| Judeo-Shirazi | |
|---|---|
| Jewish Achomi | |
| Jidli | |
| Native to | Israel, Iran |
Native speakers | 200 (2023) [1] |
Indo-European
| |
| Hebrew | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | jude1270 |
| ELP | Judeo-Shirazi |
Judeo-Shirazi is a variety of Fars. Some Judeo-Shirazi speakers refer to the language as Jidi, though Jidi is normally a designation used by speakers of Judeo-Esfahani. It is spoken mostly by Persian Jews living in Shiraz and surrounding areas of the Fars province in Iran.
Judeo-Shirazi is descended from Medieval Shirazi. [2] In 1900, there were an estimated 10,000 speakers of Judeo-Shirazi, but in 2023 that estimate has dwindled to less than 200. Like speakers of other Jewish-Iranian languages, many Judeo-Shirazi speakers immigrated to Israel or North America in the late 20th century. Today, around 4,000 individuals of Shirazi descent are living in Brooklyn, New York. [1]
Unlike other Judeo-Iranian languages, Judeo-Shirazi has history of literature. [3]
Unlike the other Judeo-Iranian languages, which are part of the Median languages, Judeo-Shirazi is a Southwest Iranian language, like Persian. Highlighting this are the lexical isoglosses Judeo-Shirazi exhibits, such as go- "say" and geyra "weeping". Despite this affiliation, Judeo-Shirazi is distinct from Persian in its grammar. [2]
The following list of words indicates a few isoglosses distinguishing Judeo-Shirazi from the dialect of Judeo-Esfahani. [4]
| English | Esfahani | Judeo-Shirazi |
|---|---|---|
| Big | bele | gonde |
| Dog | kuδe | keleb |
| Cat | meli | gorbe |
| Shirt | perhan | piran |
| Throw | xuθ | ba- |
Judeo-Shirazi displays several features of Southwest Iranian languages, as well as several features of Old Shirazi.
Judeo-Shirazi displays split ergativity in the past tenses of transitive verbs. This feature is a common link between Fars varieties. Additionally, Judeo-Shirazi marks person in the past transitive using a proclitic, which otherwise functions as an oblique pronominal suffix. Other grammatical features of note: [4]
Judeo-Shirazi articulates sibilants (s, z) as intra-dental (θ, ð). Persian, and other Southwest Iranian languages, distinguish these phonemes. The systematic replacement of /s z/ by /θ ð/ in Judeo-Shirazi may be a result of two processes: the post-vocalic fricativatization found in other Fars dialects, like Davāni, and the original phoneme /θ/ stemming from proto-Shirazi. [5]
Though it has been to some extent influenced by Persian, over the years, Judeo-Shirazi has remained relatively stable. Other phonological features contribute to evidence of its descendance from proto-Shirazi and other old Fars dialects:
Additional features similar to Fars dialects include the fronting of back vowels and final -a and -e. [4]
Judeo-Shirazi is now Moribund with only 200 speakers as of 2023. [3] The language is poorly documented but there is currently linguistic study being done by the Endangered Language Alliance, among the Shirazi Jewish community of New York. [6]
| Judeo-Shirazi [6] | Persian [6] | English [6] |
|---|---|---|
| har-kodom-ešu ešu–go dišna xow-e bad | har-kodâm-ešân goft-and dišab xâb-e bad | Both (lit. each) of them said: Last night we dreamed a bad dream |