Andres Enrique Arias, Ph.D.
Professor at the University of Balearic Islands
Monday, April 22 at 6:00 p.m.
Real Colegio Complutense
26 Trowbridge St, Cambridge, MA
SUMMARY
In this presentation we offer an overview of the main questions regarding the Judaeo-Spanish language or Ladino in the United States. We will discuss the socio-historical context of the arrival of the Sephardic Jews to the United States, the features of the Judaeo-Spanish spoken there, explanations for its current status as an endangered language, and initiatives towards the revitalization of the Sephardic language and culture.
Speaker: Andres Enrique Arias, PhD.
Andres Enrique Arias was born in Leon in 1965, but shortly afterwards, he and his family moved to Burgos. He received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish Philology at the University of Valladolid, and later his Doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Southern California. Currently he is a Professor at the University of the Balearic Islands in Palma de Mallorca. He has written close to one hundred publications about historical aspects of the Spanish language. In particular, he has studied the biblical translations into Castilian produced in the Middle Ages as well as the mutual influence that Castilian and Catalan have had on each other in Mallorca. He has researched and taught at universities in the United States, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Korea. In addition to his academic accomplishments, he is also very fond of jazz music and film. He plays the double bass for several groups and has released a short documentary about the Sephardic Jews of Los Angeles.