Zarphatic was written using a variation of the
Hebrew alphabet. It first appeared in this form in the 11th century in
glosses of the
Torah and
Talmud written by the rabbis
Moshe HaDarshan and
Rashi. it was different from the Christian majority dialect, and thus a specific
Judeo-Romance language. However, other linguists contend that it was essentially the same as Christian dialects of the same regions, with only some Hebrew influences. It seems that Zarphatic was probably never a
vernacular language, and that the Jews of the area did not speak a differing language or dialect, at least not one distinguished by
phonology or
lexicon beyond that specific to a community. Rather, it acted more as a liturgical language, for exegesis and literature. Its primary use was for explanation and
vulgarisation of biblical and rabbinical literature. Most of the elements from the Hebrew language are found in the function words (articles, prepositions, etc.), though there are some changes to verbs and vocabulary.
Extinction Due to the constant persecution, killing and
expulsion of Jews from France and
other European nations, the Zarphatic language likely went extinct in the 14th century; documentation of the language slows in the mid-14th century. The last known example of Zarphatic is a recipe for
charoset written in 1470. == Writing system ==