Abstract:

The expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the 15 th century and their subsequent settlement in cities of the Ottoman Empire created new linguistic conditions that endured for several generations (language of a minority, diglossia, increasing loss of competence by the speakers, etc.). This new socio-linguistic situation had some features that have a parallel in situations of linguistic segregation. But it was in the 1600s, when the Sephardic communities were in deep intellectual crisis, and Hebrew began to be displaced by (Judeo-)Spanish in many of its social functions, that the processes of codification and elaboration of Judeo-Spanish began, to be resolved in favor of a "de facto standard" in the 18 th century.
This article explores the above-mentioned social changes and their implications for the modification of the status of Judeo-Spanish and the process of its standardization as a de facto standard in the traditional Sephardic communities.