eSefarad Noticias del Mundo Sefaradi
Michal Held
The Center for Study of Jewish Languages and Literatures, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
DeThe Function of Language in the DH-L: A Written Spoken Language?
Although the online communities that this paper focuses on are technically defined as a mailing list (The Ladinokomunita Mailing List) and as a forum (The Ladino Culture Forum), they shall hereafter be referred to as correspondence circles–a term used by the initiators of Ladinokomunita. I deliberately adopted this term in order to convey two aspects of the materials with which I am concerned. One aim was to encapsulate the way in which the members of the community define themselves, rather than the way in which they are identified by researchers’ analytical definitions-an approach presented and practiced by Dan Ben-Amos and Tamar Alexander-Frizer, among other influential researchers of folklore. [24] Moreover, I find the term’corresponding circle’ to be highly relevant to the ethnolinguistic study of the materials with which I am concerned, and to the definition of the «Written-Spoken Language» used by their participants suggested hereinafter.
The fact that the Sephardi online correspondence circles we are looking at as a prototype for the DHL in general use JS language not only as a linguistic infrastructure but also as a metalinguistic central theme is not accidental. These online JS interactions convey a quest situated between losses and Diasporas as well as an attempt to reconstruct a multilayered system of homelands within the boundaries of the DHL.
According to Jean Amery, in the years of exile our relationship to our homeland was akin to that toward our mother tongue, In a very specific way, we have lost it too and cannot initiate proceedings for restitution.[25] Having lost its function as a tool of communication, the JS language used online makes possible a reacquisition of the lost mother tongue. Using Amery’s concept, we may say that the online messages, unfolded in the ethnic language that represents the fragmented Sephardi collective identity becomes a sustitute for the offline Sephardi homeland.
Benedict Anderson commented that “there is a special kind of contemporaneous community which language alone suggests … nothing connects us all but imagined sound”. [26] In the case of the JS DHL, the question of sound is interesting since it is a ‘written community’ in which JS language is actually not heard (almost no use of audio or video is made, although it is technologically possible to incorporate them.) To use Anderson’s definition, it is definitely an imagined sound that connect the members of the DH-L. Jean Amery’s words are also relevant for the understanding of the lost JS community an the tendency to reconstruct, as a replacement of it, the online DH-L in which the forgotten mother tongue is revived.
An intriguing aspect of the function of language in the Sephardi DH-L has to do with the way in which JS script is being treated in the online correspondence circles.
The traditional orthographic systems used for the writing of JS in square and Rashi Hebrew script, as well as the varied spelling systems applied for the writing of the
language in Roman script, have already been widely described and analyzed by the linguists.[27]
A debate regarding the ‘correct’ method of writing JS has occupied the minds of writers and readers of the language for a long time. At present, attempts are being made to convince the users of JS around the world to adopt the phonetically oriented orthographic system formed and practiced in the JS periodical «Aki Yerushalayim» that
is published in Latin characters. At the same time, scholars encourage the acquisition of the traditional method of writing JS in Hebrew script, in order to allow modern readers of the language access to earlier JS texts. These negating spelling ideologies are reflected in the online JS correspondence circles, when the moderator of Ladinokomunita makes an effort to correct messages that are misspelled according to the Aki Yerushalayim method. In Tapuz, the orthographic situation was nonsystemized until recently, when over the months of July and August 2009 a vivid discussion of this matter evolved, and the decision was made to try to follow the traditional methodof spelling JS in Hebrew characters.[28]
The fact that language is being focused on so heavily in the Sephardi DH-L echoes Roman Jakobson’s theory,[29] and raises the question which one of the six functions of language he defined (the referential, the emotive, the conative, the phatic, the metalingual and the poetic) dominates the phenomena that we are looking at. The
answer must be multiple, for in the Sephardi DH-L, JS language is being dealt with in a way that resembles both the metalingual function (expressed, for example, in the numerous attempts to clarify the lost meanings of JS words and expressions) and the poetic function (expressed in the constant concentration on the JS message for its own sake). Interestingly enough, contemporary Yiddish is regarded in a similar way, as expressed by Jeffery Shandler:
Though perceived largely in terms of loss, the current state of Yiddish–increasingly selfconscious, contingent, and tenacious–has also opened up new cultural possibilities for the language. Indeed, the symbolic values invested in Yiddish have expanded greatly and have done so precisely because of the prevailing sense that it is no longer what it once was, with this disparity inspiring innovation.[30]
Likewise on the JS scene: the ethnic language that had already benn classified as endangered or even dead in the offline world[31] is revived in the DH-L as a language that may rely more on its metalingual and aesthetic function than on its other functions, which are essential in offline interactions. In this aspect, the Sephardi online corresponding circles may be regarded as a model for the behavior of language in the DH-L in general.
