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Hebrew translations
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Some facts about Hebrew language
Hebrew language, member of the Canaanite group of the West
Semitic subdivision of the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic
family of languages. Hebrew was the language of the Jewish
people in biblical times, and most of the Old Testament was
written in Hebrew. The oldest extant example of Hebrew writing
dates from the 11th or 10th cent. B.C. Hebrew began to die
out as a spoken tongue among the Jews after they were defeated
by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Well before the time of Jesus
it had been replaced by Aramaic as the Jewish vernacular,
although it was preserved as the language of the Jewish religion.
From A.D. 70, when the dispersion of the Jews from Palestine
began, until modern times, Hebrew has remained the Jewish
language of religion, learning, and literature. During this
2,000-year period, Hebrew has always been spoken to some extent.
At the end of the 19th cent. the Zionist movement brought
about the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, which culminated
in its designation as an official tongue of the state of Israel
in 1948. There it is spoken by most of the 4.5 million Jews
of that country.
Grammatically, Hebrew is typical of the Semitic tongues in
that so many words have a triconsonantal root consisting of
three consonants separated by vowels. Changes in, or omissions
of, the vowels alter the meaning of a root. Prefixes and suffixes
are also added to roots to modify the meaning. There are two
genders, masculine and feminine, which are found in the inflection
of the verb as well as in noun forms. Modern Hebrew has experienced
some changes in phonology, syntax, and morphology. Pronunciation
of various orthographical forms has changed, as well as the
rules for prefixing and suffixing prepositions to nouns and
pronouns. Ancient Hebrew seemed to favor a word order in which
the verb precedes the subject of a sentence, but in modern
Hebrew the subject typically precedes the verb. Hebrew vocabulary
has been updated by the addition of many new words, especially
words of a scientific nature.
The earliest alphabet used for Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite
branch of the North Semitic writing and is known as Early
Hebrew. Later the Jews adapted the Aramaic writing and evolved
from it a script called Square Hebrew, which is the source
of modern Hebrew printing. Most modern Hebrew handwritten
text uses a cursive script developed more recently. Today
the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, all consonants. Symbols
for the vowels were apparently introduced about the 8th cent.
A.D. and are usually placed below the consonants if employed.
Their use is generally limited to the Bible, verse, and children's
books. Hebrew is written from right to left.
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