Judeo-Tat or Juhuri (, , ) is a Judeo-Persian dialect and the traditional language spoken by the Mountain Jews in the eastern Caucasus Mountains, especially Azerbaijan, parts of Russia and today in Israel.

Judeo-Tat is an endangered language <!--UNESCO Endangered Language Criteria: 1. Vulnerable, 2. Definitely Endangered, 3. Severely Endangered, 4. Critically Endangered, 5. Extinct-->

Distribution

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
  • Canada 2,500

Dialects

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 as well as other towns and villages in the region.).
  • 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.

Phonology

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|+ Vowel phonemes of Judeo-Tat

!

! colspan=2 | Front

! rowspan=2 | Central

! rowspan=2 | Back

|-

! || Unrounded || Rounded

|-

! Close

|

|

|

|

|-

! Near-close

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|

|

|

|-

! Mid

|

|

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|-

! Open

|

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|

|}

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:center

|+Consonant phonemes of Judeo-Tat

!colspan=2|

! Labial

! Dental/<br>Alveolar

! Post-<br>alv./Palatal

! Velar

! Uvular

! Pharyn<br>-geal

! Glottal

|-

!colspan=2| Nasal

|

|

| || || || ||

|-

!rowspan=2| Stop/<br>Affricate

! <small>voiceless</small>

|

|

|

|

| || ||

|-

! <small>voiced</small>

|

|

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|

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| ||

|-

! rowspan="2" | Fricative

! <small>voiceless</small>

|

|

| ||

|

|

|

|-

! <small>voiced</small>

|

|

| || || || ||

|-

! colspan="2" | Approximant

|

|

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| ||

|

|

|-

! colspan="2" | Flap

|

|

| || || || ||

|}

Alphabet

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.

{|

|+Script and phonemes of Judeo-Tat

|- align=center

|Latin

|Aa

|Bb

|Cc

|Çç

|Dd

|Ee

|Əə

|Ff

|Gg

|Hh

|Ḩḩ

|Ħћ

|Ii

|Jj

|Kk

|Ll

|Mm

|Nn

|Oo

|Pp

|Qq

|Rr

|Ss

|Şş

|Tt

|Uu

|Vv

|Xx

|Yy

|Zz

|- align=center

|Cyrillic

|Аа

|Бб

|Чч

|Жж

|Дд

|Ее

|Ээ

|Фф

|Гг

|Гьгь

|ГӀгӀ

|Хьхь

|Ии

|Йй

|Кк

|Лл

|Мм

|Нн

|Оо

|Пп

|Гъгъ

|Рр

|Сс

|Шш

|Тт

|Уу

|Вв

|Хх

|Уьуь

|Зз

|- align=center

|Hebrew

|אַ

|בּ

|ג׳/צ

|ז׳

|ד

|אי

|א

|פ

|ג

|ה

|ע

|ח

|אִ

|י

|כּ

|ל

|מ

|נ

|אָ

|פּ

|ק

|ר

|ס

|ש

|ת

|אוּ

|ב

|כ

|או

|ז

|- align=center

|IPA

|a

|b

|tʃ/ts

|dʒ

|d

|ɛ

|æ

|f

|g

|h

|ʕ

|ħ

|i

|j

|k

|l

|m

|n

|o

|p

|ɢ

|ɾ

|s

|ʃ

|t

|u

|v

|χ

|y

|z

|}

Influences and etymology

Judeo-Tat is a Southwest Iranian language (as is modern Persian) and is much more closely related to (but not fully mutually intelligible with) modern Persian than most other Iranian languages of the Caucasus (for example: Talysh, Ossetian, and Kurdish). However, it also bears strong influence from other sources:

Medieval Persian: Postpositions are used predominantly in lieu of prepositions, for example in modern Persian: > 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 "honey" (Arab. ), "morning" (Arab. ).

Hebrew: As in other Jewish dialects, the language also has many Hebrew loanwords, for example "table" (Heb. ), "luck" (Heb. ), "rich" (Heb. ). Hebrew words are typically pronounced in the tradition of other Mizrahi Jews. Examples: and are pronounced pharyngeally (like Arabic &lrm;, respectively); is pronounced as a voiced uvular plosive (like Persian ). Classical Hebrew () and (kamatz), however, are typically pronounced as /v/ and /o/ respectively (similar to the Persian/Ashkenazi traditions, but unlike the Iraqi tradition, which retains and )

Azerbaijani: Vowel harmony and many loan words

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

Northeast Caucasian languages: "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:

  • > /o/, /æ/, or /u/ as in "book" (Arab. ), "road/path" (Pers. ), "sacrifice" (Arab., Aramaic or Heb. )
  • /o/ > /u/ as in "Absalom" (Heb. )
  • /u/ > /y/, especially under the influence of vowel harmony
  • Stress on the final syllable of words
  • Dropping of the final /n/ as in /soχtæ/ "to make" (Pers. )

See also

  • Judeo-Tat literature

References

</references>

Further reading

  • 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