Editing Knaanic language

{{short description|Extinct West Slavic Jewish language}}
{{distinguish|Canaanite languages}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Knaanic
|region=Europe
|ethnicity=[[Czech Jews]]
|extinct=[[Late Middle Ages]]
|familycolor=Indo-European
|fam2=[[Balto-Slavic languages|Balto-Slavic]]
|fam3=[[Slavic languages|Slavic]]
|fam4=[[West Slavic languages|West Slavic]]
|fam5=[[Czech–Slovak languages|Czech–Slovak]]
|iso3=czk<ref group=note>[https://iso639-3.sil.org/code/czk The iso639-3 page for czk] has no information on the language. It refers to [[Ethnologue]], [[Glottolog]], [[Linguist List#MultiTree|MultiTree]], but only Ethnologue currently defines czk.</ref> 
|linglist=czk
|glotto=west3000
}}

'''Knaanic''' (also called '''Canaanic''', '''Leshon Knaan''', '''Judaeo-Czech''', '''Judeo-Slavic''') is a tentative name for a number of [[West Slavic language|West Slavic]] dialects or registers formerly [[Jewish languages|spoken by the Jews]] in the lands of the [[Western Slavs]], notably the [[Czech lands]], but also the lands of modern [[Poland]], [[Lusatia]], and other [[Sorbs|Sorbian regions]]. They became extinct in the [[Late Middle Ages]]. Very little is known about their difference from the surrounding Slavic languages. The largest number  of samples of Knaanic written in Hebrew script are in Czech;<ref>Uličná, Lenka, "Roman Jakobson a staročeské glosy ve středověkých hebrejských spisech". Bohemica Olomucensia 3 – Filologica Juvenilia. Olomouc 2009, pp. 13-24,</ref><ref>Uličná, Lenka, "Hlavní proudy středověkého (pre)aškenázského myšlení a tzv. pražská komentátorská škola. Hledání identity v podmínkách izolace a integrace". In: Jiřina Šedinová ''et al'', ''Dialog myšlenkových proudů středověkého judaismu'', Praha, 2010</ref> therefore, most commonly Knaanic is associated with [[Old Czech]].

==Etymology==
The name comes from the "land of Knaan", a geo-ethnological term denoting the Jewish populations living principally in Czechia, though sometimes applied to all Jewish populations east of the [[Elbe]] River (as opposed to the [[Ashkenazi Jews]], living to its west, or the [[Sephardi Jews]] of the Iberian Peninsula).<ref name="Datner">{{cite book | author =various authors |author2=[[Szymon Datner]]  | title =Z dziejów Żydów w Polsce | year =1983 | editor =Witold Tyloch | pages =6 | publisher =Interpress | location =Warsaw | isbn=83-223-2095-7|language=pl}}</ref> As such, the land is often translated as simply ''Slavonia'' or [[Slavic Europe]].<ref name="Weinreich2">{{cite book | author =Max Weinreich | author2=[[Paul Glasser]] | author3=Shlomo Noble | author4=[[Yivo Institute for Jewish Research]] (corporate)  | title =History of the Yiddish Language | date=January 2008 | volume=1 | pages =525 | publisher =[[Yale University Press]] | location =New Haven | isbn=978-0-300-10887-3 }}</ref>

The term is derived from ancient [[Canaan]] ([[Hebrew]]: {{Lang|he|{{Script|Hebrew|כנען}}|rtl=yes}}, {{Lang|he-latn|kəna'an}}).

==History==
The language became extinct some time in the [[Late Middle Ages]], possibly because of the expansion of the [[Ashkenazi]] culture and its own [[Yiddish language]], descended from early [[Middle High German]]. That hypothesis is often backed by the large number of Yiddish loanwords of Slavic origin, many of which were no longer in use in [[Slavic languages]] at the time of the Ashkenazi expansion. They are believed to come from Knaanic rather than from [[Czech language|Czech]], [[Sorbian languages|Sorbian]] or [[Polish language|Polish]]. The linguist [[Paul Wexler (linguist)|Paul Wexler]] has hypothesised that Knaanic is actually the direct predecessor of Yiddish and that the language later became [[Germanisation|Germanised]].<ref name="Wexler">{{cite book | author =Paul Wexler | title =Two-tiered relexification in Yiddish: The Jews, Sorbs, Khazars and the Kiev-Polessian dialects| year =2002 | publisher =Mouton de Gruyter | location =Berlin | isbn=3-11-017258-5 }}</ref> In other words, the Knaanim, that is, the people speaking the Judaeo-Slavic languages, were the main cause of changes in Yiddish.<ref name="Louden">{{cite journal | author =Mark Louden | year =2000 | title =Contact-induced phonological change in Yiddish: Another look at Weinreich's riddles 
 | journal =Diachronica | volume =17 | issue =1 | pages =85–110 | publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company | doi =10.1075/dia.17.1.05lou}}</ref> That view has been dismissed by nearly all mainstream academics, however, and contrasts with the more widely accepted theories of [[Max Weinreich]], who argued that Slavic loanwords were assimilated only after Yiddish had already been fully formed.<ref name="Weinreich">for instance {{cite book | author =Max Weinreich | title =For [[Roman Jakobson]]: Essays on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday, 11 October 1956. | year =1956  | pages =622–632 | chapter =Yiddish, Knaanic, Slavic: The basic relationships | publisher =Mouton | location =The Hague }}</ref><ref name="Weinreich3">''History of the Yiddish Language'', op.cit., pp. 727</ref>
The Jewish commentator [[Rashi]] was aware of this language.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Deuteronomy.3.9.2|title = Rashi on Deuteronomy 3:9:2}}</ref> 

