Hebrew is an ancient and unique language. Having survived centuries of history, it was finally revived as a modern language over years ago, and today is spoken in Israel and beyond. As the language of the bible, Hebrew continues to fascinate and interest people around the world. We bring you 11 facts you need to know about the Hebrew language. Hebrew is commonly considered to be a holy language lashon hakodesh — many ultra-orthodox will only use it for prayer.
Hebrew was originally a biblical language and after years was revived. It is now spoken as a modern language by over 9 million people. Although it was never actively spoken it never stopped being used as a written language. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew speaking population about , fluent speakers. Hebrew is written right to left, but numbers are written left to right.
The numbers used are exactly as in English, Arabic Numerals. The letters themselves, and pronunciations, can be learned in less than a week if you use the right strategy. We recommend using flashcards for learning the alphabet and practice writing basic words to get the hang of it. The problem is that there are no vowels. As mentioned earlier, Hebrew relies on the Niqqud vowel system. They are simply little dots placed around vowels and that give it sound.
In written form, you do not write the niqqudot. Children who learn Hebrew in Israel are taught to know the meaning of words based on memory. This might be difficult to grasp at first, but with practice it becomes easier. Pick up a dictionary or phrasebook almost all come with the niqqudot so you can pronounce each word , write down basic words and expressions, and try reading it without the vowels.
For instance in Arabic there are three cases which you need to keep track of when forming sentences. In Hebrew there are almost none still some cases where the accusative case is used but very rarely. Thank you very much for your patient explaination. I'm native Mandarin Chinese speaker. Dunno much, but Hebrew is much more uniform whereas "Arabic" alone doesn't even exist! There are hundreds of dialects of Arabic many of which are not mutually intelligible.
I've heard many people voice the opinion that "Arabic" is actually many different languages with the same name. Thanks again! As one might guess from that, common topics in the series are geared towards the largest demographic among students: those hoping for careers as future diplomats or intelligence analysts. Having said that, I have seen dedicated students, after three years of Al-Kitaab, move on to reading and translating classical philosophical and theological texts.
Hence, the most important take away is the solid foundation in grammar. In fact, the rules of Hebrew grammar were established and recorded in grammatical manuals, mostly in Al-Andalus, after the proliferation of Arabic grammatical manuals, which served as a reference. Based on that experience I can say the following:. I suspect that I am pretty typical among academics in that I use classical languages almost entirely to recognize key words or reconstruct original quotations and tags with an English translation to hand, not to do real philology or even real extended reading in the original.
Studying either Hebrew or Arabic hard for a year would allow you to do this, and I think it would be very useful. Why not just finish learning the Hebrew Alphabet right now, during the next hour you have to spare? Published by Adam Kotsko.
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