Biblical Hebrew

It is largely accepted that there are three periods of Biblical Hebrew: Archaic Biblical Hebrew: represented by certain poems in the Pentateuch and the Prophets. Standard Biblical Hebrew: found in Biblical prose from Genesis through Second Kings. Late Biblical Hebrew: as seen in post-exilic books such as Ezra, Nehmiah, Daniel, and the Chronicles. There are seven … Continued

Inter-Biblical And Mishnaic Hebrew

Cairo Geniza The discovery of a cache of documents in the Cairo Geniza revolutionized Jewish Studies as an academic discipline. A few scholars had known about the Geniza collection even as early as the 1750s, but its significance was only discovered when a pair of English twin sisters, Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson, … Continued

Hebrew Throughout the Ages

The section below details the timeline of how the Hebrew language has developed over the past three thousand years. It includes Biblical Hebrew, Inter-Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew, Medieval Hebrew, and Modern Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew Inter-Biblical And Mishnaic Hebrew Mishnaic Hebrew Medieval Hebrew Modern Hebrew Biblical Hebrew It is largely accepted that there are … Continued

Stamp Dedicated to the Hebrew Language

The Israeli Philatelic Society and the Academy of the Hebrew Language have joined forces in issuing a new stamp dedicated to the Hebrew language. Designed by David Ben-Hador, its focus is a luxuriant seedling whose leaves spell the word “Ivrit.” Nurturing the seedling’s roots are the different historical strata of Hebrew and each root contains … Continued

Modern Hebrew

Mendele Mokher Sefarim (the pen name of Sholem Yakov Abramovich, 1836-1917) is often called the Creator of Modern Hebrew (as opposed to Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the Father of Modern Hebrew). Whereas Jews in Central Europe had turned away from Hebrew in expressing secular subjects in favor of the local vernacular, Jews in Eastern Europe did not … Continued

Medieval Hebrew

From the fifth century CE on, Hebrew was no longer used anywhere in the world as an everyday spoken language. However, it continued to be widely used as a literary language up until its modern revival as a spoken tongue. One instance in which Hebrew did continue to be spoken was among Jews traveling from … Continued

Mishnaic Hebrew

Following the destruction of the Second Temple, Mishnaic Hebrew filled the vacuum left by the demise of Biblical Hebrew. It also was the spoken language of the region, as is attested in the Bar-Kokhba letters written during the Second Jewish Revolt (132-135 CE). After the defeat of the Jews during the Second Jewish Wars, most … Continued

Hebrew Language

Hebrew throughout the ages Over the three millennia of its existence, several languages have left an imprint on Hebrew. Indeed, the story of Hebrew is essentially the political/cultural story of the Jewish people as a whole, until today. According to A History of the Hebrew Language by Prof. Eduard Yechezkel Kutscher (the main resource for … Continued

When Should Foreign Words Be Replaced By Hebrew Words?

Time and again we are asked why the Academy didn’t create Hebrew replacements for words such as technologia (“technology”), televizia (“television”), autobus (“bus”), and, of course, akademia (“academy”). Anyone who takes a look in the dictionaries of the Academy of the Hebrew Language will find many other foreign words such as elektronika(“electronics”), meteorologia (“meteorology”), psychologia … Continued

Archive of the Hebrew Language

From the beginning, the Historical Dictionary Project sought not only to produce a dictionary, but also to create an archive of the Hebrew language. In 2010, the Hebrew texts from the post-biblical period down through the 11th century were fully integrated into the computerized database. In this archive there are not only individual words, but … Continued

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