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Hebrew language

This article is about the Hebrew language in general. For the revived version as it is spoken in Israel, see Modern Hebrew.

Hebrew
עִבְרִית‎, Ivrit
Portion of the Isaiah Scroll, a second-century BCE manuscript of the Biblical Book of Isaiah and one of the best-preserved of the Dead Sea Scrolls
PronunciationModern: [ivˈʁit][note 1]
Tiberian: [ʕivˈriθ]
Biblical: [ʕibˈrit]
Native toIsrael
RegionSouthern Levant
ExtinctMishnaic Hebrew extinct as a spoken language by the 5th century CE, surviving as a liturgical language along with Biblical Hebrew for Judaism[1][2][3]
RevivalRevived in the late 19th century CE. 9 million speakers of Modern Hebrew, of which 5 million are native speakers and 3.3 million are second language speakers (2018)[4]
Early forms
Standard forms
Dialects
Hebrew alphabet
Hebrew Braille
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Archaic Biblical Hebrew)
Imperial Aramaic script (Late Biblical Hebrew)
Samaritan script (Samaritan Biblical Hebrew)
Signed Hebrew (oral Hebrew accompanied by sign)[5]
Official status
Official language in
Israel (as Modern Hebrew)[6]
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byAcademy of the Hebrew Language
האקדמיה ללשון העברית‎ (ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ʿivrit)
Language codes
ISO 639-1he
ISO 639-2heb
ISO 639-3Variously:
heb – Modern Hebrew
hbo – Classical Hebrew (liturgical)
smp – Samaritan Hebrew (liturgical)
obm – Moabite (extinct)
xdm – Edomite (extinct)
Glottologhebr1246
Linguasphere12-AAB-a
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
The word Ivrit ("Hebrew") written in the modern Hebrew script (top) and in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (bottom)

Hebrew (Hebrew alphabet: עִבְרִית‎, ʿĪvrīt, pronounced [ʔivˈʁit] ⓘ or [ʕivˈrit] ⓘ; Samaritan script: ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ‎ ʿÎbrit) is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism.[15] The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival. It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic, still spoken today.[16][17]

The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE.[18] Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh (לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש, lit. 'the holy tongue' or 'the tongue [of] holiness') since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible, but as Yehudit (transl. 'Judean') or Səpaṯ Kəna'an (transl. "the language of Canaan").[1][note 2] Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to the language as Ivrit, meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit, meaning Assyrian, which is derived from the name of the alphabet used, in contrast to Ivrit, meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet.[19]

Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt, which was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea.[20][21][note 3] Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants.[23] Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature. The first dated book printed in Hebrew was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio (Calabria, Italy) in 1475.[24] With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of a modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. Modern Hebrew (Ivrit) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine, and subsequently the official language of the State of Israel.[25][26]

Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998,[4] and over nine million people in 2013.[27] After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans).[28] Pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around the world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non-first language, it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations, and by theologians in Christian seminaries.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ a b c Sáenz-Badillos (1993)
  2. ^ H. S. Nyberg 1952. Hebreisk Grammatik. s. 2. Reprinted in Sweden by Universitetstryckeriet, Uppsala, 2006.
  3. ^ Modern Hebrew at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Classical Hebrew (liturgical) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Samaritan Hebrew (liturgical) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Moabite (extinct) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
    Edomite (extinct) at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  4. ^ a b "Hebrew". Ethnologue. Archived from the original on 14 May 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
  5. ^ Meir, Irit; Sandler, Wendy (2013). A Language in Space: The Story of Israeli Sign Language.
  6. ^ "Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People" (PDF). The Knesset. The State of Israel. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2021. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  7. ^ Pisarek, Walery. "The relationship between official and minority languages in Poland" (PDF). European Federation of National Institutions for Language. Archived (PDF) from the original on 14 December 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  8. ^ "Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 – Chapter 1: Founding Provisions | South African Government". www.gov.za. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  9. ^ Yağmur, Kutlay (2001), Extra, G.; Gorter, D. (eds.), "Turkish and other languages in Turkey", The Other Languages of Europe, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 407–427, ISBN 978-1-85359-510-3, archived from the original on 20 October 2023, retrieved 6 October 2023, "Mother tongue" education is mostly limited to Turkish teaching in Turkey. No other language can be taught as a mother tongue other than Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew, as agreed in the Lausanne Treaty [...] Like Jews and Greeks, Armenians enjoy the privilege of an officially recognized minority status. [...] No language other than Turkish can be taught at schools or at cultural centers. Only Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew are exceptions to this constitutional rule.
  10. ^ Zetler, Reyhan (2014). "Turkish Jews between 1923 and 1933 – What Did the Turkish Policy between 1923 and 1933 Mean for the Turkish Jews?" (PDF). Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung (23): 26. OCLC 865002828. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
  11. ^ Toktaş, Şule (2006). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European Quarterly. 40 (4): 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. Archived from the original on 11 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023. p. 514: This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews.
  12. ^ Bayır, Derya (2013). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4. Archived from the original on 14 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023. Oran farther points out that the rights set out for the four categories are stated to be the 'fundamental law' of the land, so that no legislation or official action shall conflict or interfere with these stipulations or prevail over them (article 37). [...] According to the Turkish state, only Greek, Armenian and Jewish non-Muslims were granted minority protection by the Lausanne Treaty. [...] Except for non-Muslim populations - that is, Greeks, Jews and Armenians - none of the other minority groups' language rights have been de jure protected by the legal system in Turkey.
  13. ^ Questions and Answers: Freedom of Expression and Language Rights in Turkey. New York: Human Rights Watch. April 2002. Archived from the original on 20 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023. The Turkish government accepts the language rights of the Jewish, Greek and Armenian minorities as being guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.
  14. ^ [9][10][11][12][13]
  15. ^ Chomsky, William (1957). Hebrew: The Eternal Language. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America. pp. 1–13.
  16. ^ Grenoble, Leonore A.; Whaley, Lindsay J. (2005). Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-521-01652-0. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 28 March 2017. Hebrew is cited by Paulston et al. (1993:276) as 'the only true example of language revival.'
  17. ^ Fesperman, Dan (26 April 1998). "Once 'dead' language brings Israel to life Hebrew: After 1,700 years, a revived language becomes a common thread knitting together a nation of immigrants with little in common except religion". The Baltimore Sun. Sun Foreign Staff. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered". Physorg.com. 7 January 2010. Archived from the original on 27 January 2012. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
  19. ^ Hoffman, Joel M. In the Beginning : A Short History of the Hebrew Language. New York, New York University Press, 2006, p. 169.
  20. ^ Sáenz-Badillos (1993), p. 171 Archived 8 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference OxfordDictionaryChristianChurch was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Sáenz-Badillos (1993), p. 170–171
  23. ^ "If you couldn't speak Greek by say the time of early Christianity you couldn't get a job. You wouldn't get a good job. A professional job. You had to know Greek in addition to your own language. And so you were getting to a point where Jews... the Jewish community in, say, Egypt and large cities like Alexandria didn't know Hebrew anymore, they only knew Greek. And so you need a Greek version in the synagogue." – Josheph Blankinsopp, Professor of Biblical Studies University of Notre Dame in A&E's Who Wrote the Bible
  24. ^ "Abraham Ben Isaac Ben Garton". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  25. ^ "Arabic Downgraded in Israel". Language Magazine. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  26. ^ Holmes, Oliver; Balousha, Hazem (19 July 2018). "'One more racist law': reactions as Israel axes Arabic as official language". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  27. ^ "'Kometz Aleph – Au': How many Hebrew speakers are there in the world?". Nachman Gur for Behadrey Haredim. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2013.
  28. ^ "Table 53. Languages Spoken at Home by Language: 2009", The 2012 Statistical Abstract, U.S. Census Bureau, archived from the original on 25 December 2007, retrieved 27 December 2011
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