Words That Passed from Ladino into Turkish: Traces Sephardic Culture Left in Our Language

The answers to these questions reveal the traces of the multicultural life that developed for centuries in the Ottoman lands, above all in Istanbul and İzmir.

Throughout history, Turkish has interacted with different languages and enriched its vocabulary as a result. Alongside languages such as Arabic, Persian, French, Greek and Italian, Ladino also holds a remarkable place in the cultural history of Turkish. Spoken by the Sephardic Jews of the Ottoman Empire in particular, this language was not merely a means of communication; it left its mark on many areas, from food culture and humour to family life and literature.

Behind some of the words we use in everyday conversation today there may be a story of migration we are unaware of, the warm smell of a bakery, or the shared life of different communities that lived in the same city for centuries.

In this article we examine in detail the history of the Ladino language, its relationship with Turkish, the words said to have passed into Turkish and the cultural background of those words.

1. What is the Ladino language?

Ladino is a language generally understood to mean Judeo-Spanish. In academic sources it also appears under the names Judeo-Spanish, Judezmo and Djudeo-Espanyol. In some contexts, however, the term Ladino can be used in a narrower sense, especially for the writing tradition that renders the Hebrew and Aramaic structure of religious texts in Spanish words.

As a language of everyday speech, Ladino is largely based on medieval Spanish. Over time, however, it was influenced by Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, Italian, French and the Balkan languages and took on a character of its own.

Ladino should not be seen simply as an old form of Spanish, because the language also holds the history, beliefs, traditions and everyday experience of the societies in which it was spoken.

For example, in a Ladino-speaking family, words for the kitchen, expressions related to religious tradition and relationships with neighbours could draw on different linguistic sources. In this way, the language became a shared cultural memory developed over generations.

Are Ladino and Spanish the same language?

There is a strong historical bond between Ladino and modern Spanish. But the two are not exactly the same.

The Jewish communities forced to leave Spain in 1492 carried with them language features based on the Spanish of the time. Long separated from Spain, the language of these communities developed differently in new lands over time.

For this reason, Old Spanish features were preserved in Ladino while new words and different ways of speaking emerged. Words taken from Turkish in the Ottoman lands were also an important part of this transformation.

In this respect, Ladino was a living language of culture that both preserved features from the past and adapted to its surroundings.

2. The historical journey from 1492 to the Ottomans

To understand the relationship between Ladino and Turkish, we must look at the history of the Sephardic Jews.

The expulsion order issued in Spain in 1492 led a large part of the Jewish communities to migrate to different countries. The Ottoman Empire became one of the main regions where these communities settled.

Cities such as Istanbul, Thessaloniki, İzmir, Edirne and Manisa were among the important centres where Sephardic culture developed. The Jews living in these cities preserved their language and traditions while also forming close ties with the societies around them.

Trade, crafts, neighbourliness, food culture and everyday life made it easier for the languages to influence one another. Thanks to the multilingual structure of Ottoman society, Turkish words passed into Ladino, and Ladino words passed in certain areas into Turkish and shared cultural life.

This interaction did not happen all at once. Through relationships that continued for centuries, some words adapted to local pronunciations, some acquired new meanings and some remained in the speech of particular communities.

The exchange of language did not go in only one direction

One of the most important points in understanding this history is that the exchange of words went both ways.

Turkish gave Ladino a great many words. For example, the Ladino equivalents of the Turkish words oda (room), kahve (coffee), para (money), boya (paint) and kolay (easy) show that this influence spread to different areas.

Ladino speakers did not simply use Turkish words as they were. They adapted some to the sound and grammatical features of their own language, and even derived verbs specific to Ladino from Turkish verb roots.

On the other hand, some words associated with Sephardic culture also became widespread in Turkish. Boyoz, pandispanya and palavra are often-cited examples in this context. Some publications also link the word kaşar with the concept of kosher; however, in etymological connections of this kind, the word's historical development and change of meaning must be assessed separately.

It would therefore be incomplete to see the relationship between Ladino and Turkish simply as a few words passing from one language to the other. What really matters is that the speakers of the two languages lived in the same social environment for a long time.

3. Ladino words said to have passed into Turkish

Certain words stand out in accounts of the relationship between Ladino and Turkish. Some of them passed into Turkish directly through Ladino or are associated with this cultural contact. In others, the origin is more complicated because of links with other languages or intermediate stages.

Let us examine the following examples with this distinction in mind.

