Hebrew language

Hebrew
עִבְרִית Ivrit
Pronunciation standard Israeli: [(ʔ)ivˈʁit] - [(ʔ)ivˈɾit],
standard Israeli (Sephardi): [ʕivˈɾit],
Iraqi: [ʕibˈriːθ],
Yemenite: [ʕivˈriːθ],
Ashkenazi: [ˈivʀis]
Spoken in Israel
Global (as a liturgical language for Judaism), in West Bank, and Gaza
Total speakers Total Speakers < 9,000,000
 Israel
First Language 5,300,000 (2009);
Second Language 2,000,000 - 2,200,000 (2009)
 United States
Home Language 200,000 (approx.) in the United States speak Hebrew at home¹

¹United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home: 2000. Table 1a.PDF (11.8 KB)

Palestinian territories Second Language 500,000 - 1,000,000

Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s

Ranking 77
Language family Afro-Asiatic

• Semitic
  • West Semitic
    • Central Semitic
      • Northwest Semitic
        • Canaanite
          • Hebrew

Writing system Hebrew alphabet
Official status
Official language in  Israel
Regulated by Academy of the Hebrew Language
האקדמיה ללשון העברית (HaAkademia LaLashon Ha‘Ivrit)
Language codes
ISO 639-1 he
ISO 639-2 heb
ISO 639-3 either:
heb – Modern Hebrew
hbo – Ancient Hebrew
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Hebrew (עִבְרִית, Ivrit, Hebrew pronunciation (help·info)) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered the Jewish language. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by most of the seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over two thousand years. It is one of the official languages of Israel, along with Arabic. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Palestinian Arabic is their vernacular, though today about 700 Samaritans remain. As a foreign language it is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and Israel, archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations, by theologians, and in Christian seminaries.

The core of the Torah (the Hebrew Bible) is written in Classical Hebrew, and much of its present form is specifically the dialect of Biblical Hebrew that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, around the time of the Babylonian exile. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon HaKodesh (לשון הקודש), "The Holy Language", since ancient times.

The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "ivri" (plural "ivrim") one of several names for the Jewish people. It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's ancestor, Eber mentioned in Genesis 10:21. This name is possibly based upon the root "`avar" (עבר) meaning "to cross over" and homiletical interpretations of the term "ivrim" link it to this verb. In the Bible, "Hebrew" is called Yehudith (יהודית) because Judah (Yehuda) was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation, late 8th century BCE (Is 36, 2 Kings 18). In Isaiah 19:18, it is also called the "Language of Canaan" (שְׂפַת כְּנַעַן).

Phonology

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Consonants

The Hebrew word for consonants is ‘itsurim (עיצורים). The following table lists the Hebrew consonants and their pronunciation in IPA transcription:

Consonants
Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryn-
geal
Bilabial Labio-
Dental Dental Alveolar Post-
alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal       m           n        
Plosive p   b     t   d     k   g   ʔ
Affricate       ts      tʃ    dʒ      
Fricative   f   v   s   z ʃ    ʒ     χ ʁ

