Modern Hebrew

Modern Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by more than 6 million people, mainly in Israel, the West Bank, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. The core of the Tanakh (sometimes referred to as the Hebrew Bible), the Torah (which Christianity and Judaism traditionally hold to have been first recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago), is written in (Biblical) Classical Hebrew. Jews have always called it לשון הקודש Lashon ha-Qodesh ("The Sacred Language") as the scriptures written in this language were considered sacred. Most scholars agree that after the first destruction of Jerusalem by the Nebuchadnezzar II and the Babylonians in 586 BCE, the kind of Hebrew prevalent in the Tanakh was replaced in daily use by Mishnaic Hebrew and a local version of Aramaic. After the depletion of the Jewish population of parts of Roman occupied Judea, it is believed that Hebrew gradually ceased to be a spoken language roughly around 200 CE, but has stayed as the major written language throughout the centuries. Not only religious, but texts for a large variety of purposes: letters and contracts, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry, protocols of courts—all resorted to Hebrew, which thus adapted itself to various new fields and terminologies by borrowings and new inventions.

Hebrew was revitalized as a spoken language during the late 19th and early 20th century as Modern Hebrew, replacing a score of languages spoken by the Jews at that time, such as Arabic, Judezmo (also called Ladino), Yiddish, Russian, and other languages of the Jewish diaspora as the spoken language of the majority of the Jewish people living in Israel.

Eliezar Ben Yehuda (1858-1922) led the rebirth of Hebrew as a spoken language. After immigrating to Eretz Israel in 1881, he began promoting the use of Hebrew at home and in the schools. He created thousands of new words, started two periodicals in Hebrew, co-founded the Hebrew Language Committee (1890) and wrote the Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew, in 17 tomes, begun by him in 1910 and finished by his second wife and son in 1959.

Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921, and the primary official language of the State of Israel, (Arabic maintained its official language status). The Hebrew name for the language is עברית, or ‘Ivrit.

 
Introduction to the Hebrew Language

Hebrew is one of the world's oldest languages, spoken and written today in much the same way as it was more than two thousand years ago. After ceasing to exist as a spoken language about 250 B.C., it was reborn as a modern language in the 19th century, and today it is the principal language of the State of Israel. Books, newspapers, and magazines published in Israel today are written in a Hebrew that is much the same as the language of the Bible.
 
For over three millennia Hebrew has been the religious, and often the literary and secular, language of the Jewish people. A Semitic tongue, it was spoken during the period of the migration of the Patriarchs into Palestine and remained the language of the Jews throughout the Old Testament period. In the post biblical period Hebrew gradually gave way to Aramaic as the spoken language, but continued throughout the centuries to serve as the language of ritual and prayer.
 
The renaissance of Hebrew as a spoken language in the 19th century may be ascribed almost entirely to the efforts of one man: Eliezer Ben Yehudah, who devoted his life to the revival of the language, and at the same time adapted it for modern use through the introduction of thousands of modern terms. Hebrew gradually came into use among the Jewish settlers in Palestine and became the official language of the State of Israel when that nation was created in 1948. Today about 3 million people speak Hebrew either as their maternal, adopted, or religious tongue.
 
The Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters (five of which have a different form when they appear at the end of a word) consists entirely of consonants. The language is written from right to left without vowels. Thus the word kelev (dog) appears as the Hebrew equivalents of, from right to left, k, l, and v. It is therefore impossible for one not familiar with the language to know how to pronounce a word from the way it is written. About the 8th century a system developed for indicating vowels through the use of small dots and dashes placed above and below the consonants. These signs are still in use today, but they are confined to school books, prayer books, and textbooks for foreigners, and are not to be seen in newspapers, magazines, or books of general use.
 
English words of Hebrew origin include amen, hallelujah, sabbath, rabbi, cherub, seraph, Satan, kosher, manna, shibboleth, and behemoth. More recent contributions are kibbutz and sabra.
 
History
 
12th century BCE: Hebrew is developing into an independent language. It is believed that it could have been almost identical with Phoenician before this time. This becomes the language with which the Old Testament later is written.

3rd century BCE: Jews living in Palestine starts to speak more and more Aramaic. Jews outside Palestine spoke the languages of the communities in which they settled. In this period Aramaic strongly influences Hebrew with rules of syntax and with additions to the vocabulary.

Last century BCE: The alphabet of Hebrew, as we know it today, is believed to be developed.

200 CE: Development of what is now called Mishnahic Hebrew, or rabbinic Hebrew — the language used in the Mishnah. In the following years the guttural sounds of Hebrew are simplified, and there is a strong influx of words from Greek, Latin, and Persian.
 
9th century: The final decline for use of Hebrew starts, which resulted in it not being used anymore, except for religious writings.

1880: At the same time as Zionism rises, the modern Hebrew is starting to get formed.
 
1913: Hebrew becomes the language of instruction in Jewish schools in Palestine.
 
1948: With the establishment of the state of Israel, Hebrew becomes the official language.