For starters, please excuse any oversimplifications here and feel free to correct them if necessary. My understanding is that the modern Hebrew language was reconstructed around the turn of the 20th Century to become the everyday language for the envisioned new state of Israel. Up to that point, Ashkenazi (Central European) Jews generally spoke Yiddish. My question is: what language did Sephardic (Middle Eastern) Jews speak prior to the creation of Israel and the re-introduction of Hebrew as a common tongue? Arabic?
Those in the Middle East, such as Babylon (Iraq), Persia (Iran), Palestine and North Africa did, for the most part, speak Arabic. In fact, many of Maimonides’ writings were originally in Arabic and later translated into Hebrew for wider distribution.
The Sephardim in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Greece and Turkey spoke and wrote a language called “Ladino,” which is pretty much Spanish written in Hebrew letters…the Sephardic equivalent of Yiddish. The language still has some speakers today, but not as many as Yiddish still has.
Sephardic Jews are those whose ancestors lived in Spain and Portugal, especially before the Inquisition.
At least some Sephardic Jews spoke a Romance language called Ladino, which still has a few speakers in Turkey, Israel, and a few Jewish communities in North America (notably Rochester, N.Y., IIRC).
Oriental Jews, whose ancestors never lived in Spain or Eastern Europe, tended to speak the dominant language of the region, be it Farsi, or Arabic, or something else. Some spoke a modern form of Aramaic, which was the Semitic language of Jesus and his disciples.
see Oriental Jew from the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Chaim - Ladino (also known as “Hispaniolit”) is actually 15th-century Catalan, intermingled with a number of Hebrew words and phrases (such as referring to the Almighty as “senior del mundo”, a direct translation of “Adon Olam”). It was also spoken among the Jews of Northern Africa, especially the more well-educated ones.
My wife is Sephardic (of Greek-Bulgarian descent) and her family speaks the language quite fluently. Although I am Ashkenazic, I prefer it to Yiddish. It is a beautiful language.
I understand it is very much like 16th or 17th century Spanish and has kept uses and expressions which disappeared in Spanish.
My most recent ex-boss was Sephardic and of Iranian lineage. Syrian and Iranian and etc. Middle Eastern Jews apparently also consider themselves Sephardic and not Ashkenazi.
I have to agree. Having grown up hearing Yiddish spoken fairly often, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is one of the ugliest sounding languages still in use today. But some of the idioms are worderful.
Okay, this is a complicated subject. In my experience, these are the correct terms that people tend to prefer:
Ashkenazi - Jews of Eastern European descent. Most American Jews are Ashkenazim. Ashkenaz is an old Hebrew word for Germany, and supposedly most Ashkenazim originally lived in Germany, although often too far back for Russian and Polish Jews to trace.
Sephardi - specifically applies to Jews of Spanish origin. Beginning in 1492, most Spanish Jews were expelled from Spain, and there are very, VERY few Jews in Spain today, so the term is quite outdated. Additionally, it is often applied to Jews who have no connection to Spain at all, which is just plain old wrong. This has led to the use of the term…
Mizrachi - Means “Eastern”. Basically applies to all non-Ashkenazim. Used especially by people with no connection to Spain and the Inquisition, ie, the Persian Jews, who have lived in Iran for thousands of years with nary a vacation in Barcelona. 
This is a more inclusive term, and can apply to other non-Ashkenazim, like Ethiopian and Indian Jews as well.
A Few Ladino proverbs…
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El ganar y el perder son Haverim. - Winning and losing are close companions.
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Si Moshe morió, Adonay quedo’. - Moses may be dead, but God endures.
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Uno año mas, un seHel mas. - One year older, one year wiser.
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DarSa, haHam, cuando hay quien te oiga. - Preach, rabbi, only when you have an audience.
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Cuando gane’den está acerrado, guehinam está siempre abierto. - While the Garden of Eden may be closed, hell is always open.
I believe the letters in Capitals are ASCII transcriptions of the proper Hebrew words. Hopefully the Hebrew speakers out there can figure them out. I got this off of one of my mailing lists, so if something doesnt look right, dont get mad at me :).
I was led to understand some Moroccan Jews native language was Berber.
There were also Judeo-Italian, Judeo-French, and Judeo-Greek languages, but I think they all have gone extinct
… and Ladino, being mostly Spanish, is obviously a softer, gentler, more beautiful sounding language than Yiddish, being mostly German – harsh and guttural, with epiglottal stops, whatever those are.
Judeo-Greek = Yevanic (nearly extinct)
Judeo-Italian = Italkian (nearly extinct)
Judeo-Provençal = Shaduit (extinct)
Judeo-French = Zarphatic (extinct)
Judeo-Spanish = Ladino (seriously endangered)
Judeo-German = Yiddish (seriously endangered)
Judeo-Tatar = Krimchak (nearly extinct)
source: http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_report.html#yiddish
see also Jewish Languages
From what I have read, the preferred term for the language of everyday use of the Sephardim is “Djudeo-Espanyol.” In the old days in Sefarad (Spain), it was also referred to as “Judezmo.” As for Ladino:
Source: http://www.sefarad.org/espanyol.html
I just dig hearing it and reading it, even if sometimes I can’t quite get it. And I would think it so sad to see it be lost.
JRD