El hebreo (en hebreo: עִבְרִית, rom.: ʿivrit, pron.: [ʔivˈʁit] o [ʕivˈɾit]) es una lengua semítica de la familia afroasiática hablada, escrita y leída por más de seis millones de personas en Israel y por las comunidades judías de la Diáspora, que comprenden más de 80 países. Desde la Antigüedad, el hebreo es la lengua escrita, litúrgica y de oración empleada por el judaísmo, donde funciona como lengua sacra; consecuentemente allí se la denomina לשון הקודש (lashon ha-Kodesh, ‘lengua de lo sagrado’). Según la tradición israelita, el hebreo es la lengua escogida por Dios para transmitir su mensaje a la humanidad, de ahí que se la suela denominar lashon ha-Kodesh. Desde la Antigüedad, y más allá de haber sido o no permanentemente hablada a lo largo de sus más de tres milenios de existencia, el hebreo se mantiene e incluso renueva como un importante elemento común y de cohesión en lo que concierne a las diferentes comunidades judías, ya se encuentren en Israel o fuera de dicho país. El idioma hebreo es, junto con el árabe, idioma oficial del Estado de Israel.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA

Hebrew (/ˈhiːbruː/; עברית, Ivrit [ʔivˈʁit] or [ʕivˈɾit] ) is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of which over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, although the language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Tanakh. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Hebrew had ceased to be an everyday spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and immigrants. It survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, mostly from Israel. Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel (the other being Modern Standard Arabic), while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. As a foreign language, it is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and Israel, and by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations, as well as by theologians in Christian seminaries. The Torah (the first five books), and most of the rest of the Hebrew Bible, is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form specifically in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, around the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh (לשון הקדש), "the Holy Language", since ancient times. The Hebrew language is the only living Canaanite language left. This is because it was revived as a spoken language in the 19th - 20th century

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA