Libyan Judeo-Arabic provides the first comprehensive account of Libyan spoken Judeo-Arabic dialects, based on fieldwork conducted in Israel and Italy between 2019 and 2023.
Before 1967, there were a rich variety of spoken Judeo-Arabic dialects in Libya that coexisted and interacted with the Muslim versions of Libyan Arabic, while remaining typologically distinct. Historically, Jewish communities existed in Tripoli, Zawia, Zanzur, Khoms, Msellata, Gharyan, Yefren, Misrata, Marj, Benghazi, and Derna. After the final expulsion of Libyan Jews in 1967, the dialects they spoke have been subject to erosion and are now severely endangered, especially in the case of smaller communities, where only a few speakers remain.
Luca D’Anna offers an overview of Libyan Judeo-Arabic dialects and includes a rich selection of ethnographic texts, a grammatical survey of their dialectal bundle and a comprehensive glossary. The texts cover different aspects of Jewish life in Libya, Italy and Israel, while the grammatical survey provides a phonological and morphological description, with notes on syntax and sociolinguistics. By presenting linguistic examples from most of the communities historically represented in Libya, D’Anna also offers the first classification of Libyan Judeo-Arabic, knowledge of which was previously restricted to the Judeo-Arabic of Tripoli.