Hebrew

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A language of Israel

Alternate Names
Contemporary Hebrew, Israeli, Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew
Autonym
עִבְרִית חֲדָשָׁה‎ (ivrít ḥadašá[h]), עברית‎ (Ivrit)
User Population

8,300,000 in Israel, all users. L1 users: 5,000,000 in Israel (Leclerc 2018a). Spoken by all Israelis as L1 or L2. Some who use it as L1 now in Israel learned it as L2 originally. L2 users: 3,300,000 (2018). Total users in all countries: 9,387,050 (as L1: 6,087,050; as L2: 3,300,000).

Location

Widespread.

Language Status

1 (National). Statutory national language (1922, Palestine Order in Council, Article 82, 10 October).

Dialects

Standard Hebrew (Europeanized Hebrew, General Israeli), Oriental Hebrew (Arabized Hebrew, Yemenite Hebrew). An amalgamation of different Hebrew strata plus intrinsic linguistic evolution.

Typology

SVO; prepositions; noun head initial; gender (masculine/feminine); definite article prefixed to noun; verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; tense; comparatives; 22 consonants, 5 vowels, 4 diphthongs; non-tonal.

Language Use

Religious use (within the Jewish community) and everyday language.

Language Development

Fully developed. NT: 1537–2010. Agency: The Academy of the Hebrew Language.

Writing

Braille script [Brai]. Hebrew script [Hebr], primary usage.

Other Comments

Biblical Hebrew continued to be used as a liturgical and literary language for many centuries. Hebrew was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th centuries, principally through the work of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Of the Canaanite languages, Modern Hebrew is the only language spoken today. Jewish.

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