Editing Romaniote Jews (section)

==Language and literature==
The intellectual pursuits of Romaniote Jews reflected in their history their geographical location within the Jewish and gentile world. Direct heir to Palestinian Jewish traditions on the one hand, they were also heir to the teachings of the [[Classical antiquity|Greco-Roman world]]. The Byzantine Jewish/Romaniote literature shows a rich blend of [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenistic Jewish]] and [[Talmudic Academies in Syria Palaestina|Palestinian rabbinic]] traditions. Romaniote Jewry, throughout its history, expended great effort on religious poetry, which reached its peak during the period 1350–1550. The writing of piyyutim was clearly held as its own genre. In the twelfth century [[Hillel ben Eliakim]] wrote down his exegetical commentary, ''Sifre ve Sifra''. [[Shemariah of Negropont|Shemarya HaIkriti]] who moved after 1328 to Negroponte prepared his supercommentary to Ibn Ezra and, circa 1346–47 wrote his ''Sefer Amasyahu'', a handbook of biblical apologetics. In tune with the intellectual currents among Romaniotes, Shemarya was trained in philosophy and was able to translate directly from Greek to Hebrew. The ''[[Sefer Yosippon]]'' was written by the Byzantine Jews of Southern Italy. R. Elnatan ben Moses Kalkes (from [[Kilkis]]) wrote a lengthy kabbalistic treatise entitled ''Eben Saphir''.<ref>Philippe Bobichon, ''Manuscrits en caractères hébreux conservés dans les bibliothèques de France''. Vol. V : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Manuscrits de Théologie n°704-733, Brepols, Turnhout, 2015, pp. 290-297 [https://www.academia.edu/43662905/Manuscrits_en_caract%C3%A8res_h%C3%A9breux_conserv%C3%A9s_dans_les_biblioth%C3%A8ques_de_France_Hebrew_Manuscripts_vol_V_Biblioth%C3%A8que_nationale_de_France_Manuscrits_de_Th%C3%A9ologie_n_704_733_Brepols_Turnhout_2015_363_p_ online]</ref> [[Mordecai Comtino|Mordecai Komatiano]] has left a legacy of some fifteen works on astronomy, grammar (dikduk), biblical commentaries and piyyutim; some of the later have even been included in the Karaite prayerbook. Several manuscripts containing mystical works have survived. The question of an independent Romaniote [[Jewish mysticism|mystical]] tradition, probably deriving directly from Palestinian antecedents, is proved.<ref>Cf. afterword in Benjamin Klar, ed., ''Megillat Ahimaaz'' 82nd edition, (Jerusalem 1974), and Weinberger, Anthology, pp. 8-11</ref> An abridgement of [[Aristotle]]'s ''Logic'' by Yoseph HaYevani was made available to those Jews (Sephardi immigrants) who were less proficient in Greek. The Byzantine Karaites showed a knowledge of Greek philosophical terminology. Rabbinic authors spiced their comments with Greek phrases. The familiarity of Romaniote Jewry with the [[Greek language]] is well documented. Biblical translations, piyyutim, folksongs, Ketubbot, liturgical instructions, glossaries, mystical texts and the use of Greek words in commentaries in Judaeo-Greek are known.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bowman |first=Steven |title=The Jews of Byzantium 1204-1453 |chapter=Language and Literature |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |publisher=University of Alabama Press |year=1985}}</ref>

