J̌idi
Judeo-Isfahani
Judeo-Isfahani is a variety within the Provincial (Velāyati) subgroup of the Median dialects spoken in the immediate vicinity of Isfahan but showing close affinity to Gazi and Sedeh. Historical evidence substantiates the idea that Isfahan itself was home to a population that once spoke Median (Borjian 2011), but that the original vernaculars survived only in conservative Jewish quarters and among Muslims in the countryside. Judeo-Isfahani is thus an older survival, while Persian has moved in more recently. At least since the 1980s, the Jews of Isfahan are probably more numerous in diaspora than in Iran, with the largest communities in the United States, especially Los Angeles, and Israel. In New York, the main concentration today is in the suburb of Great Neck and the surrounding area on Long Island, where Isfahani Jews share their synagogues with other Persian Jews. Like other Persian Jews, the community now uses Persian primarily, while the younger generation in New York speaks English. In Great Neck, Judeo-Isfahani may have at most several dozen speakers, by and large over the age of 60. According to 2015-2019 American Community Survey data, there are roughly 6,693 Persian speakers in Great Neck and surrounding towns, the overwhelming majority of whom are probably Jewish, and a small number of whom are probably speakers of these quite different languages spoken by regional Jewish communities in Iran.
Sites
NYC neighborhoods or towns in the metro region where the language community has a significant site, marked by a point on the map: