About Ladino Forever
A home on the internet for Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language of the Sephardic Jews: its proverbs, stories and songs, kept alive for the next generation.
Kualo vale la moneda kuando la persona no esta buena
What's money worth when a person isn't well.
What is Ladino Forever?
Ladino Forever is a living archive of the Ladino language. Here you will find refranes (proverbs) with their meanings in many languages, konsejas (folk tales) told in Ladino as short videos, kantikas (songs) of the Sephardic home, a blog about Ladino words and Sephardic history, and galleries of old family photographs.
The site was started by Michael Halphie, who grew up hearing Judeo-Spanish at home. Every proverb, story and song here is a piece of a world our grandparents carried with them for more than five hundred years. Readers from all over the world send us their own sayings, memories and photographs, and the archive keeps growing.
Everything on Ladino Forever is free to read, watch and share.
The Ladino language
Ladino, also called Judeo-Spanish, Djudeo-Espanyol or Judezmo, is the language of the Sephardic Jews. It grew out of the Spanish spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th century.
In 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain, and many found a new home in the Ottoman Empire: in Istanbul, Izmir, Salonica, Edirne, Sarajevo and Rhodes. There, for more than five centuries, their Spanish lived on and took in words from Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, French and Italian.
Ladino was long written in Hebrew letters, in Rashi script and in the handwritten Solitreo; today it is mostly written in Latin letters. It has a rich tradition of proverbs, romances, lullabies and newspapers.
Today only a few tens of thousands of people speak Ladino, most of them elderly, and UNESCO counts it among the world's endangered languages. Every word that is read, heard and passed on helps to keep it alive.
- 1492The Jews are expelled from Spain and carry their language east.
- 500+ yearsLadino has been spoken in the Ottoman lands and beyond for more than five centuries.
- 4 scriptsRashi, Solitreo, Hebrew square letters and today the Latin alphabet.
- EndangeredUNESCO counts Ladino among the world's endangered languages.
Bienvenidos a la kaza del Ladino
My aim on this site is to introduce the Ladino language to new generations in a fun way. I grew up with Judeo-Espanyol at home, and I want to make you interested in it through songs, stories and proverbs.
Help keep Ladino alive
Do you know a proverb, a song or a story in Ladino? Send it to us, and it may be shared with readers all over the world.