CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES AND FUTURE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Ladino is no longer regularly passed down to younger generations of Sephardim. Intergenerational transmission, as it is referred to in literature, is an extremely important factor in regard to the vitality of a language. However, an examination of who uses the language today challenges our understanding of preconceived notions concerning what it means to be a speaker of a language. We often consider the most proficient of speakers of Ladino to be in their seventies, eighties, or nineties; this is particularly because they have had the most exposure to the language, and the decades in which they grew up favored the use of the language. However, the idea that the most proficient of Ladino speakers pertain to the oldest generation of Sephardim is nothing new. Harris (1994) explores said theme in Death of a Language, which considers the role of Ladino both past and present. Three decades since the publication of her book, we still often look to the age group in question as our “model” speakers.

Of the several hundred periodicals once printed in Ladino, only one remains today. Since 2003, El Amaneser has printed monthly out of Istanbul and serves as a supplement to the weekly Şalom newspaper, founded in 1947 and still in existence. Though Şalom used to print in Ladino, in 1984 the paper switched to Turkish; it still prints a page in Ladino each week. The newspaper maintains a digital platform as well, which publishes in Turkish, Ladino, as well as English. The long-lasting journal Aki Yerushalayim, which circulated in print two to three times a year from 1979 to 2016, switched to digital format in 2019 and is published one to two times per year.

Though printed materials decline, opportunities to engage with and in the language abound. Ladinokomunita is a leading example, which demonstrates the role that the world wide web can play in keeping a language alive. In this online correspondence group, speakers and learners of Ladino from around the globe communicate with one another in said language. In existence since 1999, Ladinokomunita has amassed some 60,000 messages, entirely in Ladino. With just over 1,500 members, this forum has witnessed a shift in membership, from those who primarily grew up hearing Ladino at home to an increasing population of those interested in learning the language but with limited or no previous exposure to it. In regard to the latter group, such interest is not only evident among Sephardic Jews, but also non-Sephardic Jews, as well as non-Jewish populations. Online platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram and TikTok are allowing speakers and learners alike to use and interact in the language, with different generations gravitating toward certain platforms more than others. While the language is used for communicative (vernacular) purposes on some occasion, in many others, the language is used as a post-vernacular; that is, its use connotes “extra-symbolic meaning above and beyond its communicative value” (Brink-Danan, 2011, p. 110).

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020 also brought about a shift in the Ladino landscape. At a time when much of the world was under quarantine or even government-mandated lockdown, Ladino, like other languages, saw an increase in interest, engagement, and activity. The Sephardic Brotherhood of America was the first organization to offer a short-term online Ladino course during the pandemic, which drew hundreds of participants at a time, via Zoom.  Since then, numerous initiatives have emerged, organized and taught by scholars, speakers, and educators from around the world and offering classes at a variety of levels and even in different scripts. While some of these courses are now back in person or some of the online courses are affiliated with universities (several which offered in-person options prior to the pandemic), others are individual or community-based endeavors, thus providing options to participants with different interests or reasons for wanting to participate. “Students” are participants of all ages, many of whom are already conversant in Ladino but never had the opportunity to formally study their language. Others have wanted to learn the language in years past but, since they do not reside near any speech community, have never had the chance to do so. A number of additional online Ladino-related initiatives have emerged since the onset of the pandemic, such as the virtual Enkontro de Alhad (Sunday meetup) program, which has run almost every Sunday since August 2020. With more than 100 episodes, organized by 13 partnering balabayes (hosts) and in consultation with different musafires (guests) each week, a digital repository has been created for which viewers have access to a wealth of content in different varieties of the language, including Haketia.

And while the previous sections have highlighted a glimpse of written and oral production in Ladino in the centuries following 1492, the language continues to experience many of the same conversations, questions, writings, and rewritings today. Online platforms continue to discuss rules of etiquette and format in regard to which languages are acceptable in a given group. Language itself is often the topic of conversation and participants regularly utilize Ladino to recall the past (e.g. family members, sayings, recipes, folklore, songs, jokes, etc.). While new writings are occasionally introduced in Ladino, rewritings or translations are still prominent; examples include Haelion & Perez’s multi-volume translation of Homer’s The Odyssey (La Odisea) in 2011 and The Iliad (La Iliada) in 2016, as well as Perez & Pimienta’s translation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (El Princhipiko) in 2010. So, while Ladino continues to adapt to new realties, emerge in rewritings of previously-published texts, and come into contact with other languages, its speakers — and learners — similarly continue to preserve the language and engage in many of the conversations which have been paramount to its speech communities for as long as the language has been documented.