| Italkian |
 |
Judeo-Italian Dialect Nears Extinction
Try to find the ancient walls of Rome today and mostly what remains are a few extant sections and some brick gates. Once surrounding the entire city, over time erosion, pilferage, and urban upheaval have reduced the imposing fortifications to mere fragments.
In much the same way, certain Italian dialects and minority languages, including a Judeo-Italian dialect called Italkian, are on the verge of being lost to the linguistic heavens.
Jewish Italo-Romance Dialects
Italkian was spoken mainly in urban areas in Rome and in central and northern Italy (especially in Livorno) from the 10th to the 17th centuries in Italy. Described as a mix between Italian and Hebrew, it is estimated that only a tiny number of people speak Italkian fluently today and less than 4,000 people still use it in their everyday speech.
Italkian is not the only dialect that employs Hebrew. Others include Yiddish, which is a mix between German and Hebrew, and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), a mix between Spanish and Hebrew. Linguists also make a distinction between such Jewish Italo-Romance dialects as giudeo-ferrarese, giudeo-mantovano, giudeo-modenese, giudeo-reggiano, and giudeo-veneto.
Hebrew Alphabet, Italian Dialect
Like many Italians around the turn of the 20th-century, Jews in Italy could speak standard Italian or the local dialect or both, and they could also speak their own Jewish dialect of Italian. Judeo-Italian dialects varied from city to city and region to region. In addition, Judeo-Italian dialects were originally written in the Hebrew alphabet and used in Jewish liturgy, ritual, and the Passover Haggadah.
