Reply To: Did Jews Living In Medieval England Speak And Read And Write In English

Hml, Jews would have to have known how to read and write Hebrew for davening and learning. They would also have needed to the local languages in order to do business (unless they were simple workers, which few Jews were). Probably, as everywhere else, they spoke a Judaized version of either English, Norman French or a combination of both. Similarly, the Jews in northern France spoke a language called Zarphatic or Judeo-French. There is, in fact, a book called Hebrew and Hebrew-Latin documents from medieval England : a diplomatic and palaeographical study by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger that has facsimiles of Jewish documents from medieval England. It costs about $1,500 but you can see some pictures on Google. You can also google “Jewish life in medieval England”.