the Berasit Hebrew Dictionary

According to some definitions a dead language is one that has no native speakers. By another definition, a dead language is one that may have no native speakers but is nevertheless still in limited use for certain purposes such as religious texts or academic studies. By this definition, Hebrew was a dead language for nearly 2,000 years, from the second century BCE to the late 19th century CE.

Several factors led to the decline of Hebrew as a spoken language. According to some sources, it had been in a slow decline since possibly 200 BCE, but ultimately met its fate during the Jewish–Roman_wars, culminating in the Bar Kokhba revolt in 136 CE, which resulted in a crushing defeat and ultimately a mass Roman enslavement of the Jews.

After the wars, the Jewish culture was ground under the heel of the Romans. Many Jewish settlements were destroyed, and many Jews exiled from their homeland, with the Romans imposing harsh restrictions on Jewish cultural practices. As a consequence, many Jews adopted Aramaic, Greek, or Latin as their primary languages. However, despite the efforts of Rome, the Hebrew language was never completely extinct, for though it was forced underground, it was preserved and used secretly by many Jewish communities around the world for religious ceremonies prayers, and private literary reading.

It is important to note that by the second century CE the Hebrew language now existed only in a stripped down and static form, encapsulated in the holy books and other religious educational literature.

During this early period, the language was saved only by the written word, but due to natural linguistic evolution and aided by the widespread immigration of the Jews, a wide variety of accents and pronunciation variants came to exist withing the language, and the verbal language became somewhat less standardized.

The stilted usage of the language necessitated a variety of explicit programs to encourage literacy within the populace. The Masoretes devised a clever system of diacritics in an attempt to aid in memorization of the holy scriptures

For example, from the 10th to 14th centuries, there was an explosion of secular Hebrew poetry in Andalusia, Spain2. Some Jews also exchanged messages in Hebrew, sometimes for business or legal matters3. Hebrew also influenced the formation of new languages like Yiddish, which mixed Hebrew, German, and Slavic languages2.

In the late 19th century, a movement to revive Hebrew as a spoken language began, led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, a linguist and Zionist activist. But the new Hebrew was markedly different from the ancient language. Ben-Yehuda and his followers created new words, grammar rules, and pronunciation guides for modern Hebrew, based on the ancient and medieval sources, and added many borrow words from other languages.

They encouraged Jewish immigrants to Palestine to adopt Hebrew as their common language, and established schools, newspapers, and institutions that used Hebrew. By the time Israel declared its independence in 1948, Hebrew was one of its official languages, along with Arabic. Today, Hebrew is spoken by about nine million people, mostly in Israel, but also in Jewish communities around the world.

So, to summarize, Hebrew was once a dead language, but it was revived and is now a living language. It is a unique example of language revival in history, and a testament to the resilience and creativity of the Jewish people.

The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language began in the late 19th century, as part of the Zionist movement, which aimed to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine2. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, a linguist and Zionist activist, is considered the father of modern Hebrew, as he and his followers created new words, grammar rules, and pronunciation guides for modern Hebrew, based on the ancient and medieval sources, as well as borrowing from other languages2. They also encouraged Jewish immigrants to Palestine to adopt Hebrew as their common language, and established schools, newspapers, and institutions that used Hebrew2. By the time Israel declared its independence in 1948, Hebrew was one of its official languages, along with Arabic2.

I hope this helps you understand more about the history of Hebrew. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. 😊

Learn more 1

en.wikipedia.org 2

en.wikipedia.org 3

nationalgeographic.com 4

wikilanguages.net 5

forward.com +3 more You earlier you said that it declined in the second century BCE, now you are saying 200 AD? that's a 400 year difference. Copilot I apologize for the confusion. I should have been more clear in my previous response. Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE1, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt, which was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea2. This revolt resulted in the destruction of many Jewish settlements, the exile of many Jews from their homeland, and the imposition of harsh restrictions on Jewish practices by the Romans2. As a consequence, many Jews adopted Aramaic, Greek, or Latin as their primary languages, depending on where they lived2. Hebrew became mainly a language of religion, literature, and scholarship, used by a minority of educated Jews2.

The second century BCE date that I mentioned earlier refers to the earliest possible time when Hebrew started to decline as a spoken language, not the final time. Some sources suggest that Hebrew was still used in daily life until the second century CE at the latest3. However, there is no definitive consensus on the exact date when Hebrew stopped being a spoken language, as different regions and communities may have had different rates of language change and preservation1. Therefore, the period between the second century BCE and the fourth century CE is a rough estimate of when Hebrew transitioned from a spoken language to a written language. I hope this clarifies the issue.