Reviving endangered Ladino language in Turkiye

By Handan Kazanci

ISTANBUL (AA) – A housewife by day and actress by night, Forti Barokas is one of a few people trying to revive an endangered language, Ladino, spoken mostly by Turkiye’s Jewish community.

Barokas is among approximately 8,000 speakers in Turkiye of the Ladino or Judeo-Espanyol language – an ancient mix of Hebrew and Spanish.

The tongue is used by the descendants of Jewish refugees from Spain who sought shelter in Ottoman Turkiye starting in the late 15th century – not the first time or the last that Turkiye opened its arms to people fleeing violence and persecution.

She has been busy staging plays including at least 75% in the Ladino tongue to help revive the language. But over time this ratio dropped to only 50% and eventually ended up with only Turkish.

The 73-year-old expressed regret over the current situation of the language, “for we are the ones who killed the language,” she told Anadolu Agency at her home in Istanbul. “It’s my generation, so there is regret.”

Now all of their plays are in Turkish because the younger generation does not understand Ladino, she explained.

Also a playwright, Barokas and her friends mainly stage plays for charity at a Jewish school in Istanbul to help the community.

One reason behind Barokas’ generation leaving behind Ladino is Turkiye’s Turkification policies. In the early days of the Turkish Republic, founded in 1923, a government-funded “Citizen, speak Turkish” campaign required members of the multicultural country to speak the Turkish tongue.

According to Ethnologue, a world language database, there are over 51,000 Ladino speakers worldwide, including 43,000 living in Israel. Ethnologue also gives the population of Jews in Turkiye as around 13,000 and claims that of those, 8,000 are Ladino speakers.

The language is mainly spoken in Turkiye’s largest cities, such as Istanbul and Izmir, and people 50 and over make up the bulk of the speakers.

Barokas, who has been acting for the last 35 years, was busy at her home giving interview after interview to reporters, as a Netflix show in which she both acted and was a Ladino consultant on became a hit.

Kulup or The Club, which debuted last year, found many viewers, especially in Turkiye, as it focused on the life of a Ladino-speaking Jewish woman in the Istanbul metropolis amid some difficult days in the 1950s.

Following the first half of the 20th century, the number of minorities living in the country fell after republican-era Turkification policies. The 1923 population exchange between Turkiye and Greece, the 1942 wealth tax which hit non-Muslim communities, and the 1955 attacks – also known as the events of Sept. 6-7 – saw many minority citizens leave the country.

“It’s my mother tongue, we used to only speak Ladino at home,” Barokas said, explaining how she kept up the language.

But Barokas, a mother of two, did not speak in Ladino at home, so today her children do not speak the endangered tongue.

According to Barokas, the younger generations are much more interested in learning to speak modern Spanish than Ladino. In 2015, Spain granted citizenship to Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors were forced to leave in 1492, during the Spanish Inquisition.

“The languages have the same roots,” she added. “Jews who came from Spain added Spanish words, while those who came from Portugal added Portuguese and Hebrew ones.”

“When I speak in Ladino, I add Turkish words when I speak,” she added.

- Based on true story

The 10-episode Netflix series The Club, acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, focused on Turkish history as a cosmopolitan country, especially through the lens of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural Istanbul.

Barokas believes the show was loved by many because it was based on a true story.

Recalling a scene early in the show in which the main character Matilda Aseo, played by Gokce Bahadir, recites a prayer in Hebrew, Barokas said:

“I was very touched when I saw that part, she said the prayer so beautifully and sincerely.”

In addition to consulting on the proper use of Ladino behind the scenes, Barokas also appears onscreen one of the extras.

“I was very excited to be in front of the camera at this age, and to be up all night on the streets of Beyoglu along with professional actors,” a place that was once home to many Jews, including Barokas herself, she said.