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Hebrew

עברית שומרונית

he

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Hebrew is a West Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Hebrews/Israelites and their ancestors. Other Jewish languages originated among diaspora Jews. The Hebrew language was also used by non-Jewish groups, such as the ethnically related Samaritans. Hebrew had ceased to be an everyday spoken language by around 200 CE, and survived into the medieval period only as the language of Jewish liturgy and rabbinical literature. Then in the 19th century it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and according to Ethnologue, is now the language of 5.3 million people worldwide, mainly in Israel. Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of Israel (the other being Arabic), while Classical Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world. The earliest examples of written Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE . After the Second Temple period, the language developed into Mishnaic Hebrew. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular—although today only about 700 Samaritans remain. 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, and in Christian seminaries. The Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), and most of the rest of 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 (לֶשׁוֹן הֲקוֹדֶשׁ), The Holy Language, since ancient times.
Source : DBpedia

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This page is providing structured data for the language Hebrew.
Following BCP 47 the recommended tag for this language is he.

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