3.1. Boyoz: one of İzmir's cultural symbols

Boyoz is one of the best-known examples of cultural interaction between Ladino and Turkish.

Boyoz is a pastry closely identified with the cuisine of İzmir, slightly crisp on the outside and layered inside. It is traditionally eaten at breakfast with a boiled egg and tea. In İzmir, boyoz is not just a food but one of the symbols of the city's daily life and local identity.

The historical background of boyoz is associated with the Sephardic Jewish community of İzmir. The food traditions of the Sephardim who migrated from Spain to the Ottoman lands combined with local ingredients and cooking habits and took on new forms.

The name and history of boyoz bear the traces of this cultural interaction. Even so, caution is needed about the exact etymology of the word; a food's historical connection with a particular community does not mean that the origin of its name has been settled in every detail.

Today in İzmir, the word boyoz brings to mind more than a pastry. Bakeries opening early in the morning, street culture, breakfast habits and recipes handed down through generations also take shape around this word.

Boyoz is thus a fine example of how a word can become part of a city's cultural memory.

3.2. Palavra: from exaggerated talk to everyday language

In Turkish, palavra is used to mean words not based on fact, an unfounded claim, an exaggerated account or empty talk.

For example:

• “Bana palavra anlatma.” (“Don't give me that palavra.”)
• “Söylediklerinin hepsi palavra çıktı.” (“Everything he said turned out to be palavra.”)
• “Bu kadar büyük bir hikâyeye kimse inanmaz; biraz palavra gibi geliyor.” (“Nobody will believe such a tall story; it sounds a bit like palavra.”)

The word's connection with Ladino and Sephardic culture is often mentioned in studies of Ladino-origin words in Turkish. Even so, the relationship of palavra with older forms in the Iberian languages must also be taken into account. It would therefore not be right to define it as a word invented by a single community.

The meaning palavra has acquired in Turkish is closely tied to oral storytelling and everyday humour. The word is very useful in situations where people try to persuade one another, tell exaggerated stories or want to play down a claim.

Another striking point is how easily the word adapts to different ways of speaking. It is often used in informal chats, among friends and in humorous accounts.

Palavra can thus be seen as one of the examples of historical language contact still living in modern Turkish.

3.3. Pandispanya: the shared memory of dessert culture

Pandispanya is a type of cake known for its light, airy texture. It is often used in pastry-making to prepare layer cakes, and it can also be the basic ingredient in some syrup-soaked or cream desserts.

The word pandispanya is counted among those associated with Ladino and Sephardic food culture. Even so, its circulation in the wider culinary history of the Mediterranean and Europe must also be borne in mind. For this reason, instead of tying the word's whole history to Ladino alone, its use in different languages should also be considered.

Pandispanya is important for showing how food culture carries interaction between languages. Recipes can travel with migration, and along with the recipes, the names of dishes can settle into the languages of other societies.

When the name of a food begins to be used in a new language, that food may change over time to suit local tastes. Ingredients, cooking methods and ways of serving may differ. In this way, both the word and the recipe live on in a new cultural setting.

The example of pandispanya shows that food culture and language history cannot be considered apart from one another.

3.4. Kaşar and kaşer: similarity, origin and distinction in meaning

The word kaşar is sometimes mentioned together with the concept of kaşer (kosher) in accounts of word relationships between Ladino and Turkish. This connection is discussed especially in the context of Sephardic cuisine and food traditions.

But an important distinction must be made here.

In Turkish, kaşar is the name of a widely known type of cheese. Kaşer, on the other hand, is a word of Hebrew origin referring to things that conform to Jewish religious rules and may religiously be eaten or used. Where food is concerned, kosher status relates to certain rules of production and preparation.

The similarity in sound between these two words has given rise to explanations that there may be a historical relationship between them. Indeed, some articles on Ladino published in Türkiye present kaşar as one of the examples linked to kosher.

Even so, similarity of sound alone is not etymological proof. In explaining the historical origin of the name of kaşar cheese, historical dictionaries of Turkish, old texts and equivalents in other languages must be studied together. It is therefore sounder to say that this connection is one of the etymological explanations put forward in the sources, rather than to say the word definitely came from Ladino.

This example also shows why care is needed when researching word origins: even if a cultural relationship is historically meaningful, a claim about a word's origin must be proved separately.

3.5. Abaşo: a lesser-known example

Some Turkish publications on the interaction between Ladino and Turkish also list abaşo among their examples. However, the use, meaning and origin of this word are not as widely or clearly documented as those of boyoz or palavra.

