Hebrew language

Hebrew (Hebrew alphabet: עִבְרִית‎, ʿĪvrīt, pronounced [ivˈʁit] (listen) or [ʕivˈrit] (listen); Samaritan script: ࠏࠁࠓࠉࠕ; Paleo-Hebrew script: 𐤏𐤁𐤓‫𐤉𐤕) is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. It was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a spoken language by their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans, before dying out after 200 CE. However, it was largely preserved as a liturgical language, featuring prominently in Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Having ceased to be a dead language in the 19th century, today's Hebrew serves as the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival. It is the only non-extinct Canaanite language, and is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still spoken, with the other being Aramaic.[9][10]

Quick facts: Hebrew, Pronunciation, Native to, Region... ▼

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.
Pronunciation	Modern: [ivˈʁit] [note 1] Tiberian: [ʕivˈriθ] Biblical: [ʕibˈrit]
Native to	Israel
Region	Land of Israel
Ethnicity	Israelites; Jews and Samaritans
Extinct	Mishnaic 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]
Revival	Revived in the late 19th century CE. 9 million speakers of Modern Hebrew, of which 5 million are native speakers (2017)[4]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite Hebrew
Early forms	Biblical Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew Medieval Hebrew
Standard forms	Modern Hebrew
Writing system	Hebrew alphabet Hebrew Braille Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Archaic Biblical Hebrew) Imperial Aramaic script (Late Biblical Hebrew) Samaritan script (Samaritan Biblical Hebrew)
Signed forms	Signed Hebrew (oral Hebrew accompanied by sign)[5]
Official status
Official language in	Israel (as Modern Hebrew)[6]
Recognised minority language in	Poland[7] South Africa[8]
Regulated by	Academy of the Hebrew Language האקדמיה ללשון העברית (ha-akademyah la-lashon ha-ʿivrit)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	he
ISO 639-2	heb
ISO 639-3	Variously: heb – Modern Hebrew hbo – Classical Hebrew (liturgical) smp – Samaritan Hebrew (liturgical) obm – Moabite (extinct) xdm – Edomite (extinct)
Glottolog	hebr1246
Linguasphere	12-AAB-a
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The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE.[11] 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 הַקֹּדֶשׁ‎‎, 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. 'the language of Judah') 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.[12]

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.[13][14][note 3] Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants.[16] 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.[17] With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language, after which it became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine, and subsequently the lingua franca of the State of Israel with official status.

According to Ethnologue, Hebrew was spoken by five million people worldwide in 1998;[4] in 2013, it was spoken by over nine million people worldwide.[18] After Israel, the United States has the second-largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans).[19] Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while 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.