Hebrew language
The Hebrew language, also referred to as the Hebraic language, is a Northwest Semitic language.
| 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 Eritrea (Only in israeli Milltary base) | |||
| Region | Southern Levant | |||
| 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]e19 | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Early forms: | ||||
| Standard forms | ||||
| Dialects | ||||
| Writing system | Hebrew alphabet Hebrew Braille Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (Archaic Biblical Hebrew) Imperial Aramaic script (Late Biblical Hebrew) Samaritan script (Samaritan Biblical Hebrew) | |||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in | Israel (as Modern Hebrew)[3] | |||
| Recognised minority language in | ||||
| 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) | |||
| Linguasphere | 12-AAB-a | |||
| ||||
Hebrew was spoken by Israelites a long time ago, during the time of the Bible. After Judah was conquered by Babylonia, the Jews were taken captive (prisoner) to Babylon and started speaking Aramaic. Hebrew was no longer used much in daily life, but it was still known by Jews who studied halakha.
In the 20th century, many Jews decided to make Hebrew into a spoken language again. It became the language of the new country of Israel in 1948. People in Israel came from many places and decided to learn Hebrew, the language of their common ancestors, so that they could all speak one language. Modern Hebrew has many differences from biblical Hebrew, including a lack of usage of many ancient words such as 'אל תקצוף עלי,' "Do not be angry with me" as in the biblical 'ויקצוף משה,' which would not be used today in that manner; with many loanwords from different languages. Modern Hebrew speakers can read the Five Books of Moses and a large percentage of the twenty-four Books of the Prophets, though by no means all. It should be noted that the accent of Hebrew and even the base pronunciation of many letters differs immensely from biblical to modern.
As of 2021, Hebrew has been the only dead language that had been made into a living language again.[12] This does not intend to imply though that it was not used throughout the generations as the Jewish Language for Holy religious books that were authored then, though they significantly vary from pure Hebrew to include a lot of Aramaic
The Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew.
Grammar
Hebrew is a Semitic language, like Arabic, a similar language. Hebrew words are made by combining a root with a pattern. In Israeli Hebrew, some words are translated from European languages like English, French, German, and Russian. Many words from the Old Testament were given new meanings in Israeli Hebrew.[13] People learning Hebrew need to study the grammar first so that they can read correctly without vowels.
In Israeli Hebrew, there is no verb "to be" in the present tense, only in the future and the past tenses. In Biblical Hebrew, there are no tenses but only two aspects: imperfect and perfect. The imperfect is something like the future and the present tenses. The perfect is something like the past tense.
Mishnaic Hebrew was spoken as well as Judeo-Aramaic at the time of Jesus and at the time of the Bar-Kokhba revolt (2nd century AD) until the Byzantine Empire of Justinian (6th century AD).
The Hebrew alphabet has been adapted to write Yiddish, another Jewish language. However, Yiddish is different from Hebrew because Yiddish comes from a mix of German, Hebrew, and other languages.
Alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet, also known as the Hebrew abjad, has 22 letters.[14] Five of them change when they are at the end of a word. Hebrew is read and written from right to left.[15] The first three letters, aleph, beth and gimel, are also used in mathematics in the context of transfinite numbers.[16]
The Hebrew alphabet is an abjad and so only the consonants are written, and readers must supply the vowels. Since that can be difficult, the vowels can be marked as dots called niqqud. In Modern Hebrew, some letters can denote vowels, which are called matres lectionis (mothers of the reading) since they greatly help reading. Vav can make the 'oo' sound (/u/ in IPA) like in food. Yod can make the 'ee' sound (/i/ in IPA) like in feed.
| Aleph* | Bet | Gimel | Dalet | He | Vav | Zayin | Khet | Tet | Yud | Kaph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| א | ב | ג | ד | ה | ו | ז | ח | ט | י | כ |
| ך | ||||||||||
| Lamed | Mem | Nun | Samekh | Ayin | Pe | Tsadi | Kuf | Resh | Shin | Tav |
| ל | מ | נ | ס | ע | פ | צ | ק | ר | ש | ת |
| ם | ן | ף | ץ |
*All letter pronunciations given here are the Modern Hebrew pronunciations. According to many, some of the ancient pronunciations are approximately as follows: Aleph, Beith, Gimel-Ghimel (Yemenites have a different tradition), Daleth-Dhaleth, Hey, Waw, Zayin, Hkheith, ?, Yodh, Kaph-Khaph, Lamedh, Mem, Nun, Samekh, Aughyhin (from different place in the throat than aleph), Pey-Phey, ?, Qoph, ?, Shin-Sin, Tow-Thow.
Hebrew Language Media
The Shebna Inscription, from the tomb of a royal steward found in Siloam, dates to the 7th century BCE.
Hebrew script used in writing a Torah scroll. Note ornamental "crowns" on tops of certain letters.
Hebrew Alphabet in Rashi Script
A silver matchbox holder with inscription in Hebrew
Aleppo Codex: 10th century Hebrew Bible with Masoretic pointing (Joshua 1:1).
Kochangadi Synagogue in Kochi, India, dated to 1344
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
Hebrew, Arabic and English multilingual signs on an Israeli highway
Dual language Hebrew and English keyboard
Notes
Related pages
References
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This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the Hebrew language edition. |
- ↑ Sáenz-Badillos (1993)
- ↑ H. S. Nyberg 1952. Hebreisk Grammatik. s. 2. Reprinted in Sweden by Universitetstryckeriet, Uppsala, 2006.
- ↑ Basic Law: Israel – the Nation State of the Jewish People. The KnessetThe State of Israel. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
- ↑ Pisarek, Walery. The relationship between official and minority languages in PolandEuropean Federation of National Institutions for Language. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
- ↑ Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 – Chapter 1: Founding Provisions | South African Government. www.gov.za. Retrieved 2020-08-29.
- ↑ Yağmur, Kutlay. Turkish and other languages in Turkey. The Other Languages of Europe (2001). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. p. 407–427. ISBN 978-1-85359-510-3. Retrieved 2023-10-06.
- ↑ Zetler, Reyhan. Turkish Jews between 1923 and 1933 – What Did the Turkish Policy between 1923 and 1933 Mean for the Turkish Jews?. Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Judaistische Forschung (23) (2014). p. 26. OCLC 865002828. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ Toktaş, Şule. EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities (in en). East European Quarterly 40 (4) (2006). p. 489–519. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ Bayır, Derya. Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law (2013). Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. p. 89–90. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ Questions and Answers: Freedom of Expression and Language Rights in Turkey (April 2002). New York: Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ [6][7][8][9][10]
- ↑ Hebrew | Foreign Languages | Monroe Community College. www.monroecc.edu. Retrieved 2019-03-05.
- ↑ Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew (2003). England: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781403917232.
- ↑ Hebrew alphabet | writing system (in en). Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ↑ The Hebrew Alphabet (Aleph-Bet). www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ↑ Greek/Hebrew/Latin-based Symbols in Mathematics (in en-US). Math Vault (2020-03-20). Retrieved 2020-10-02.