Naomi Baron explores the history of written culture and presents its changing role in the context of the way in which it is used in contemporary societies online.[32]Emerging from her survey of reading, writing, authorship, copyright, publishing and language standards, is an understanding that what may be called in the present technological age human culture is facing a critical change in the way in which its
written aspects are being practiced and understood. Baron concludes her article with the realization that “the technological genie is out of the bottle. We will need to feel our way to a new cultural praxis regarding the written word”.
David Crystal offers a similar understanding of the language used online by saying the following:
The situations of … chatgroups, though expressed through the medium of writing, display several of the core properties of speech. … their utterances display much of the urgency and energetic force which is characteristic of a facetoface conversation … chatgroups are for ‘chat’, and people certainly ‘speak’ to each other there … These are ‘speech acts’, in a literal sense. The whole thrust of the metalanguage in these situations is spoken in character [33]
What are the implications of these theories to the understanding of contemporary Sephardi online activity? Reproductions of printed works in JS, as well as online
publications of original works in JS, do occupy a central place in the online Sephardi correspondence circles, which, from this respect, are an example of the change in the written culture with which Baron is concerned. However, the case of the Sephardi DH-L involves a language whose function as a spoken one is minimized in the offline world, while it is used intensively for written conversation online. This, for sure, is not a conventional example of the difference between written and spoken language. The boundaries between the two are actually even more challenged than in the situation described by Crystal. I propose seeing it as a new linguistic phase in which an endangered offline spoken language is turned into a vibrant online «Written-Spoken Language’ within the boundaries of the DH-L.
This stage is made possible due to the release of the technological genie outof the bottle on te one hand, and the flexibility of the last members of the past Sephardi communities , who replace their offline situation of cultural decline with the technological alternative which keeps it alive and enables it to further develop, on
the other. The characteristics of the Written-Spoken Language and their implications go far beyond the boundaries of this paper, and deserve further multidisciplinary comprehensive analysis.
Conclusion: A Possible Rturn Offline?
This paper opened with a recollection of my personal experience of managing to locate an unknown offline Sephardi community as a result of an onine conversation. A potential for a similar experience is found in the following correspondence that took place in Ladinokomunita in June 2009. In this exchange, a graduate student majoring in JS Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem asked for help in reconstructing the traditional Sephardi game of cards that she vaguely remembered from her childhood in Istanbul and wished to analyze in an academic paper.
A few members of Ladinokomunita answered her message, offering a virtual revival of the traditional game that is rarely played anymore offline. One response went further in the direction marked by Rheingold, and offered the student a chance to return to the offline, non-virtual community of JS-speaking card players. It came from the manager of a Sephardi elderly citizens home, who invited the student to meet and interview the residents of the institution he is in charge of, and experience a ‘real’ Sephardi game of cards.[34]
The members of Ladinokomunita from around the world have traveled together to Israel, Turkey, and Argentina lately, and their visits to the remains of the offline
Sephardi homelands are widely documented online. A highlight of their journey to Israel was the ceremonial inauguration of a grove of trees planted in the north of
the country. This site, named ‘The Ladinokomunita Forest’ was funded with the contributions made by the participants of the online community. Are these two examples, the forest and the game of cards, making a possible return to the offline Sephardi community via the online experience of the Sephardi DH-L?
According James Slevin, technologies such as the Internet are serving to increase the capacity for both reciprocal and nonreciprocal communication. These new conditions challenge individuals and organizations to seek out new possibilities for reciprocal bonding and collaboration, and to create opportunities, which were previously only associated with the sharing of a common locale.[35]
Our journey in the Sephardi cyberspace indicates that the contemporary wandering Sephardi Jew, who has almost no distinguished ‘locale’ to identify with in the actual world, may find refuge online. Moreover, in some circumstances, it is possible to organize Sephardi activity offline as an outcome of the activities taking place in the Sephardi DHL. This is not to say that struggling Sephardi communities are being revived offline because of the online revival of their culture and language, Yet a possible new stage of ethnic experience may be marked when people get together in the actual world because of their being cocitizens of the DH-L.
The possible new phase in Sephardi culture based upon an online activity in JS that is being rechanneled into the actual world awaits the attention of a future study. Whatever the conclusion of it may be, the present study hopefully made it clear that at this point in time, the Sephardi Digital HomeLand itself provides cyberfolkloristics and Ladino culture scholars with fascinating phenomena, evoking general insights
regarding contemporary culture and the interface between virtual and actual human existence.
