Judeo-Arabic

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Judeo-Arabic
ערבית יהודית‎
A page from the Cairo Geniza, part of which is written in the Judeo-Arabic language
Ethnicity	Jews from North Africa and the Fertile Crescent
Native speakers	240,000 (2022)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Judeo-Arabic
Early forms	Old Arabic Classical Arabic
Writing system	Hebrew alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2	jrb
ISO 639-3	jrb – inclusive code Individual codes: yhd – Judeo-Egyptian Arabic aju – Judeo-Moroccan Arabic yud – Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic jye – Judeo-Yemeni Arabic
Glottolog	None

This article contains Hebrew text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hebrew letters.

Judeo-Arabic (Judeo-Arabic: ערביה יהודיה, romanized: 'Arabiya Yahūdiya; Arabic: عربية يهودية, romanized: ʿArabiya Yahūdiya (listen)^ⓘ; Hebrew: ערבית יהודית, romanized: 'Aravít Yehudít (listen)^ⓘ), sometimes referred to as Sharh in its high-level translation calque, is a group of related ethnolects or religiolects within the branches of the Arabic language used by Jewish communities. Judeo-Arabic is a mixed form of Arabic, in its formal and vernacular varieties, as it has been used by Jews, and refers to both written forms and spoken dialects.^[2][3][4] Although Jewish dialectical forms of Arabic, which predate Islam, have been distinct from those of other religious communities, they are not a uniform linguistic entity.^[2]

Varieties of Arabic formerly spoken by Jews throughout the Arab world have been, in modern times, classified as distinct ethnolects.^[4] Under the ISO 639 international standard for language codes, Judeo-Arabic is classified as a macrolanguage under the code jrb, encompassing four languages: Judeo-Moroccan Arabic (aju), Judeo-Yemeni Arabic (jye), Judeo-Egyptian Arabic (yhd), and Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (yud).^[5][4]

Judeo-Arabic is a blend of Arabic, Arabic dialects, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Later forms of Judeo-Arabic particularly express Hebrew and Aramaic elements.

Many significant Jewish works, including a number of religious writings by Saadia Gaon, Maimonides and Judah Halevi, were originally written in Judeo-Arabic, as this was the primary vernacular language of their authors.