Almost 30,000 Bosnian television viewers watched Saved by Language on BHRT television on Sunday, February 21, International Mother Language Day.
The producers of the documentary Saved by Language are organizing a Judeo-Spanish Language Week online festival. Four recent films and one new audio project about the endangered language of Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) will be available for free from February 21 to February 26 at: http://muestroespanyol.com/.
One of the goals of International Mother Language Day is to highlight the importance of preserving endangered languages. UNESCO estimates that half of the world’s 6000 languages are at risk of extinction, at the rate of one language dying every few weeks.
The purpose of the Judeo-Spanish Language Week online festival is to give people an opportunity to learn more about the endangered Judeo-Spanish language that originates from the Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain during the Inquisition. The language has two main variants: Haketia, originating from North Africa — a mix of 15th century Spanish with Arabic, Hebrew and French— and the Judeo-Spanish dialects that developed in the Balkans and Turkey —a mix of 15th century Spanish with influences from Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic French and Slavic languages. The media in this series illustrate the rich tapestry of voices that make up the Judeo-Spanish language and Sephardic lifestyles from around the world.
Films in the Judeo-Spanish Language Week online film festival:
**Some of our films include subtitles in English and other languages.
Saved by Language (2014) by Susanna Zaraysky & Bryan Kirschen
Las Ultimas Palavras (2015) by Rita Ender
It Never Rained on Rhodes (2014) by Barry Salzman
Once Upon a Time at 55th and Hoover (2013) (to appear online as of Feb. 23) by Andrés Enrique-Arias
KHOYA: Jewish Morocco Sound Archive (2015) by Vanessa Paloma Elbaz
