabic, for example /ʕæsæl/ "honey" (Arab. عسل), /sæbæħ/ "morning" (Arab. صباح).

Hebrew: As in other Jewish dialects, the language also has many Hebrew loanwords, for example /ʃulħon/ "table" (Heb. שלחן‎ shulḥan), /mozol/ "luck" (Heb. מזל‎ mazal), /ʕoʃiɾ/ "rich" (Heb. עשיר‎ ʻashir). Hebrew words are typically pronounced in the tradition of other Mizrahi Jews. Examples: ח‎ and ע‎ are pronounced pharyngeally (like Arabic ح‎, ع respectively); ק‎ is pronounced as a voiced uvular plosive (like Persian ق/غ). Classical Hebrew /w/ (ו‎) and /aː/ (kamatz), however, are typically pronounced as /v/ and /o/ respectively (similar to the Persian/Ashkenazi traditions, but unlike the Iraqi tradition, which retains /w/ and /aː/)

Azerbaijani: Vowel harmony and many loan words

Russian: Loanwords adopted after the Russian Empire's annexation of Daghestan and Azerbaijan

Northeast Caucasian languages: /tʃuklæ/ "small" (probably the same origin as the medieval Caucasian city name "Sera-chuk" mentioned by Ibn Battuta, meaning "little Sera")

Other common phonology/morphology changes from classical Persian/Arabic/Hebrew:

• /aː/ > /o/, /æ/, or /u/ as in /kitob/ "book" (Arab. كتاب), /ɾæħ/ "road/path" (Pers. راه rāh), /ɢurbu/ "sacrifice" (Arab., Aramaic /qurbaːn/ or Heb. קרבן‎ Korban)
• /o/ > /u/ as in /ovʃolum/ "Absalom" (Heb. אבשלום‎ Abshalom)
• /u/ > /y/, especially under the influence of vowel harmony
• Stress on final syllable words
• Dropping of the final /n/ as in /soχtæ/ "to make" (Pers. ساختن sākhtan)

Dialects[edit]

Being a variety of the Tat language, Judeo-Tat itself can be divided into several dialects:

• Quba dialect (traditionally spoken in Quba and Qırmızı Qəsəbə).
• Derbent dialect (traditionally spoken in the town of Derbent and the surrounding villages).
• Kaitag dialect (spoken in the North Caucasus).

The dialects of Oğuz (formerly Vartashen) and the now extinct Jewish community of Mücü have not been studied well and thus cannot be classified.^[10]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Borjian, Habib; Kaufman, Daniel (2016). "Juhuri: From the Caucasus to New York City". International Journal of the Sociology of Language (237): 59–74. doi:10.1515/ijsl-2015-0035. S2CID 55326563.
• Shapira, Dan D.Y. (2010). "Juhūrī (Judeo-Tat or Judeo-Tātī)". In Norman A. Stillman (ed.). Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Brill Online.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Judeo-Tat.

Judeo-Tat testofWikipediaatWikimedia Incubator

• Judeo-Tat literature
• Горско-еврейский язык (словарь, грамматика, библиотека)
• JUHURO.RU - Информационно развлекательный портал горских евреев Горские Евреи Израиля population ~70,000
• Горские Евреи Нальчика Mountain Jews of Nalchik.
• Горские Евреи Америки Mountain Jews of the US.
• Сайт Горских Евреев Культура новости
• Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World: "Juhūrī (Judeo-Tat or Judeo-Tātī)", p 16 sq, print: Brill, Leiden 2010