Appendix:
A conversation carried on in Ladinokomunita, June 2009
Teza en Ladino de estudiante en la Universita Ebrea en Yerushalayim
En primero, demando pardon ke mi lingua no es buena i korrekta. Yo so una estudiante de Folklor en la Universita ebrea en Yerushalayim ke toma klasas en Ladino. Nasi en Istanbul ande mi grandmama me avlava en Ladino. Por modo de esto kije embezar la lingua en la Universita. Oy no ay munchas personas ke avlan la lingua, i kon el tiempo probablamente van aver mas pokos. Yo penso ke es muy importante de aver esta informasion para ke un dia otras personas ke se van enteresar en la lingua van a pueder a topar un poko de las tradisiones komo pasavan el tiempo los Judios ke avlavan Ladino.
Devo de eskrivir una teza par la fin de esta klasa. Porke me akodro ke los Judios en Istambul djugavan kartas i era una tradision ke les dava muncho agrado, pensi
a eskrivir esta teza a los djugos de kartas ke los Judios ke vinyeron de todo modo de payizes i agora biven en diferente payizes aman a djugar.
Tengo 8 kestiones ke tienen menester de responsos i saver de ke lugar (payiz) vienen las personas muy agradavles ke me dan los responsos.
1. A donde djugan las kartas; en kaza, en el klub de la kommunita o en otro lugar?
2. Los ombres i las mujeres djugan las kartas en djuntos o aparte?
3. Ay djugos de kartas ke solo las mujeres o solo los ombres djugan?
4. Komo se yaman los djugos (Poker–Pokeriko…)?
5. Komo se yaman las kartas (El rey, el joker …)?
6. Ken son las personas ke djugan kartas mas, los viejos o los djovenes?
7. Kuando les plaze a la djente djuar kartas, la tadre o la noche o el la fin de semana?
8. La konversasion en el tiempo ke se djuagan las kartas es en Ladino o otra lingua?
Si vozotros puedian por favor ayudarme kon esta koza vo ester muy agradesida.
Mersi muncho de esta muy importante ayuda.
Kon respekto Orly Salinas Mizrahi agora en Yerushalayim
Traslation
A Ladino thesis of a student in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
First, I beg your pardon that my language is not good and correct. I am a student of Folklore at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem who takes courses in Ladino. I was born in Istanbul where my grandmother spoke Ladino to me. For this, I wanted to study the language at the university. Today there are not many people who speak
the language, and with time, there probably are going to be fewer. I think it is very important to have this information so that one day other people who are going to be interested in the language will be able to find some of the traditions the way they were practiced in the times of the Jews who spoke Ladino.
I need to write a thesis for the end of this course. For I remember that the Jews in Istanbul played cards and it was a tradition that gave them a lot of pleasure, I decided to write this thesis about the card games that the Jews who came from many countries and now live in different countries love to play.
I have 8 questions that need to be answered, and I need to know what place (country) the nice people who answer them for me come from.
1. Where did they play cards? At home? In the community’s club, or in another
place?
2. Did men and women play cards together or separately?
3. Are there card games that only men or only women play?
4. What were the names of the games (Poker–Pokeriko…)?
5. What are the names of the cards (El rey, el joker …)?
6. Who are the people who spend more time playing cards? The old or the young ones?
7. When did people like to play cards? In the morning, in the evening or during the weekend?
8. Was the conversation that accompanied the game or cards carried on in Ladino or in another language?
If you can please help me with this thing, I shall be very grateful. Thanks a lot for this very important help. With respect, Orly Salinas Mizrahi, now in Jerusalem.
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Orli kerida
Mi nombre es Roni Aranya. Yo so el direktor de la kaza ande biven las personas ke vinyeron de los lugares ke avlavan el Ladino. Aki abasho tienes mi adreso elektroniko.
Puedes vinir ande mozotros i avlar kon muestros moradores. Sere muy enteresante para ti i para eyos
Traslation
Dear Orli
My name is Roni Aranya. I am the director of the home where the people who came from the places where Ladino is spoken live. You have my electronic address here at
the end. You can come to us and speak to our tenants. It will be very interesting for you and for them.
Regards, Roni Aranya, Recanati Elderly Citizens Home.
The People Who Almost Forgot: JudeoSpanish Online Communities As a Digital Home-Land – Part 1
The People Who Almost Forgot: JudeoSpanish Online Communities As a Digital Home-Land – Part 2
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[24] See Dan BenAmos, “Analytical Categories and Ethnic Genres”, Folklore Genres, Dan Ben-Amos (ed.), University of Texas Press, Austin, 1976, pp. 215242 and TamarAlexander-Frizer, The Heart is a Mirror: The Sephardi Folktale, Wayne State University Press, Detroit 2007, p.8 [25] See Note 12, p. 51. [26] See Note 2, p. 145.
In%20Press%20PaperFuture%20of%20Written%20Culture.pdf [33] David Crystal, Language and the Internet, Cambridge University Press: [Ca]mbridge, 2001, p.29. [34] For the full conversation see appendix. [35] James Slevin, The Internet and Society, Polity Press, Cambridge 2000, p. 90.