h    

Approximant              j      w  
Lateral Approximant        l        

Begadkefat

The pairs /b, v/, /k, x/ and /p, f/ have historically been allophonic – as seen still today in some inflections, such as ערב ← ערביים /ˈerev/ → /arˈbajim/ ("evening" → "twilight"), מלך ← מלכה /ˈmeleχ/ → /malˈka/ ("king" → "queen"), אלף ← אלפית /ˈelef/ → /alˈpit/ ("a thousand" → "a thousandth") – as a consequence of the phenomenon of spirantization known as "begadkefat". In Modern Hebrew, however, all six sounds are sometimes phonemic; comprae e.g. פִּסְפֵּס /pisˈpes/ "striped" and פִסְפֵס /fisˈfes/ "missed", הִתְחַבֵּר /hitχaˈber/ "connected" and הִתְחַבֵר /hitχaˈver/ "befriended" or לככב "to star", whose common pronunciation /lekaˈχev/ preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: כּוֹכָב /koˈχav/ "a star" (first plosive, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation /leχaˈkev/, which regards the variation in pronunciation of kaf /χ/ ←→ /k/ as allophonic and determines its manner of articulation according to historical phonological principles. This phonemic divergence might be due to mergers involving formerly distinct sounds (historical pronunciation /w/ of vav merging with fricative bet, becoming /v/, historical pronunciation /q/ of kuf merging with plosive kaf, becoming /k/, and historical pronunciation /ħ/ of het merging with fricative kaf, becoming /x/), loss of consonant gemination, which formerly distinguished the stop members of the pairs from the fricatives when intervocalic – e.g. in the inflections קפץ ← קיפץ /kaˈfats/ → /kiˈpets/, historically /kiˈppets/ ("jumped" → "hopped"), שבר ← שיבר /ʃaˈvar/ → /ʃiˈber/, historically /ʃiˈbber/ ("broke" → "shattered"), שכן ← שיכן /ʃaˈχan/ → /ʃiˈken/, historically /ʃiˈkken/ ("resided" → "housed") – and the introduction of syllable-initial /f/ (e.g. פברק /fibˈrek/) "fabricated") and non-syllable-initial /p/ (e.g. הפנט /hipˈnet/) "hipnotized") and /b/ (e.g. ג׳וב /dʒob/) "job") through foreign borrowings.

Varieties of ayin

ע was once pronounced as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Most modern Ashkenazi Jews do not differentiate between א and ע; however, many Mizrahi Jews and most Arabs pronounce these phonemes. Georgian Jews pronounce it as a glottalized^{[clarification needed]} q. Western European Sephardim and Dutch Ashkenazim traditionally pronounce it [ŋ] (like ng in sing) – a pronunciation which can also be found in the Italian tradition and, historically, in south-west Germany. (The remnants of this pronunciation are found throughout the Ashkenazi world, in the name "Yankl" and "Yanki", diminutive forms of Jacob, Heb. יעקב.)

Historical sound changes

Standard (non-Oriental) Israeli Hebrew (SIH) has undergone a number of splits and mergers in its development from Biblical Hebrew.

• BH /b/ had two allophones, [b] and [v]; the [v] allophone has merged with /w/ into SIH /v/
• BH /k/ had two allophones, [k] and [x]; the [k] allophone has merged with /q/ into SIH /k/, while the [x] allophone has merged with /ħ/ into SIH /χ/
• BH /t/ and /tˤ/ have merged into SIH /t/
• BH /ʕ/ and /ʔ/ have usually merged into SIH /ʔ/, but this distinction may also be upheld in educated speech of many Sephardim and some Ashkenazim
• BH /p/ had two allophones, [p] and [f]; the incorporation of loanwords into Modern Hebrew has probably resulted in a split, so that /p/ and /f/ are separate phonemes.

Dagesh

Hebrew also has dagesh, a phonological process of consonant strengthening that is indicated in fully pointed texts by a dot placed in the center of a consonant. There are two kinds of strengthenings: light (kal, known also as dagesh lene) and heavy (hazak or dagesh forte). The light version applies to the phonemes /b/ /k/ /p/ (historically, also /ɡ/, /d/ and /t/), causing them to be pronounced as stops rather than fricatives, and operates when the dagesh occurs in the beginning of a word or after a consonant (i.e. a silent shva). The heavy dagesh occurs after vowels and applies to all consonants except gutturals and /r/, originally causing them to be pronounced as geminate (doubled) consonants; it also selects the stop allophone of /b/, /k/, /p/, etc. (In Modern Hebrew, gemination has disappeared, and the hence the heavy dagesh has a phonological effect only on /b/ /k/ /p/, affecting them the same as the light dagesh.) Traditional Hebrew grammar distinguishes two sub-categories of the heavy dagesh according to their historical origin: structural heavy (hazak tavniti) and complementing heavy (hazak mashlim). . Structural heavy dagesh corresponds to consonant doubling that was inherited from Proto-Semitic, and occurs in certain verb conjugations and noun patterns (mishkalim and binyanim; see the section on grammar below). Complementing heavy dagesh corresponds to consonant doubling that arose within Hebrew as a result of consonant assimilation, most commonly of an /n/ to a following consonant (e.g. Biblical Hebrew /attā/ "you (m. sg.)" vs. Classical Arabic /anta/).