Ladino, also known as Judeo-Spanish, Judezmo, Dzhudezmo, or Spaniolit, is a language spoken and written by Jews of Spanish origin for nearly a thousand years. It began as Old Castilian, the Spanish spoken in the final years of the Reconquista. Over time it absorbed elements of Hebrew and Aramaic, but it became a distinct Jewish language after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. As Jewish communities spread across the Mediterranean and beyond, they took Ladino with them.

Separated from linguistic changes in Spain, Ladino developed along different paths. In cities like Amsterdam, London, and Livorno, where Jews still had some contact with Spanish culture, the language stayed relatively close to early Castilian. But in the Ottoman Empire, where most Sephardic Jews resettled, Ladino began to absorb vocabulary and expressions from the languages of their new neighbors. Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Greek, and later French all left their mark.

This gave rise to regional varieties of Ladino. Oriental Ladino, spoken in places such as Türkiye and the island of Rhodes, retained more of the Castilian character. Western Ladino, used in areas like Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Romania, preserved older traits from northern Spain and Portuguese-speaking regions. These versions of the language reflect the communities that shaped them.