Historical Judeo-Spanish speech communities in the Mediterranean. Ringed circles represent modern speech communities. Haketia is spoken on the southwest Mediterranean.
The name "Haketia" derived from the Arabic حكىḥaká, "tell",[3] and is therefore pronounced with IPA:[ħ], reflecting the Arabic ḥāʾح. In some places it is written "Jaquetía" with the same pronunciation.
The well-known form of Judaeo-Spanish spoken by Jews living in the Balkans, Greece, Turkey and Jerusalem is Ladino Oriental (eastern Ladino). Haketia may be described by contrast as Ladino Occidental. The language is a variety of Spanish that borrows heavily from Judeo-Moroccan Arabic. It evidently also contains a number of words of Hebrew origin and was originally written using Hebrew letters. There is some cultural resemblance between the two Judaeo-Spanish dialect communities, including a rich shared stock of romanzas (ballads) from medieval Spain, though both words and music often differ in detail (as indeed they do between one Oriental-Sephardic community and another).
The Haketia lexicon is made up mostly of Spanish words but 34.5% of words are from Arabic and 18.5% are from Hebrew. It contains many calques of Hebrew phrases, such as hiĵas de Israel, a literal translation of the Hebrew phrase בנות ישראל, meaning "daughters of Israel".[4]
Other words have shifted in meaning. For example, שכן[ʃaˈχen], "neighbor", became sajén, which has taken on the meaning "Christian/Spanish".[4]
Spanish prefixes and suffixes are combined with Hebrew base words.[4]
Characteristics of Haketia's phonology include[4]:
The pharyngeal fricatives ḥ /ħ/ and ˁ /ʕ/ in words with Arabic or Hebrew roots. For example: ya ḥasrá /ja ħasˈɾa/ ('what a pity', from Moroccan Arabic يا حسرة), yˁatik /jʕaˈtik/ ('will give you', from Moroccan Arabic يعاطيك), ḥanukía /ħanuˈki.a/ ('Hanukkiah', from Hebrew חַנֻכִּיָּה); Maˁarab /maʕaˈɾab/ ('Morocco', from Hebrew מַעֲרָב 'west').
The glottal fricative /h/ (frequently voiced [ɦ]) in Hebrew words, like in kehiŀlá /kehilˈla/ ('community', from Hebrew קְהִלָּה), or Arabic words, like in haraĵ /haˈɾaʒ/ ('uproar', from Moroccan Arabic هرج). An etymological <h> written but no longer pronounced in Spanish words may be retained in Haketia.
Texts written in Hebrew letters show occurrences of a trilled /r/, as in אוררורוסו /oroˈɾoso/ ('dreadful', cf. Spanish horroroso). In this respect Spanish influence is widespread in Haketia speech, as evidenced in Marruecos /maˈrwekos/ ('Morocco'). Older texts show occurrences of a simple alveolar tap /ɾ/: טיירה /ˈtjeɾa/ ('earth, ground, land', cf. Spanish tierra /ˈtjera/).
The voiceless uvular stop /q/, in words with Arabic roots: qaddear /qaddeˈaɾ/ ('to finish, to terminate', from Moroccan Arabic قضى).
The voiced sibilant [z], not only in Hebrew or Arabic words but also in the realization of an original /s/ as a result of assimilation between vowels: laz alegríaz [laz aleˈgɾi.az] ('the joys', cf. Spanish las alegrías); this [z] can evolve in a second phase from sibilant to an interdental fricative [ð]: mosotros /moˈsotɾos/ ('we') → [moˈzotɾos] → [moˈðotɾos].
The postalveolar sibilants, the voiced ĵ /ʒ/ as in hiĵas /ˈhiʒas/ ('daughters', cf. modern Spanish hijas /ˈixas/) and muĵer /muˈʒeɾ/ ('wife, woman', cf. modern Spanish mujer /muˈxeɾ/) and the unvoiced š /ʃ/ as in šabón /ʃaˈbon/ ('soap', cf. modern Spanish jabón /xaˈbon/) and enšawar /enʃaˈwaɾ/ ('to rinse', cf. modern Spanish enjuagar /enxwaˈgaɾ/); in spoken Haketia, influenced by modern Spanish <j>, most of these cases are pronounced as the voiceless velar fricative [x].
The sibilant š /ʃ/ is a phoneme in Haketia in words of Arabic or Hebrew origin; often it was pronounced [s], principally by women: šabbat šalom /ʃabˈbat ʃaˈlom/ ('Shabbat shalom', from Hebrew שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם) → sabbat salom [sabˈbat saˈlom]; kidduš /kidˈduʃ/ ('Kiddush' from Hebrew קִדּוּשׁ) → kiddús [kidˈdus], etc.; next to a voiced consonant, this [s] can be pronounced as [z]: ḥešván /ħeʃˈvan/ ('Cheshvan', from Hebrew חֶשְׁוָן) → [ħesˈvan] → ḥezván [ħezˈvan]. On the other hand [ʃ] may be the realization of an /s/ before a /k/ as in mošca [ˈmoʃka] ('fly', cf. Spanish mosca), and bušcar [buʃˈkaɾ] ('to look at', cf. Spanish buscar).
