The Judeo-Arabic language, casually spoken | Joseph speaking Baghdadi Judeo-Arabic | Wikitongues

Joseph "Yusuf" Samuels, author of "Beyond the Rivers of Babylon", speaks a variety of the Judeo-Arabic language from Baghdad, Iraq. Judeo-Arabic languages emerged over 1,000 years ago from the convergence of Hebrew and Arabic and were widely spoken across Arabia, Mesopotamia, the Levant, and North Africa until the mid-20th century. Today, most speakers live in Israel-Palestine and parts of North America.

Transcription and translation by Eli Timan, Dr. Assaf Bar-Moshe (PhD, Hebrew University), and Andrew Kline. Special thanks to Dr. Evgeniya Gutova (PhD, Sorbonne Université) for coordinating transcription and translation. Interview filmed by Jacob Kodner for Wikitongues and the HUC-JIR Jewish Language Project.

Judeo-Arabic is an ethnolect that has been spoken and written in various forms by Jews throughout the Arabic-speaking world. The Iraqi dialects are particularly distinct from the local Christian and Muslim dialects. You can learn more about Judeo-Arabic at https://www.jewishlanguages.org/judeo....

More from Wikipedia: "Baghdad Jewish Arabic (Arabic: عربية يهودية بغدادية, עַרָבִּיָּה יְהוּדִיַּה בַּגדָאדִיַּה‎) or autonym haki mal yihud (Jewish Speech) or el-haki malna (our speech) is the Arabic dialect spoken by the Jews of Baghdad and other towns of Southern Iraq. This dialect differs from the dialect spoken by the Jews in Northern Iraq, such as Mosul and 'Ana. The Baghdadi and Northern dialects may be regarded as subvarieties of Judeo-Iraqi Arabic. As with most Judeo-Arab communities, there are likely to be few, if any, speakers of the Judeo-Iraqi Arabic dialects who still reside within Iraq. Rather these dialects have been maintained or are facing critical endangerment within respective Judeo-Iraqi diasporas, namely those of Israel and the United States. In 2014, the film Farewell Baghdad (Arabic: مطير الحمام; Hebrew: מפריח היונים, lit. "The Dove Flyer"), which is performed mostly in Jewish Baghdadi Arabic dialect, became the first film to be almost completely performed in Judeo-Iraqi Arabic."