Judeo-Roman dialect

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Judeo-Roman (Italian: Giudaico-Romanesco) or Italkit is the only still living dialect of the Judeo-Italian languages, historically used by the Jews living in Rome.^[1] It is spoken by 250 people, most of whom live in Italy. The language is on the decline and most of its remaining speakers are elderly.^[1] There are efforts to preserve the language and keep it from extinction.^[2]

Judeo-Roman, like other Jewish languages, emerged due to the Jews of Rome being isolated in the Rome Ghetto, on order of the Pope.^[3] The language declined as Jews were emancipated and Roman Jews switched to the Roman dialect of Italian.

Younger Italian Jews are attempting to preserve the language.^[2]

Judeo-Roman has at least 360 Hebrew words and phrases in it. Many of these were used to conceal what the users were saying from Christians.^[2] examples include:

Judeo-Italian has several letter shifts that differentiate it from standard Italian; these include:^[1]

/e/ becoming /i/ (e.g. detto to ditto)

/l/ becoming /r/ (e.g. qualcuno to quarcuno)

It also contains several vowel shifts and other changes:

Loss of initial vowels (e.g. oppure to pure)

Loss of final consonants (e.g. con to co')

Contractions (e.g. dir ti to ditte)

Archaisms (e.g. di te to d'oo ti)

A theater group called Chaimme 'a sore 'o sediaro e 'a moje (Chaim, the sister, the chairmaker and the wife) makes plays in Judeo-Roman.^[4]

There is a collection of poems written by Crescenzo del Monte from 1908 and republished in 2007^[1] in Judeo Roman.^[5] These works include The sonnets of Crescenzo del Monte.

Several Youtube videos have been posted in Judeo-Roman.^[1]