The profusion of gemination, especially in loanwords from Arabic or Hebrew, even when absent in the original form, as in berajjá [beɾaxˈxa] ('blessing', from Hebrew בְּרָכָה); also, by consonantal assimilation, at word boundaries, like in salimos de Pésaḥ /saˈlimos de ˈpesaħ/ ('at the end of Passover', lit. 'we exited Passover') → salímod-de Pésaḥ [saˈlimodde ˈpesaħ].
Assimilation to velar sounds; for example: bueno /ˈbweno/ ('good') → güeno [ˈgweno] ~ ueno [ˈweno], puerta /ˈpweɾta/ ('door, gate') → cuerta [ˈkweɾta]; the same phenomenon is evident when a vowel /a/ diphthongizes after a velar consonant; for example: ḥanukká /ħanukˈka/ ('Hanukkah', from Hebrew חֲנֻכָּה) → ḥanukkwá [ħanukˈkwa].
Coalescence of the cluster /nj/ into the palatal nasal /ɲ/: quiñentos /kiˈɲentos/ ('five hundred', cf. Spanish quinientos /kiˈnjentos/).
Reduction of /ʝ/ after a stressed /i/: maravía /maɾaˈvi.a/ ('wonder', cf. Spanish maravilla /maɾaˈbiʝa/).
In some communities, particularly in Tétouan, consonant elision: poned /poˈned/ ('put [2PL.IMP]') → poné [poˈne], comites /koˈmites/ ('you ate') → comite [koˈmite].
Under the influence of local Arabic phonology, the Old Spanish [ʒ] and [dʒ] allophones of the /dʒ/ phoneme merged in Haketia as /ʒ/: ĵudió /ʒuˈdjo/ (‘Jew’, cf. Eastern Ladino djudyó /dʒuˈdjo/ or djidyó /dʒiˈdjo/)[5].
Native words form the plural by suffixing the morpheme |-s| (which corresponds to /-s/ in words ending with unstressed vowels and /-es/ otherwise). Masculine nouns loaned from Hebrew typically form the plural by suffixing the morpheme |-ˈim|, though some use |-ˈot| instead. For instance, the plural of masculine sefer 'book' is safarim, whereas the plural of masculine mazón 'victual' is mezonot. Feminine nouns loaned from Hebrew usually form the plural with |-ˈot|, though some use |-ˈim| instead.
The dual number only appears in nouns loaned from Hebrew in certain verses, such as "Mosé subió a los shamaim" ("Moses rose to the two heavens"). These nouns form the dual number by suffixing the morpheme |-ˈaim|.
Haketia, unlike other varieties of Judaeo-Spanish, did not develop a literary tradition, so the language remained as a colloquial form of communication and was not used as a vehicle for formal education since in Spanish Morocco, Spanish was used, along with French, at the Alliance Israélite Universelle schools. Due to the influence of the Spanish and French conquests and the large number of Jews from northern Morocco who emigrated to Venezuela, Spain and later Argentina, the language was levelled with modern Spanish, which has contributed greatly to its diminution. Nevertheless, there has been a slow renaissance of the language, helped by musicians such as Vanessa Paloma[6] with a variety of performances and the recordings of her sound archive KHOYA [7] as well as others such as Doris Benmaman [lad], Mor Karbasi and Kol Oud Tof Trio [lad], among others. Jose Benoliel [lad] and Alegría Bendayán de Bendelac have both compiled Spanish-Haketía[8] dictionaries, published in 1977 and 1995, respectively. The Caracas Center of Sephardic Studies [lad] regularly publishes articles in Haketia in its magazine Maguen-Escudo.[9] The language is also spoken in some communities in the Amazon areas of Brazil.[10]
Joseph Benoliel collected oral tradition, grammar, and a lexicon. Alegria Bendelac conducted fieldwork.[11]Nina Pinto-Abecasis collected folklore.[12] Vanessa Paloma Elbaz collected many songs from the oral tradition and published extensively on the community and its music in the early twenty first century. [13]
Decline began as early as 1860 during the Spanish occupation of Tetuan and accelerated as a increasing share of Haketia speakers adopted Modern Spanish. Today Haketia is a declining language with only 1000 speakers remaining, down from 30,000 in 1900.[4]
^Moreno, Aviad (14 October 2016). "Maguén-Escudo". Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 26 August 2020.
^ Cunha, Álvaro (2012). Hakitia: o judeu-árabe na Amazônia. São Paulo: Sapientia.
^"Haketia". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 2023-03-30. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
