Ḥaketía (also Ḥakitía, Ḥaquetía, Ḥaquitía, or Jaquetía), the Judeo-Spanish vernacular spoken mainly in northern Morocco, it has also been spoken in the past in Oran, Gibraltar and in other regions in Morocco as Fez, Mequines, Debdu, Wazan, Mogador and more. It is predominantly composed of medieval Castilian infused with vocabulary from other linguistic sources, nevertheless, amusing as it may seem, many of its speakers considered it a pure Spanish. In recent generations, contemporary Castilian vocabulary has been replacing the archaic counterparts in Ḥaketía. This process, already noticeable by the end of the nineteenth century, has accelerated during the twentieth century. As a result, the vernacular has changed drastically in recent generations and became a mixture of the two. The descendants of the community, fluent in contemporary Spanish for generations already, still tend to pepper their talk with vocabulary and expressions in Ḥaketía without paying attention to, at times even without noticing, the different linguistic source of the words. It is important to note however, whereas the Ḥaketía has been the spoken language, Ladino was the literary language of the community. (What is called ‘Ladino’ today, is not the literary ‘Ladino’ Language).
Most of the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 settled around the Mediterranean and in the Balkans. However, most of the megorashim (expelled) who fled to the nearby shores of North Africa, established themselves for the most part in Morocco and western Algiers. As time went by, many of them assimilated into the local Jewish communities and gradually adopted their languages and customs. Indeed, the megorashim who wandered to the southern parts of Morocco slowly substituted most of their Spanish with the local Judeo-Moroccan Arabic dialect. Thus, not all the descendants of the expelled Sephardim (in Hebrew: Jews from Spain) who arrived in Morocco held on to their Judeo-Spanish until present days. For example, the Jews of Fez, Morocco, spoke Spanish for generations after the expulsion; the Takkanot, the ordinances for the Castilian community in Morocco by the Rabbis of Fez (referring to the expelled Sephardim), were written at first in Spanish, but by the second half of the eighteenth century the ordinances were written already in the local Judeo-Moroccan Arabic. Nonetheless, there are still many words in Ḥaketía, Spanish and Portuguese in the local Judeo-Moroccan Arabic dialect (Shetrit, Joseph).
This was not the case, however, with the Sephardim who settled in northern Morocco and in the Ottoman Empire. These communities preserved their medieval Spanish (predominantly Castilian with other regional Iberian dialects), albeit adding words borrowed from their new surrounding throughout the centuries. Whereas the Judeo-Spanish vernaculars of eastern Mediterranean communities incorporated words in Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Slavic and French, the imported vocabulary in the Ḥaketíawere primarily from Hebrew, the local Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, the Arabic that was spoken in Spain before the expulsion, Portuguese, French, and English and Italian to a lesser degree.
The Spanish Jewry spoke a somewhat culturally modified Spanish, peppered with Hebrew and Jewish expressions. Interestingly, it seems that this peculiarity was not unfamiliar to the public. The philologists José Benoliel and Isaac Benharroch mention several authors who incorporated in their works Judeo-Spanish vocabulary. In Miguel de Cervantes’ the Fraudulent Marriage we come across characteristic expressions as: «dezMAZALado» (the Hebrew word «MAZAL» = «good luck», with the distinctive Spanish prefix and suffix that alter its meaning to «unlucky»), «el Dio» («God» in Judeo-Spanish, unlike «Dios» in Spanish), and more. Similarly, Luis Henrriques, a sixteenth century Portuguese poet, used considerable number of them, such as: beraḥa (blessing), minḥa, (an afternoon prayer) kadosh (holy), shabbat, (Saturday), guay (woe– exclamation of grief or distress), dafina (the traditional Saturday dish of the Moroccan Jewry, slowly cooked, starting on Friday afternoon).
The pronunciation and the conjugation of the verbs in Ḥaketía adhere in most cases to the archaic Castilian rules. For example, the consonant «j», which in contemporary Spanish sounds quite slike the Hebrew «ח» ( =Ḥ), is pronounced in Ḥaketía like the French “j” (as in Jardin). The archaic sound «sh» (which was represented by the letter «x» in the past) does not exist in contemporary Spanish, while it has been preserved in Ḥaketía. Likewise, the verbs are conjugated differently from the contemporary pattern. For example: «caminIMOS«, «viniTES« and»tenGOY» are the conjugation in Ḥaketía instead of the contemporary «caminAMOS«, «viniSTE» and «tenGO» (meaning [we] «walked», [you] «came», [I] «have»). Additionally, the words imported to the Ḥaketía from other languages have been Hispanicize by applying Spanish morphological rules. This group of foreign words consists of the root word in various languages with the typical Spanish prefix and suffix. For example, «mudda« = «sleep» in local Judeo-Moroccan Arabic, will assume the Spanish suffix «AR» and becomes «muddeAR«, meaning «to sleep» in Ḥaketía. Likewise, the equivalent term in Ḥaketía for the Spanish «curar« (to cure) is «roffeAR« (from roffe = doctor in Hebrew). The word: atornAR originated in «attorney»,and indeed in Ḥaketía it means ‘to protect’ or ‘to come to the defense’ of someone. The archaic Spanish vocabulary that forms the basis of the Ḥaketía has been preserved either in its archaic form: cuarterón, forno, shabon as opposed to the contemporary cuarto, horno, jabón (quarter, oven, soap), or with some modification: nublina, faldiquera, escuraña, as opposed to the archaic niebla, faltriquera, escuridad; its contemporary being: neblina, bolsillo, oscuridad (fogy, pocket, darkness). Additionally, there is a group of words that differs in meaning. For example, the verbs: faltar, quitar, echar, stand in Ḥaketía for: to die, to divorce, to lay down, while in contemporary Spanish the meaning is: to lack (something), to remove, to throw.