===Judaeo-Greek===
After World War II, the [[Judaeo-Greek]] language of Ioannina underwent a process of ''[[Koiné language|koinezation]]''. The only phonetic differences to [[Standard Modern Greek]], which could be noted shortly after the war have been [x] > [s] before front vowels, unusual intonation patterns and some peculiar lexical items, mostly of Hebrew-Aramaic provenance.<ref>Bongas, E. A. ''The Language Idioms of Epirus (Northern, Central and Southern): The Gianniote and Other Lexicons'', vol. 1. Etaireia Ipeirotikon Meleton, Ioannina 1964 (Greek).</ref> Lexemes, such as Hebrew-Aramaic loans, were easily identified as "ours" and "theirs," i.e., Sephardic vs. Romaniote.<ref>Moisis, A. "Hebrew words in the language of Jews of Greece." In: ''Greek-Jewish studies''. N. p., Athens 1958, pp. 58–75 (Greek).</ref> While composing texts on their religion, the Greek Jews followed the literary standards of Greek syntax and morphology, using a number of Hebrew-Aramaic loanwords.<ref name="ReferenceA">Krivoruchko, J. G. "Not Only Cherubs: Lexicon of Hebrew and Aramaic Origin in Standard Modern Greek (SG) and Modern Greek Dialects." In: ''Proceedings of the Second International Conference of Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory'', ed. Mark Janse, Angeliki Ralli and Brian Joseph, Patras: University of Patras, 205-219.</ref> The Hebrew-Aramaic component would be written down in ways reflecting traditional Romaniote pronunciation, for example ''Shalom'', was spelled and written as ''Salom'' (Σαλώμ).

Krivoruchko states in her work ''Judeo-Greek in the era of globalization'' that Judaeo-Greek has always been interchangeable with the spoken variety of Greek, which was used by the surrounding Christian community, but had a few special features in its various geographical and chronological types (for example the Judaeo-Greek of Crete [† 1945] and that of Constantinople).<ref>Krivoruchko, Julia G. ''Judeo-Greek in the era of globalization'', 2011, esp. pp. 125 ff.</ref> Besides the few phonetic differences between Judaeo-Greek and Standard Modern Greek the most common difference has been the use of Hebrew and Aramaic loanwords in Judaeo-Greek.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Considerable are also the phonetic differences between Romaniote Hebrew (look downwards on paragraph ''Romaniote Hebrew'') and Sephardic Hebrew, for example Sephardic ''Shavuot'' was spelled as ''Savóth'' (Σαβώθ) in Judaeo-Greek.<ref>Krivoruchko, Julia G. ''Judeo-Greek in the era of globalization'', 2011, pp. 122-127.</ref>

Second and third generation Romaniote immigrants in New York city have good knowledge of Greek. In the beginning of the 21st century 90% asserted that they understand Greek while 40% could speak Greek comfortably. Over a third could read Greek satisfactorily. The number of persons fluent in the Greek Language is much lower in the group of the Greek Sephardim outside of Greece.<ref>Dimitris Mattheou. ''Changing Educational Landscapes,'' 2010, pp. 162 f.</ref>

===Romaniote Hebrew===
The Romaniote pronunciation of the Hebrew language is very close in its major features to the common Modern Hebrew pronunciation. The vowel-system is a simple five-vowel system without either quantitative or qualitative distinctions. Typical was the absence of distinction between: the Semitic velarized and non-velarized stops [t] and [ṭ], spelled [ת/ט], and [k/q], spelled [כ/ק]. The distinction between [s] and [ṣ] (ס/צ) is maintained as [s] vs. [ts], i. e., a voiceless alveolar fricative against a voiceless alveolar affricate, a pronunciation common to Byzantine and Ashkenazic pronunciation; "strong" and "weak" [t], spelled [תּ/ת] (t/θ) preserved in Ashkenazic pronunciation as [t]/[s]; velar and pharyngeal [ħ] and [χ], spelled [ח/כ], both of which are pronounced [χ], as in Ashkenazic; the glottal and pharyngeal stops [ʔ] and [ʕ], spelled [ע/א], both of which are weakened to the point of almost total absence in syllable-initial and syllable-final position, another characteristic shared with the Ashkenazic tradition. שׁ was pronounced as [s] in the Romaniote tradition of Hebrew pronunciation. The loss of spirantization rule for postvocalic, non-geminated Old Hebrew b, d, g, p, t, k homorganic fricatives (this rule is not found now in either the Balkan or the North African Sephardic diaspora) may have been due Romaniote practice (it is observed partly in Yiddish Hebraisms and in the Ashkenazic pronunciation of monolingual Hebrew texts). The [ז] was pronounced as {{IPAblink|d͡z}} and the [ד] as [ð] which are typical sounds of the [[Standard Modern Greek]].<ref>Kulik 2016, p. 185; ''Eurasian Studies Yearbook'' 78, p. 45; Morag, S. (1971/2). "Pronunciation of Hebrew." ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' 13: 1120-1145; Morag, S. "Between East and West: For a History of the Tradition of Hebrew During the Middle Ages" (in Hebrew). In: ''Proceedings of the sixth International Conference on Judaica'', The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 5740 (=1979-1980), pp. 141-156; Wexler, P. ''The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews'', 1996, pp. 204-205.</ref><ref>Drettas 1999, pp. 280-286.</ref><ref>Harviainen, T. ''The Karaite community in Istanbul and their Hebrew'', pp. 355–356; ''Three Hebrew Primers'', Oslo 1997, p. 113.</ref>

