"Do You Speak Jewish?"

By an US American to a couple speaking Portuguese.

Pretty obviously, the person asking wasn't referring to Yiddish, which can be described as Ashkenaz Jewish Medieval German.

She was pretty certainly referring to Djudezmo, which can be described as Sephardic Jewish Medieval Spanish.

One thing which it shares with Portuguese rather than Spanish is, no diphthongs. Perhaps not "non at all" but not the ones in PUEDO and TIEMPO, those are "podo" and "tempo" in Djudezmo.

Again, DJ is closer to Portuguese and French J, than to Spanish "J is actually ACH-Laut".

SH is still distinguished and so that's closer to Portuguese than to Spanish "X is also actually ACH-Laut, but we spell it J now" (¿verdad, Méjico?).

DZ is Z, Ç is S. More Latin American than European Spanish but distinguishing Z from S is more Portuguese than Latin American Spanish.

Also B and D and "hard" G are closer to English or Italian letters than to Spanish ones. Again, not unlike Portuguese.

And it's definitely NOT like Latin American Spanish where CALLE is sometimes KASHE, nope, it's KALYE.

So, if someone confuses Djudezmo and Portuguese, it's probably not a nincompoop, ¿de akodro?

And calling Djudezmo "Jewish" is literally just translating.

So, no, they weren't speaking Sephardic Jewish, they were speaking Portuguese, but that's a kind of mix-up that happens./HGL

(I happen to be more than a Euro short of the kaviko in this cyber, I'm off).