Vernacular Voices
JEWISH CULTURE AND CONTEXTS
Published in association with the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania
David B. Ruderman, Series Editor
Advisory Board
Richard I. Cohen
Moshe Idel
Alan Mintz
Deborah Dash Moore
Ada Rapoport-Albert
Michael D. Swartz
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Vernacular Voices
Language and Identity in Medieval French Jewish Communities
Kirsten A. Fudeman
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
PHILADELPHIA · OXFORD
Copyright © 2010 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fudeman, Kirsten Anne.
Vernacular voices : language and identity in medieval French Jewish communities / Kirsten A. Fudeman.
p. cm. — (Jewish culture and contexts)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4250-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Hebrew language, Medieval—France. 2. Jews— France—Languages—History. 3. Jews—France—Identity. 4. Jews—France—History—To 1500. I. Title.
PJ4995.F8F83 2010
492.4′7—dc22
2009050751
For Alexander and Gregory
CONTENTS
Notes on Translations and Transcription and Typographical Conventions
Introduction: The Medieval French Jewish Community in Its Linguistic Context
Chapter 1. Language and Identity
Chapter 2. Speech and Silence, Male and Female in Jewish-Christian Relations: Blois, 1171
Chapter 3. Texts of Two Colors
Chapter 4. Hebrew-French Wedding Songs: Expressions of Identity
Appendix 1. Hebraico-French Glosses and Texts
Appendix 2. The Medieval Jewish Wedding Song ‘Uri liqra’ti yafah, gentis kallah einoreie
NOTES ON TRANSLATIONS AND TRANSCRIPTION AND TYPOGRAPHICAL CONVENTIONS
Translations from French and Hebrew, both medieval and modern, are mine, unless otherwise noted. A general exception is Bible verses, for which I generally chose the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) or NJPS (Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures. The New JPS Translation According to the Traditional Hebrew Text) translation, duly identified, after comparing them to the Hebrew.
Different types of texts seemed to require different presentations. For Hebrew texts containing only one or two isolated French glosses, I chose to present the Hebrew text along with an English translation, inserting the French word or words in the translation between square brackets. For texts containing significant portions in both Hebrew and French, I present the Hebrew-letter transcription, a transliteration of the Hebrew integrated with romanization of the Old French, and finally an English translation. Where a Hebrew text is readily available, I present only the English translation. Particularly in block quotes, I use small capitals to identify transliterations and translations of Hebrew portions and differentiate them from romanization and translations of French. In Hebrew texts, [!] indicates sic, and a rafe (horizontal line above a letter) does double duty for rafe and a scribal mark resembling an inverted circumflex. Square brackets enclose editorial emendations or explanations, and parentheses letters or words to be subtracted.
Strict transliteration, when provided, has been carried out according to the table of equivalences reproduced here. Although two transliteration symbols are used twice (s for samekh and sin, t for tet and taw), medieval Jews’ general avoidance of samekh and taw for writing French words leads to a one-to-one correspondence of transliteration symbols and Hebrew letters in the strict transliteration of French. Final and non-final forms of Hebrew letters are not differentiated in strict transliteration because their distribution is regular.
| ’ | aleph | l | lamed |
| b | bet | m | mem |
| g | gimel | n | nun |
| ğ | gimel with scribal mark (inverted circumflex) | ň | nun with scribal mark (inverted circumflex) |
| d | dalet | s | samekh |
| h | he | ‘ | ayin |
| w |