Judeo-Malay Explained

Judeo-Malay
Nativename:Yahudi-Melayu, יאהודי-מֱלאיו
Region:Penang
Extinct:?
Familycolor:Austronesian
Fam2:Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:(disputed)
Fam4:Malayic
Fam5:Malay
Isoexception:dialect
Script:Hebrew
Glotto:none

Judeo-Malay (Malay: Yahudi-Melayu, Jawi: يهودي-ملايو, Hebrew: מלאית-יהודית) is a variant of the Malay language once spoken or written by the Jews of Penang, a state located in northern Peninsular Malaysia.[1] [2] Judeo-Malay is the only known recorded Jewish language in the Austronesian family. The surviving manuscripts of Judeo-Malay are recorded on a notepad of an Iranian Jew by the name of Rahamim Jacob Cohen that is currently kept in Microfilms of Alalay Manuscripts from the British Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections.[3]

Examples

A sample sentence in Judeo-Malay and Standard Malay for comparison:

Below are the numbers 1–6 in Judeo-Malay, transcribed from Cohen's notes, and in Standard Malay:

!Numeral!Judeo-Malay!Standard Malay
1satuhsatu
2du'ahdua
3tigahtiga
4hampahempat
5nimah or limahlima
6henamenam

See also

Notes and References

  1. Book: Rubin, Aaron D. . Handbook of Jewish Languages . 2017 . Brill . Leiden, Netherlands . 978-90-04-35954-3 . Kahn . Lily . 749–752 . en . Other Jewish Languages, Past and Present . 10.1163/9789004359543_026 . Rubin . Aaron D. . https://brill.com/display/book/9789004359543/B9789004359543_026.xml.
  2. Book: Rubin . Aaron D. . Jewish Languages from A to Z . Kahn . Lily . 2020 . Taylor & Francis . 978-1-351-04342-7 . Abingdon-on-Thames, England . 140 . en.
  3. Moreen . Vera Basch . 1995 . A Supplementary List of Judaeo-Persian Manuscripts . The British Library Journal . 21 . 1 . 71–80 . 0305-5167 . 42554400.