Semitic language of the Northern Central (also called Northwestern) group; it is closely related to Phoenician and Moabite, with which it is often placed by scholars in a Canaanite subgroup. Spoken in ancient times in Palestine, Hebrew was supplanted...

Semitic language spoken until the third century BC in Palestine (Biblical Hebrew), written language of the Mishnaic texts (‘Rabbinical Hebrew,’ approx. 200 BC), Medieval Hebrew from the sixth century until the thirteenth, today the national...

(Hebrew: Ivrit) The primary language of the Jewish people in the State of Israel and of Judaism throughout the world; used for Scripture, prayer, and study. It is attested to 1100 B.C.E. and evolved in three phases: biblical Hebrew (1100–1000...

Semitic language that is both a sacred language of Judaism and a modern vernacular in Israel. Like Aramaic, to which it is closely related, Hebrew has a documented history of nearly 3,000 years. The earliest fully attested stage of the language is...

The language of the ancient Israelites. Hebrew is a Semitic language. Although it was superseded by *Aramaic by the *Jews in c.2nd Century BCE, it continued to be used for the liturgy and for *Scroll reading. *Yiddish became the vernacular language of...

‘Kindhearted Leventhal, you deep Hebrew…’ says a character in Saul Bellow’s The Victim. The vocative is unusual in a modern text, though there is some justification in using it as a synonym for ‘Jew’. More frequently...

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1United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home: 2000. Table...