Moves to save a medieval language from dying out

Описание: (6 Apr 2018) LEADIN
There's a push to protect a dying language spoken by Jews in Spain over 500 years ago.
Judeo-Spanish is a medieval language that is now only spoken by a number of dwindling people.
The Royal Spanish Language Academy is proposing to create a Judeo-Spanish Academy in Israel to ensure the language never dies out.
STORYLINE
The medieval city of Toledo sits on a sweeping horse-shoe bend of the Tajo River, 70 kms south of Madrid.
Toledo contains many treasures for visitors including enchanting cobble-stoned streets in one of Spain's best preserved Jewish quarters.
At the heart of the quarter sits El Transito synagogue, a unique, Nasrid styled temple.
Founded by Samuel ha-Levi Abulafia in 1356, it was converted to a church after the expulsion of the Jews by the Catholic Monarchs of Fernando and Isabel in 1492. It's now a museum of Spain's troubled relation with Judaism.
After the exile of 1492, "The Jews of Spain" known as Sephardi Jews carried their religious and cultural heritage across North Africa, Southern Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Part of the Sephardi's most treasured elements of cultural identity, and one which would forever link them to their homeland was the Judeo-Spanish language, also known as Ladino..
Judeo-Spanish, is a Romance language that to the ear sounds like it could be some sort of medieval Spanish.
Judeo-Spanish developed through incorporating elements of the languages used on the Iberian Peninsula before the 15th Century, and to which were added further influences of the areas where the exiled Jews ended up living.
In an attempt to right Spain's debt with the Jewish people and to protect an endangered cultural heritage, the Royal Spanish Language Academy has decided to start the process of creating a Judeo-Spanish Academy in Israel.
The headquarters of the Royal Academy is in Madrid, adjacent to the Prado Art Museum.
Founded in 1713, its mission is to ensure that the constant changes affecting the Spanish language do not damage the essential unity of the language in the countries where it is spoken.
The Academy has created 23 Academies over the last 200 years, protecting Spanish in countries like Colombia, Mexico and Equatorial Guinea.
The Academy's current Director, Dario Villanueva, explains the rich historical patrimony of Judeo-Spanish: "The Judeo-Spanish is the Castellano of the end of the 15th Century when the Jews were expelled from Spain. What happened was that they marched across the world taking with them Sephardi which was and is the Jewish name for Spain, this language is a patrimony which is totally unavoidable. Of course this language which they spoke and continue to speak mixed with elements of the countries where they ended up in: Turkey, the Balkans and of course the North of Africa where a special Judeo-Spanish is spoken. "
But with the challenges of saving a language that is spoken and understood by only a few hundred thousand across the globe, Villanueva is clear that the mission of the new academy is "not to resuscitate Judeo-Spanish."
Aitor Garcia Moreno has been studying Sephardic culture since 2000 and is one of the academics assisting in the creation of the new academy.
He is an investigator at the Spanish National Research Council. He is clear that there must be a reason for the speakers of a language to want to save it
Although in peril, Judeo-Spanish does have a 15 minute slot every week on Spanish National Radio's foreign service.
The programme was created by Matilde Barnatan in 1986 and she was later joined by her daughter Viviana.

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