Ethnolinguistic Infusion at Sephardic Adventure Camp

Abstract

This chapter describes the phenomenon of ‘ethnolinguistic infusion,’ community leaders incorporating elements of a group’s heritage language in the context of a different primary language of communication. Using data from observation and interviews, I offer descriptions of language practices and ideologies surrounding Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) at an American Jewish summer camp geared toward descendents of Ladino speakers from Turkey and Rhodes. Infusion practices include Ladino greetings, evaluations, and cultural terms; word-of-the-day presentations and other pedagogically oriented metalinguistic conversation; and routinized codeswitching, including prayers and songs. In addition, community members engage in corrections and other discourse about which loanwords are appropriate, especially comparing Yiddish and Ashkenazic Hebrew with Ladino and Sephardic Hebrew. Inspired by John R. Rickford’s advocacy on behalf of undervalued English, I suggest that ethnolinguistic infusion might be useful for immigrant and indigenous community activists as an alternative approach to language reclamation.

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