For this reason, rather than presenting abaşo as a word whose origin and route into Turkish have been settled, it should be regarded as one of the lesser-known examples mentioned in sources on the subject.

Words of this kind are important in language research, because as we investigate in which region, in which period and by which community a word was used, the historical contacts between languages can be understood in greater detail.

Especially with words passed on through oral culture, the scarcity of written documents or differences in local pronunciation can make it difficult to establish origins.

4. Words also passed from Turkish into Ladino

To understand the relationship between Ladino and Turkish, it is not enough to focus only on the words said to have passed into Turkish. The number of words of Turkish origin in Ladino's vocabulary is also striking.

While living in the Ottoman lands, Sephardic communities shared the same markets, streets, workplaces and neighbourhoods with the people around them. This led to a natural exchange of words used in daily life.

For example:

These examples show that Ladino could adapt the words it took from Turkish to its own system of sounds and use. Some forms may vary according to region, speech community and writing tradition.

Another point to note here is that the words are not limited to nouns. Ladino verbs were also derived from Turkish verbs.

For example, sources record forms such as bitirear, related to the Turkish verb bitirmek (to finish), dayanear, related to dayanmak (to endure), and kulanear, related to kollamak (to watch over). These are examples of Turkish roots being adapted to the verb structure of Ladino.

This shows that Ladino did not merely borrow words from Turkish, but could also work the borrowed elements into its own grammatical system.

5. How Ladino words adapted to Turkish

A word passing into another language does not mean it will always be used in the same form and with the same meaning. Words can change according to the sound structure, grammar and social habits of the new language.

Similar processes took place in the relationship between Ladino and Turkish.

Sound changes

When a word is carried into another language, some sounds of the source language may be rendered differently in the target language. As a result, the word's pronunciation or spelling may change.

In Ladino examples, Turkish words can be seen written or pronounced with different sounds. Comparisons such as kahve–kavé and kolay–kolaj are useful examples for understanding this adaptation.

Grammatical adaptation

The exchange of words is not limited to sound changes. A language can create new words by combining a root taken from another language with its own suffixes.

The derivation of verbs from Turkish roots in Ladino is a striking example of this. Combining a Turkish verb root with verb-forming patterns of Spanish origin can bring two languages together in a single word.

Change of meaning

When a word passes into another language, its meaning can narrow, widen or take on a different connotation.

For example, a word about daily life may develop a special use in a particular community. Over time this use can become part of that community's speech tradition.

Such changes show that languages do not merely take words from one another, but also reshape those words according to their own cultural needs.

6. Food culture: the most delicious journey of words

Food culture has a special place in the relationship between Ladino and Turkish, because food is one of the strongest ways for migrating communities to carry their past to new lands.

As a recipe is handed down within the family from generation to generation, the name of the recipe is often preserved too. But ingredients found in the new surroundings, local cooking methods and interaction with neighbouring cuisines can cause the dish to change over time.

İzmir's boyoz is one of the leading examples of this. Associated with the Sephardic culinary heritage, this food has over time become part of İzmir's shared urban culture.

Pandispanya, for its part, reminds us how the tradition of sweets and pastry travelled between languages. Today many people use the word pandispanya in daily life without ever thinking of the historical journey of the name.

In this respect, the names of dishes can function like historical documents. Examining in which region a word was used, with which recipe it was associated and how it spread over time can yield clues about the history of societies' migration, trade and cultural interaction.

However, it is not right to assume that every dish's name comes from one particular community. The origin of dishes and their names often bears the influence of more than one language and culture. Oral accounts, historical documents and language research must therefore be assessed together.

7. Humour, everyday speech and oral culture

Another area where Ladino and Turkish came into contact is everyday speech and the tradition of humour.

Words such as palavra show not only what a society says but also how it judges what is said. The words people use to criticise exaggeration, play down a claim or joke among friends reveal the social side of language.

The fact that different communities lived in the same neighbourhoods in Ottoman cities also paved the way for the development of oral culture. People got to know one another's stories, jokes, idioms and everyday expressions.

The relationships between Turkish and Ladino storytelling traditions are not limited to the exchange of words. For example, there are similarities between the stories of Nasreddin Hoca and those of Djoha, an important comic figure in Ladino oral culture. In comparing these narratives, researchers examine shared themes such as wordplay, proverbs, daily life and social relations.

These examples show that the exchange of language and culture does not take place through words alone. A society's humour, its stories and its way of interpreting the world can also change through its relationships with other societies.

