Miriam,
yes there is Ladino, spoken by Shepardic Jews. Around here I knew
some from Turkey, family had gone there during the Spanish
Inquisition. My Ashkenazi relatives spoke a Yiddish that was so close
to German that my friends who knew German thought they had a really
cute accent. I do not think babushka was related to the traditional
Jewish headcovering, but was slang, related to what a Russian
grandmother might wear. so I was told as a kid. My best info, from
people who spoke Yiddish, Russian, Hebrew and English, at various
levels of skill.
It seems to have entered the English language as a head scarf.
Nancy