The syntax, on the other hand, has been evolving, and it has been gradually emulating the contemporary Spanish rules with some exceptions: purposefully playful composed sentences with an unconventional order of words, aphorisms, blessings etc. There is a slight variation in the Ḥaketía that wasspoken in the various Moroccan towns. In Tetuan, for example, the Ḥaketía kept most of its archaic Spanish vocabulary and there are less imported words from the Moroccan surrounding, unlike Tangier’s which contains somewhat more Judeo-Moroccan and French vocabulary. In the Atlantic coastal cities, on the other hand, Portuguese and even English had a stronger presence.
Whereas Ḥaketía has been the daily vernacular, the literary language remained the Ladino, whose archaic Castilian vocabulary has been preserved to date. The rabbis in Spain used a unique method for translating Hebrew biblical and liturgical texts (example: Haggadah for Pesah). It was a word-for-word (calque) translation into medieval Spanish while following the Hebrew syntax rules. This linguistic fusion was called Ladino, and Haïm-Vidal Sephiha, the foremost scholar of Judeo-Spanish languages, defined it as: Hebrew clothed in Spanish. Until its formulation during the 12th century, the spoken language in Spain (a Latin derivative) was referred to as ‘Latino’ or ‘Ladino’. ‘Español’ or ‘Castellano’ had been coined after its formulation. This explains why the rabbis called their translations ‘Ladino’, it was simply the name of the spoken language in Spain. Indeed, the Rabbis used to refer to their way of translating the texts as «doing it in Ladino» or «A Ladinar» (meaning «To Ladinize»). The sermons at the synagogues as well as the written texts and community records were also conducted and written in Ladino (or in Hebrew). This unique translation-method was maintained for generations throughout the Sephardic Diaspora, and it was written in the past in hasi-kolmos characters (Sephardic cursive script=Solitreo).
Haïm-Vidal Sephiha, the historian Paloma Díaz-Mas, as well as other philologists, argue that Ladino was never, nor could it be, a spoken language, and that pure Ladino can be found only in religious texts. Contrary to the hermetic character of Ladino, all the Judeo-Spanish vernaculars are scattered with a considerable amount of vocabulary imported from the surrounding communities. The Ladino has been the literary language of all the Sephardic communities in the world, and its archaic Castilian vocabulary is the basis of the Judeo-Spanish from Morocco – Ḥaketía, as well as the basis of the various Judeo-Spanish vernaculars from the Balkans, Turkey and Greece. In recent years, however, the Judeo-Spanish vernaculars of the eastern Mediterranean — the Djudezmo, Spaniolit, Judeo-Espanyol etc. (as they were called until quite recently) — are being erroneously called Ladino. There is a categorical objection among the scholars for this name-change, and they maintain that the Judeo-Spanish vernaculars from the Balkans, Turkey and Greece are not Ladino.
It is worth noting that the ballads (called «romances«) which have been preserved by the expelled Sephardim, who continued singing and cherishing them throughout the centuries, are in Ladino; they are almost devoid of any imported words. In his monumental ballad collection, Romances de Tetuan, the renowned Spaniard musicologist Arcadio de Larrea Palacín wrote that Spanish Ballads from the fifteenth century, otherwise lost to the Spaniards, were preserved thanks to the Sephardim. Interestingly, similar ballads are found in the musical compendium of the eastern and western Mediterranean communities. But, whereas the lyrical versions of both communities are nearly the same, the melodies differ from each other. Ethnomusicologists, the late Henrietta Yurchenco for example, argued that while the ballads of the Sephardim in the eastern Mediterranean incorporated Balkan musical influences, the melodies of the ballads which have been preserved to date by the Jews of northern Morocco, are almost faithful to the original medieval melodies.