===Coinage===
A possible early example of Knaanic is a 9th-century letter for a Jewish community of [[Ruthenia]].<ref name="Datner"/> One of the very few commonly-accepted examples of Knaanic is inscriptions on [[bracteate]] coins issued under [[Mieszko the Old]] and [[Leszek the White]], two [[Poland|Polish]] rulers of 12th and 13th century. The last evidence of usage of the language (written with the [[Hebrew script]]) comes from the 16th century.

[[Image:Brakteat01.jpg|200px]]
[[Image:Brakteat02.jpg|200px|]]

The reason that Knaanic inscriptions, which use Hebrew letters, appear on coins minted for a Polish duke is that at the time, he leased some mints to Jews. The mint masters were responsible for collecting bullion and striking coins as well as periodically taking in and restriking existing coins.<ref name=Bankoteka>''Bankoteka'', p.25.</ref>

The inscriptions on the coins range widely. Some are Hebrew names, possibly those of the mintmasters. Some are the names of the towns in which the mint operated, for instance [[Kalisz]], the burial place of Mieszko the Old. Some have the duke's name. One in the [[National Bank of Poland]]'s numismatic collection bears the word ''[[Berakhah|bracha]]'', Hebrew for blessing.<ref name=Bankoteka/>

{| class="wikitable"
| <small>'''Inscription (Knaanic)'''</small>
| dir="rtl"| {{lang|czk|{{Script/Hebrew|משקא קרל פלסק}}|rtl=yes}}
|-
| <small>'''Transcription'''</small>
| {{lang|czk-latn|mškʾ krl plsk}}
|-
| <small>'''Interpretation (Polish)'''</small>
| {{lang|pl|Mieszko, król Polski}}
|-
| <small>'''Translation'''</small>
| '[[Mieszko III the Old|Mieszko]], king of Poland'
|}

==Classification==
In the 15th edition of [[Ethnologue]] (2005) assigned code czk to it  and said that the term ''Knaanic'' is used primarily for [[Jewish Czech]], possibly also for other Jewish variants of West Slavic languages, extinct in the Middle Ages. The 16th edition (2009) no longer lists ''Knaanic'' among the West Slavic languages. It mentioned it only as an "extinct or artificial" language without further specification and refers to the Linguist List portal. 

{{As of|2023}} ''Ethnologue'' once again lists Knaanic as a Czech–Slovak language.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Indo-European - Ethnologue Free |url=https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/3/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522033723/https://www.ethnologue.com/subgroup/3/ |archive-date=2023-05-22 |access-date=2023-05-21 |website=[[Ethnologue]] |publisher=[[SIL International]]}}</ref>

== See also ==
<!-- New links in alphabetical order please -->
* [[Jewish languages]]
* [[Judaeo-Spanish]] (Ladino)
* [[Odesan Russian]]
* [[Religiolect]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Literature ==
* {{cite book | first = Ruth | last = Bondyová | title = Mezi námi řečeno. Jak mluvili Židé v Čechách a na Moravě |trans-title=Between us: language of Jews in Bohemia and Moravia | url= http://www.franzkafka-soc.cz |publisher=Society of Franz Kafka] | year = 2003 | isbn = 80-85844-88-5 | language = cs}} The book documents languages used by Jews in the Czech lands during 12–20th century. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308180958/http://www.fp.tul.cz/kcl/sbornik_blok.pdf Review] in Czech, pages 28–33.
* {{in lang|cs|cap=yes}} Šedinová, Jiřina: [https://web.archive.org/web/20080308180958/http://www.fp.tul.cz/kcl/sbornik_blok.pdf "Literatura a jazyk Židů v Českých zemích"], in ''EUROLITTERARIA & EUROLINGUA'' 2005, Technická univerzita v Liberci, Liberec 2005. Jiřina Šedinová from the Charles University in Prague seems to be the only specialist to study the glosses written in ''leshon kenaan'' which appear in some Jewish religious texts from Bohemia. In this article the author affirms ''leshon kenaan'' is just the Hebrew term for the local Slavic language.
* [[Max Weinreich]], ''History of the Yiddish Language'', 1980, {{ISBN|0-226-88604-2}}

==External links==
{{wiktionarycat}}
* {{commonscatinline}}

{{Slavic languages}}
{{Jewish languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Knaanic Language}}
<!-- [[Category:Knanaya Community]] ? -->
[[Category:Extinct Slavic languages]]
[[Category:Jewish Czech history]]
[[Category:Jewish languages]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 2nd millennium]]
[[Category:Medieval languages]]
[[Category:West Slavic languages]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Europe]]