Spain has taken steps to ensure the survival of Ladino as a language, with the country’s main Spanish language institution, the Royal Spanish Academy, announcing plans to establish a National Ladino Academy.
Darío Villanueva, president of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, said that the intention was for the new institution to be based in Israel.
The announcement came during a two-day international conference on Ladino, which was attended by Israeli academics, as well as Daniel Kutner, Israel’s ambassador to Spain, and the heads of several leading Judeo-Spanish organisations.
Ladino, also known as Judaeo-Spanish, was once the main language of Sephardi communities around the Mediterranean. It is still spoken by some Sephardi Jews in more than 30 different countries – and is recognised as a minority language in Israel, France and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
