La lengua de los sefardíes: del contexto de los Balcanes al contexto del multilingüismo en el territorio israelí

Abstract

In this paper we deal with the language of Sephardic Jews, Judeo-Spanish, from the perspective of sociolinguistics, emphasizing the facets necessary for the language maintenance. The general aim of the paper is to analyze the presence and the role of this language in majority and minority social communities in the contexts of the Balkans and the Israeli territory, while the specific aim is to examine which domains of language use were crucial for its maintenance within society. The ultimate goal of this research is to draw attention to the importance of maintaining this minority language as an important part of Sephardic culture and universal culture as well. We conduct this sociolinguistic research through the analysis of the available literature, relevant books and articles on Judeo-Spanish. The results of the conducted research have led us to the conclusion that, except the native speakers’ support which is also very important, support for the language in the public domain is crucial for the language maintenance and survival within society.