Hebrew language has been the language of the Jewish people throughout their history. It is one of the world’s oldest living languages. The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, is the greatest work of the Biblical Hebrew language. Today, Modern Hebrew is the main language of Israel. It is also learned as a second language in many nations of the world.
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asian family. It is derived from the same source as the Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic, and Akkadian languages. Like Arabic and Aramaic, Hebrew is written from right to left.
The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. Four of the letters have two pronunciations. Most of the letters are consonants, but some can represent a consonant or a vowel. Most vowel sounds are not normally written, but they may be indicated by a system of dots and lines, called vowel points. The Hebrew alphabet is also used to write other languages used by the Jews, such as Yiddish, Ladino, and Judeo-Arabic (see Yiddish language ).
Most Hebrew words contain roots of three consonants. New words can be made by using the consonants of an existing word in a new way.
Throughout history, different Jewish communities developed their own ways of pronouncing Hebrew words. In the United States, the two most common styles are the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic. Ashkenazic is based on German and Yiddish language traditions. Sephardic is similar to the Hebrew spoken in Israel.
Archaeologists have found Hebrew inscriptions that date as early as the 900’s B.C. Later documents show that Hebrew continued to be the written and spoken language until about A.D. 200 in what was then Judea. One such collection of manuscripts, known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, dates from the 200’s B.C. Another example, a collection of Jewish laws known as the Mishnah, was written down between A.D. 70 and 200.
In A.D. 135, Roman armies killed or scattered the Jews of Judea and renamed it Palestina, which later became Palestine. As a result, a Hebrew-speaking community no longer existed by about 200. For almost 1,700 years, Hebrew was not used as a native language. It was used only in writing and scholarly discussion. But in this period, its vocabulary was expanded to express new concepts in philosophy and science. In the late 1800’s, Jews from many nations began to settle in Palestine. Many started speaking Hebrew as their everyday language. Their children learned Hebrew as their native tongue.
See also Ashkenazim ; Hebrew literature ; Sephardim .
