The Department for Romance and Latin American Studies
Subject: Judeo-Catalan and Jewish Multiglossia in Medieval Catalonia
Supervisor: Prof. Cyril Aslanov
Abstract: My research focuses on the (socio)linguistic aspects of the Jewish communities of Catalonia before the Expulsion of 1492. The study consists of a linguistic and philological analysis of texts and documents in Catalan written in Hebrew characters (fourteenth-fifteenth centuries). Some of these documents have not been published or edited thus far. I also discuss the notion of “Judeo-Catalan” and aspects of language usage in a multiglossic community: when and in what context did these Jews use Catalan and Hebrew, and what was their treatment and knowledge of Arabic and Latin throughout the Middle Ages.
Polonsky Stipend 2013/14