Hebrew language

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The Hebrew language is a Semitic language. It is the language of Israel.

The language was spoken by Israelites in very old Israel during the time of the Bible. After Judah was conquered by Babylonia, the Jews were taken captive to Babylon and started speaking Aramaic. Hebrew was no longer used as much in day-to-day life, but it was still known by Jews who studied religious books.

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 so they could all speak one language.

Hebrew is close to the Arabic 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. People learning Hebrew need to study the grammar first in order to 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 is the Hebrew spoken as well as Judeo-Aramaic in the time of Jesus and in the time of the Bar-Kokhba revolt (2nd century AD), until the Byzantine Empire of Justinian (6th century AD).

[change] Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. Five of these letters change when they are at the end of a word.

Aleph	Bet/Vet	Gimel	Dalet	He	Vav	Zayin	Khet	Tet	Yod	Kaf/Khaf
א	ב	ג	ד	ה	ו	ז	ח	ט	י	כ
										ך
Lamed	Mem	Nun	Samekh	Ayin	Pe/Fe	Tsadi	Kuf	Resh	Shin/Sin	Tav
ל	מ	נ	ס	ע	פ	צ	ק	ר	ש	ת
	ם	ן			ף	ץ