The Hebrew Paleography resp. the Hebrew Epigraphy recognises a specific "Byzantine" or "Romaniote" Handwriting system of the [[Hebrew alphabet]], which has been developed among the [[Sofer]]im of the Greek-speaking lands. In many cases manuscripts of Romaniote origin from the Byzantine Empire, or from later times can be recognised as "Romaniote", only with the science of Paleography, if they do not contain a [[Colophon (publishing)]] or other characteristics of identification.<ref>Beit-Arie, M. et al. "Classification of Hebrew Calligraphic Handwriting Styles: Preliminary Results." In: ''Proceedings of First International Workshop on Document Image Analysis for Libraries'', pp. 299-305, 2004.</ref><ref>Beit-Arie, M. ed. Rowland Smith, D. and Salinger, P. S. "The Codicological Database of The Hebrew Paleography Project: A Tool for Localising and Dating Hebrew Medieval Manuscripts. In: Hebrew Studies, pp. 165-197,1991.</ref><ref>Olszowy-Schlanger, J. "An Early Hebrew Manuscript from Byzantium", pp. 148-155. In: Zutot, 2002.</ref><ref>Olszowy-Schlanger, J. "On the Hebrew script of the Greek-Hebrew palimpsests from the Cairo Genizah", 279-299. In: ''Jewish-Greek tradition in antiquity and the Byzantine empire'', 2014.</ref><ref>Philippe Bobichon, ''Manuscrits en caractères hébreux conservés dans les bibliothèques de France. Vol. V : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Manuscrits de Théologie n°704-733'', Brepols, Turnhout, 2015, pp. 22-31, 72-81, 290-297 [https://www.academia.edu/43662905/Manuscrits_en_caract%C3%A8res_h%C3%A9breux_conserv%C3%A9s_dans_les_biblioth%C3%A8ques_de_France_Hebrew_Manuscripts_vol_V_Biblioth%C3%A8que_nationale_de_France_Manuscrits_de_Th%C3%A9ologie_n_704_733_Brepols_Turnhout_2015_363_p_ online] ; Philippe Bobichon, Manuscrits en caractères hébreux. Vol. I : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Manuscrits de théologie n° 669 à 720, Brepols, Turnhout, 2008, pp. 30-37, 40-46, 124-153 ; 198-201, 234-237, 266-269, 272-275, 278-283, 292-294 [https://www.academia.edu/7280045/Manuscrits_en_caract%C3%A8res_h%C3%A9breux_conserv%C3%A9s_dans_les_biblioth%C3%A8ques_de_France_Hebrew_Manuscripts_vol_I_Biblioth%C3%A8que_nationale_de_France_Manuscrits_de_th%C3%A9ologie_n_669_%C3%A0_720_Brepols_Turnhout_2008_332_p_ online]</ref>