Judeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino, was the language spoken by Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire following their arrival in the late fifteenth century. Mary Altabev’s study of Judeo-Spanish explores the use of the language in the modern Turkish Republic, where Jews have largely dropped it in favour of the Turkish language. Altabev’s anthropological approach relies on the collection of empirical data from Turkey’s Judeo-Spanish speakers. Altabev’s analysis of the data focuses on perceptions of the language with respect to certain factors as well as the multiple identities of Turkey’s Jews as manifested in linguistic strategies. Altabev moreover seeks to show how Judeo-Spanish is not merely a dying language but has taken on another role amongst the Jewish community in Turkey.

• TABLE OF CONTENTS (page 9)
• GLOSSARY (page 11)
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (page 13)
• 1: INTRODUCTION (page 15)
• 2: METHODOLOGY (page 21)
• 3: THE PEOPLE AND THE LANGUAGE (page 39)
• 4: LITERATURE REVIEW ON LANGUAGE DEATH/SHIFT/REVIVAL IN GENERAL AND WITH RESPECT TO JUDEO-SPANISH IN TURKEY (page 69)
• 5: THE TURKISH JEWS' PERCEPTION OF JUDEO-SPANISH (page 91)
• 6: LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL IDENTITY: Judeo-Spanish and the Turkish Jewish identity (page 137)
• 7: EPILOGUE: Death,Swan song,Revival or New Arrival? (page 217)
• APPENDIX 1 (page 245)