There are several theories regarding the origin of the word «Ḥaketía«. Some scholars think that it probably stemmed from the Arabic «ḤAKKA» which means «to chat» or «to tell». Although others, especially the philologists Joseph Toledano and Isaac B. Benharroch, argue that the word
«Ḥaketía» alludes to the Hebrew name Is.ḥaq(Isaac), which was the generic name for a Jewish man. The use of diminutive form is very characteristic of the Sephardic culture.Is.ḥaquito, the diminutive ofIs.ḥaq, evolved to Ḥakito and by extension to «Ḥaketia», meaning the language of the Ḥakitos = Isaac’s children (Jewish people). Additionally, Benharroch points out that the term «Ḥaketía » was not mentioned, used, or documented prior to 1919, when it first appeared in the book of Manuel Ortega, Los Hebreos de Marruecos (The Hebrews of Morocco). The Spanish soldiers who remain in Northern Morocco since 1860 for two years following what is called «La Guerra de Africa”, referred to the language of the local Jews as «Castilian, although with a strange accent.» (Alarcón). However, it was José Benoliel who coined the term in his Dialecto Jodeo-Hispano=Marroqui O Hakitia (originally published between 1926 – 1952). Indeed, years ago, we used to refer to our spoken language as Español and not «Ḥaketía«, because to us it was Spanish and nothing else.
Whatever the origin of the name is, Ḥaketía has encapsulated the piousness, warmth, laughter, wits, and generous spirit, all cultural characteristics of the Moroccan Sephardic Jewry. Ḥaketía contains a wealth of terms and synonyms; it is a rich language that many cultural and linguistic fountains have irrigated it. Ḥaketía is a humorist language, a comical one that allows for grammatical freedom either in the syntax, or by twisting and bending words and expressions. This «linguistic liberty» garnishes the conversation with innumerable witty and funny expressions: Ferazmal is a common term for a close and dear person, but given to the context, it can assume an ironic meaning as well. The term is created from three words: Fera[z] de Mal, which mean “out of all calamities” (Fera is the archaic word for the contemporary Fuera). Cazzamento means marriage (a slight change to the Spanish Casamiento), and CazzaPRETO is the comical term for signaling a sour marriage (preto in Portuguese means dark or black, and in Ḥaketía it stands for something negative and bad). In his book El Libro de Selomó, Solly Levy noted a similar rebellious spirit that pays no head to linguistic rules, in the dialects of Quebec and Buenos Aires; the «Jual» and the «Lunfardo Porteño«.
Unfortunately, Ḥaketía is a spoken language, and as such it was not esteemed; anything written in Ḥaketía(and inLadino), was written in hasi-kolmos until the turn of the twenty’s century. Latin characters started replacing the hasi-kolmos script during the twenties century. While the Rabbis continued carrying out their sermons and their writings in Ladino or in Hebrew (and since the twenties century in Spanish as well), the educated elite abandoned the Ḥaketía in favor of contemporary Spanish or French. The Ḥaketía was looked down upon, as if it was the «poor relative» of Spanish. It was put aside, far from ears and eyes, together with the women’s colorfully fringed headgear and stately dress (called traje de berberiscain Ḥaketía or keswa kbira in the local Judeo-Moroccan dialect, which means «the grand dress»). The proximity to Spain, the establishment of communities in Gibraltar and Latin America by Moroccan Jews, the occupation of Tetuan by the Spaniards in 1860, the establishment of the schools of «Alliance Israelite Universelle«, and finally, the Spanish and French protectorate since 1912, intensified the hispanization of the Ḥaketía, which resulted in substituting many archaic terms with contemporary ones, and in continuously updating the Ḥaketía to the contemporary spoken Spanish.
The Moroccan Jewry, numbered close to 300,000 in 1948, is dispersed all over the world now. The creation of Israel, the Arab – Israeli wars and the regained Moroccan independence from Spain and France, casted a heavy blow on the community. Its members emigrated mainly to Israel, Spain, France, England, Belgium, Switzerland, North and Latin America. The community in Morocco has dwindled to a couple of thousands.
The distance from its emotional, spiritual and cultural springhead; living far from the fountain that had been nourishing its roots for centuries, is affecting the Ḥaketía. Presently, not many can speak it fluently, but fortunately there are innumerable Ḥaketía aficionados who strive to preserve the language by infusing vocabulary and aphorism Ḥaketicos in their Spanish.
Thus, even though descendents of the community grew up in different parts of the world, Ḥaketía remained the language of the soul; the language of affection that brings smiles to our faces and warmth to our hearts. It is a language that carries on unique traditions and glorious memories, albeit distanced. Though these memories have been orally transmitted and not firsthand experiences, they are planted in our hearts, minds and souls. Therefore, it is our duty to cherish it and keep the Ḥaketíalanguage alive, as our forefathers did. After all, it is the debt we owe to our forefathers, the Ḥakitos.
Pronunciation
Ḥ = the Hebrew «ח» (חכם).
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© 2010, Alicia Sisso Raz
The article is at the Data Base of Beit Hatefutsot, the Museum of Jewish Diaspora, Tel Aviv