Parallel developments: the Mandarin of Chinese Muslims and Jewish languages

Abstract

Judeo-Italian, a typical Jewish language, is a group of closely related dialects consisting of a basically Italian vocabulary and grammar but including a component of words of Hebrew or Aramaic origin and occasionally words borrowed from other languages, e.g orsai ‘anniversary of a death’ from Yiddish and negro ‘wretched’ from Ladino. The language was traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet but today is written in Latin letters.Xiao’erjing is a group of closely related dialects spoken by Chinese Muslims living in Mandarin-speaking parts of China. Its vocabulary is largely Chinese, but it includes words borrowed from Arabic. It was written in the Arabic alphabet but today is almost always written in Chinese characters. The borrowings from Hebrew and Arabic frequently are for terms connected with religion, such as cascer in Judeo-Italian and kosher in Yiddish are analogous to halal in Xiao’erjing for food that is ritually permitted. However, the borrowings are not restricted to religion but may fall into any semantic category.Most Jewish languages and Xiao’erjing were widely used a century ago, and both are disappearing today, reflecting political and social changes in Europe, the Americas, and China.