Hebrew language

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. The core of 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. After the first Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, most scholars agree that the kind of Hebrew prevalent in the Hebrew Bible 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.

Related Topics:
Semitic language - Afro-Asiatic language family - Israel - Palestinian territories - United States - Jewish - Hebrew Bible - Torah - Christianity - Judaism - Moses - Classical Hebrew - Jew - Destruction of Jerusalem - 586 BCE - Mishnaic - Aramaic

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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.

Related Topics:
20th century - Arabic - Judezmo - Yiddish - Russian - Jewish diaspora - Jewish - Israel

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 (pronounced /iv'rit/ in the IPA).

Related Topics:
The State of Israel - IPA

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~