Judaeo-Portuguese, Jewish-Portuguese or Judaeo-Lusitanic, is an extinct Jewish language or a dialect of Galician-Portuguese written in the Hebrew alphabet that was used by the Jews of Portugal.^[1]

It was the vernacular of Sephardi Jews in Portugal before the 16th century and also in many places of the Portuguese Jewish diaspora. Its texts were written in the Hebrew script (aljamiado português) or the Latin alphabet.^[2]

As Portuguese Jews intermarried with other expelled Sephardim, the language influenced the nearby Judeo-Spanish. Close similarity to Standard Portuguese made Judeo-Portuguese go extinct in Portugal,^[1] having survived in everyday usage in the diaspora until the late 18th/early 19th century.^{[citation needed]} Judeo-Portuguese influenced the Papiamento and Saramaccan languages.^{[citation needed]}

The earliest known text containing Judeo-Portuguese text is a manuscript from 1262 about illuminating manuscripts called O livro de como se fazem as cores.^{[3][self-published source]} After the Jewish exodus from Portugal in 1497 many Portuguese Jews would flee to the Dutch Republic and Judeo-Portuguese would intake a lot of Dutch influence.^[4] This same exodus would cause the language to spread to the Turkish Jewish community.^[4] It would go extinct in the early 19th century, though since then has only been used liturgically.^{[3][self-published source]}

The oldest text containing Judeo-Portuguese is a manuscript from 1262 about illuminating manuscripts called O livro de como se fazem as cores.^[3]During the 15th century several texts including one about medical astrology and a prayer book.^[4] Even until today is it still used liturgically but only by a very small number of people.^[3]

The decline of Judeo-Portuguese would begin with the introduction of public schooling. Eventually declining to home use before finally only being used liturgically.^[4]

There existed several dialects of Judeo-Portuguese divided into 2 categories referred to as Peninsular Judeo-Portuguese and Emigre Judeo-Portuguese, though the differences between them are unclear.^[4]

Judeo-Portuguese has influenced several languages. These include Balkan dialects of Ladino, and Portuguese.^[5]

• History of the Jews in Portugal
• Spanish and Portuguese Jews
• Lusophone
• Lusitanic
• Pallache family
• Judeo-Spanish

• Judaeo-Portuguese in Jewish Language Research Center
• Thesouro dos Dinim, a halakhic work (annotated transcription) Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
• Thesouro dos Dinim, a halakhic work (partial facsimile)
• Menasseh Ben Israel de la fragilidad humana y inclinacion del hombre al peccado. Parte primera
• Strolovitch, Devon L. (2005) Old Portuguese in Hebrew Script: Convention, Contact, and Convivência. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.