LAD-101 | Ladino / Judeo-Spanish Foundations
Format: 12 weeks. Exit skill: recognize its language names, read a teacher-verified short text in a consistent Latin-script convention, explain historical Hebrew-letter uses, and preserve speaker/archival attribution. We do not equate Ladino with modern Castilian Spanish.
| Week | Lesson focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Judeo-Spanish, Ladino and Djudezmo names |
| 2 | Historical spread and regional varieties |
| 3 | Latin-script orthography |
| 4 | Speaker-approved greetings |
| 5 | Home and family lexicon |
| 6 | Contact with Hebrew, Turkish and Greek |
| 7 | Short prose and glossing |
| 8 | Proverbs and context |
| 9 | Traditional Rashi print |
| 10 | Solitreo cursive traditions |
| 11 | Community oral-history consent |
| 12 | Annotated source capstone |
Lesson 1 — A language's names and scripts
Read: Ladino, Judeo-Spanish, Djudezmo and Judeo-Espanyol are related names used in discussions of this heritage language; labels vary by community and scholar. Historically Ladino has been written in Hebrew-derived scripts, including printed Rashi letterforms and handwritten Solitreo, while much contemporary teaching uses Latin spelling.
Look at an archival example on the University of Washington Sephardic Studies digital collection. Identify the place and publication era of a primer. Then identify which writing system appears; do not assume its script and language have the same name.
Self-check: Are Rashi print and Solitreo cursive separate spoken languages?
No. They are historical letterform/script traditions used for written Judeo-Spanish and other contexts; language and script must be distinguished.
Self-check: Is every Spanish sentence an accurate Ladino example?
No. Ladino has its own historical developments and regional varieties. Use community-vetted Judeo-Spanish examples and a declared spelling standard.
Mastery standard
Source identification 85%, instructor-verified vocabulary task 80%, short annotated heritage passage with attribution and context. Pronunciation activities begin only with a qualified Judeo-Spanish instructor or published heritage-speaker audio. Learn more about Solitreo.