Hebrew

The earliest Hebrew script was derived from a Phoenician script. The modern Hebrew script was developed from a script known as Proto-Hebrew/Early Aramaic. The earliest known writing in Hebrew dates from the 11th century BC.

Hebrew is a member of the Canaanite group of Semitic languages. It was the language of the early Jews, but from 586 BC it started to be replaced by Aramaic. By 70 AD use of Hebrew as an everyday language had largely ceased, but it continued to be used for literary and religious functions, as well as a lingua franca among Jews from different countries.

During the mid-19th century the first efforts were made to revive Hebrew as a everyday language. One man who played a major role in these efforts was Eliezer Ben Yehuda (1858-1922), who was the first to make exclusive use of Hebrew in his home, and encouraged the use of Hebrew among others, as well as its use in schools.

Today Hebrew is spoken by some 5 million people in Israel, where it is an official language along with Arabic. and a further 2 to 3 million people speak the language in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Palestinian West Bank and Gaza, Panama, the UK and USA.

Notable features

Type of writing system: abjad
Direction of writing: right to left in horizontal lines.
Number of letters: 22 consonants, plus final letters and diacritics
Used to write: Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish and many other Jewish languages.
Some letters (kaf, mem, nun, fe and tzadi) have a final form (sofit), which is used when they appear at the end of a word.
There are no separate numerals in Hebrew, instead standard western numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) are used.
Long vowels can be indicated by the letters alef, vav, and yod. Short vowels are not usually marked, except in the Bible, poetry and books for children and foreign learners.

The Hebrew script

Modern Israeli pronunciation

Hebrew script (Modern Israeli pronunciation)

Notes

het is officially pronounced [ħ], but many people pronounce it [x]
ʻayin is officially pronounced [ʕ], but many people pronounce it [ʔ]

Hebrew script (Medieval/Tiberian and Reconstructed mid-2nd millenium pronunciation)

Hebrew vowel points / Nikkud (נִקּוּד טְבֶרְיָנִי)

Hebrew vowel points

The first row of IPA transcriptions is the Modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation,
the second row is the Medieval/Tiberian pronunciation.

Modern Cursive Hebrew script

Rashi

The Rashi style is used mainly to write commentaries on texts. It is named after Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105 AD) a.k.a. Rashi, one of the greatest medieval Jewish scholars and bible commentators. Rashi did not use the Rashi sytle to write his commentaries but it is named in honour of him.

Rashi Hebrew script

Sample texts in Hebrew

Without vowels

Sample text in Hebrew

With vowels

Sample text in Hebrew (with vowels)

Cursive script

Sample text in Hebrew (cursive script

Listen to a recording of this text by גל ויסברג (Gal Weisberg)

Transliteration

Kol benei ha'adam noldu benei xorin veshavim be'erkam uvizxuyoteihem. Kulam xonenu batevuna uvematspun, lefixax xova 'aleihem linhog ish bere'ehu beruax shel axava.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Corrections and text samples provided by Tal Barnea.

Useful phrases in Hebrew

Hebrew language courses, dictionaries, etc.

Links

Free Hebrew fonts
http://www.student.northpark.edu/pemente/hebfonts.htm
http://babel.uoregon.edu/yamada/fonts/hebrew.html
http://oketz.com/fonts/

Online Hebrew courses
http://www.hebrewonline.com
http://home.t-online.de/home/Mordechai-Pasternak
http://www.hebrewresources.com/onlineclass.html
http://www.hebrewcollege.edu/online
http://www.zigzagworld.com/hebrewforme
http://www.hebraico.pro.br (em português)
http://www.shalom.50megs.com
http://foundationstone.com.au
http://www.learn-hebrew.co.il
http://www.hebrewpodcasts.com
http://www.my-hebrew-dictionary.com

Basic Biblical Hebrew Grammar
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/grammar.html

Hebrew Translation

Our Price:$10.00

Learn Hebrew Verbs
http://www.hebrew-verbs.co.il

Online Hebrew dictionaries
http://www.dictionary.co.il
http://www.milon.co.il

Hebrew Electronic talking dictionaries
http://www.ectaco.com

Online Hebrew radio
http://bet.iba.org.il

Online Hebrew news
http://www.haaretz.co.il

The J Site - Jewish Education & Entertainment Site - includes a Hebrew Songbook, various games and other stuff: http://www.J.co.il

Mikledet - enables you to write Hebrew, send Hebrew emails, and search the Internet in Hebrew word, without needing a Hebrew keyboard
http://www.mikledet.com/email.html

My Hebrew Name - find your name in Hebrew (no special fonts required)
http://www.my-hebrew-name.com

Send emails in Hebrew using without Hebrew software
http://www.mikledet.com/email.html

Wikipedia in Hebrew (ויקיפדיה)
http://he.wikipedia.org

National Center for the Hebrew Language
http://www.ivrit.org

Academy of the Hebrew Language / האקדמיה ללשון העברית
http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il

Ancient Hebrew Research Center - includes lessons in Biblical Hebrew
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/

Hebrew learning resources
http://www.hebrewlanguage.biz

Jewish Language Research Website
http://www.jewish-languages.org

ALPHABETUM is a Unicode font specifically designed for ancient languages that includes Hebrew, and many other ancient scripts
http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/~jmag0042/alphabet.html

Other languages written with the Hebrew script

Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish

Other consonant alphabets (abjads)

Ancient Berber, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandaic, Manichaean, Middle Persian, Nabataean, Parthian, Phoenician, Proto-Hebrew, Psalter, Punic, Sabaean, Samaritan, Sogdian, South Arabian, Syriac, Tifinagh, Ugaritic

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