Ladino

Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish, is a Romance language that developed from 15th-century Castilian Spanish spoken by Sephardic Jews. Following the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, Sephardic communities spread across the Ottoman Empire, North Africa, and the Balkans, where Ladino continued to evolve in contact with Hebrew and the languages of local populations such as Turkish, Greek, and Persian-influenced varieties. The language includes several dialects, notably Haketia, once spoken in parts of Morocco and the Iberian shore of the Mediterranean, and Eastern Balkan Ladino. In modern times, Ladino has been written in Hebrew script (solitreo) as well as in Latin-based orthographies.

Linguistically, Ladino retains much of the vocabulary of medieval Spanish while incorporating numerous loanwords from Hebrew and other regional languages. Its phonology and grammar are largely derived from Spanish, but lexical and stylistic influences from host communities create notable differences from contemporary Spanish. Mutual intelligibility with modern Spanish is limited. Ladino functions as a marker of Sephardic Jewish identity and heritage, with use historically in daily life as well as in liturgy and literature.

Today Ladino is endangered in many communities, with transmission increasingly limited to older generations or to religious contexts. Revival and preservation efforts exist in Israel, Turkey, the Balkans, and among diaspora communities, encompassing education, print and digital media, music, and cultural programs aimed at documenting and sustaining the language for future generations.