premise: For centuries, the Sephardic Jewish neighborhoods of cities from Tangier, Fez, and Amsterdam to Salonika, Istanbul, and Aleppo echoed with Ladino, a 15th-century Castilian dialect (sprinkled with Hebrew words) spoken by the Spanish exiles wherever they settled.
hypothesis: Although the Ladino dialect is spoken in these cities, this does not necessarily mean that it is the dominant dialect spoken.