Judaeo-Italian varieties in the modern era

The modern Judaeo-Italian varieties have their origin in the ghettos in central and northern Italy. Their phonetic and morphological systems are almost identical with those of the respective local Italian dialects. However, they show many peculiarities, mostly due to the influence of Hebrew and Aramaic. After an introduction containing some basic information on the history, geographic distribution, and documentation of the Judaeo-Italian varieties, the chapter first focuses on how the numerous Hebraisms are integrated into the central and northern Italian morphological systems. The dis cussion then turns to the persistence and adaptation of Semitic inflectional and deri vational morphemes in the Judaeo-Italian varieties. Finally, the lexicon is addressed, focusing on geolinguistic aspects, phenomena of loss and preservation of distinctive Judaeo-Italian words, and calques and other forms of interaction between Romance and Hebrew.