Judeo-French
| Judæo-French | |
|---|---|
| Zarphatic | |
| צרפתית Tzarfatit | |
| Native to | France, western Germany and England |
| Ethnicity | Ashkenazi Jews |
| Extinct | 14th century |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | zrp |
| Glottolog | zarp1238 |
Judeo-French, also called Zarphatic or Western Loez, is a variant of Old French spoken in the Middle Ages by the Jews of northern and eastern France. It was also spoken by French Jews who moved to Norman England. The Jewish communities of the early medieval Rhineland, such as Mainz, Worms and Speyer, may also have been French-speaking before shifting to German, although this is disputed. Judeo-French left lexical traces in Yiddish, but its role in the formation of that language is debated.
Judeo-French was largely identical to Old French, with French Jews adopting the same regional variants as their non-Jewish neighbours. Its main distinguishing features are its use of Hebrew script and an independent literary tradition, with limited Hebrew influence to verbs and vocabulary.