8. Why does Ladino matter for Turkish?

Ladino is valuable for understanding the history of Turkish and the multicultural structure of Ottoman society.

A language's vocabulary does not consist only of grammar rules or word lists. It also reflects which societies its speakers had relationships with, what kinds of goods they produced, what food they prepared and what they encountered in daily life.

This is especially clear in the case of Ladino. The entry of words of Turkish origin into Ladino shows that Sephardic communities did not merely go on living in the Ottoman lands but shared daily life with the societies around them.

The association of Turkish words such as boyoz, pandispanya and palavra with Sephardic culture also keeps this mutual interaction in memory.

These words prove that one language's influence on another does not happen only in literary or official settings. Words that emerge sometimes in a bakery, sometimes at a family table and sometimes in a chat between two neighbours can survive for centuries.

9. The state of the Ladino language today

Although Ladino was historically spoken across a wide area, it is now among the languages whose speaker numbers are declining and for whose protection work is being carried out.

Cultural, academic and artistic work to keep Ladino alive is being done in Türkiye and in different parts of the world. Newspapers, oral history projects, dictionaries, literary works, music recordings and language education initiatives help pass this heritage on to future generations.

Protecting Ladino does not mean only preserving the words of a language. The family stories, songs, proverbs, recipes and tradition of humour told in this language are also part of the cultural heritage.

The loss of a language brings with it the risk that some experiences expressed in it, and some ways of interpreting the world, will also be forgotten. Work on Ladino is therefore important not only for linguists, but for everyone interested in history, culture, literature and social memory.

In particular, young people getting to know Ladino, learning the meanings of historical words and recording the accounts of their elders can help preserve the cultural heritage.

10. What should you watch out for when researching Ladino words?

When examining the relationship between Ladino and Turkish, some basic points should be kept in mind.

First, it is necessary to research which language the word really comes from. The use of a word in Ladino does not necessarily mean it is of Ladino origin. Throughout history, Ladino also took words from Turkish, Hebrew, Greek, Italian and other languages.

Second, cultural relationship and word origin must be kept apart. The association of a food with Sephardic cuisine does not by itself prove that its name definitely comes from Ladino.

Third, the form of the word in historical documents should be examined. Old dictionaries, newspapers, cookery books and literary texts can reveal in which period and with what meaning a word was used.

Fourth, differences in local pronunciation should be taken into account. Ladino was not a uniform language. Words could be written or pronounced differently in different cities and communities.

Finally, it is important to use reliable academic sources. Especially with words of disputed origin, comparing different explanations rather than passing definitive judgments will lead to more accurate results.

This approach brings a more careful and respectful view of both the Ladino language and the historical richness of Turkish.

Conclusion: Much more than a few words

The relationship between Ladino and Turkish is a valuable historical example of how words cross borders and how cultures influence one another.

While boyoz lives on in the daily life of İzmir, palavra continues to live in spoken Turkish. Pandispanya has its place in the shared vocabulary of dessert culture. The relationship between kaşar and kaşer reminds us of the importance of care when researching word origins.

All these examples show that languages are not closed, unchanging structures. People migrate, become neighbours, trade, eat together, tell stories and learn words from one another. In this process, languages too change, develop and take on new meanings.

Ladino is one of the important witnesses to the cultural interaction that lasted for centuries in the Ottoman lands. Researching the words said to have passed into Turkish means not only learning the origins of words but also taking a close look at the past of Istanbul, İzmir and the multicultural Ottoman cities.

Behind a word we use today there may be another language, another city or the story of another society. Researching the history of words therefore also helps us better understand our own cultural memory.

Ladino words are small but meaningful traces of the historical encounters that make up the richness of Turkish. Preserving these traces and passing them on accurately is one of the ways of taking care of a shared cultural heritage.

Bibliography and further reading

1. My Jewish Learning — What Is Ladino?
2. Büyük İstanbul Tarihi — Judeo-Espanyol/Ladino: Türkiye Yahudilerinin Dili
3. Şalom Gazetesi — İstanbul'un Beş Asırlık Lisanı: Ladino
4. Encyclopedia.com — Ladino
5. Ömer Faruk Dağcı and Arda Arıkan — Türk ve Ladino Edebiyatlarına Mukayeseli Bir Bakış: Nasreddin Hoca ve Djoha Öyküleri

Editorial note: In explanations of word origins, historical cultural connection and definitive etymological proof must be kept apart. In this article, disputed connections in particular have not been presented as established facts.