Biblical Hebrew, also called Classical Hebrew, is an archaic form of the Hebrew language in which the Hebrew Bible and various Israelite inscriptions were written. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic See also History of ancient Israel and Judah According to the Bible, the Israelites were the dominant group living in the Land of Israel. It is believed to be the language which the ancient Israelites spoke.

It is not spoken in its pure form today, although it is often studied by religious Jews, Christian theologians, linguists, and Israeli archaeologists to help them gain a deeper understanding of the Hebrew Bible and Semitic philology. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Christian Theology is discourse concerning Christian faith Christian theologians use biblical Exegesis, rational analysis and argument Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields Archaeology, archeology, or archæology (from Greek grc ἀρχαιολογία archaiologia – grc ἀρχαῖος archaīos The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Classical Hebrew is also generally taught in public schools in Israel.

Biblical Hebrew can be read by anyone familiar with modern Hebrew. Biblical Hebrew and modern Hebrew differ with respect to grammar, vocabulary, and phonology. Although Modern and Biblical Hebrew's grammatical laws often differ, Biblical Hebrew is sometimes used in Modern Hebrew literature. Elements of Biblical Hebrew are also often used in conversation and in the Israeli media.

Contents 1 Definition 2 Descendant languages 3 Phonology 4 Historical sound changes 4.1 Consonantism 4.2 Vocalism 5 Resources 6 Notes 7 External links

Definition

This article describes the Biblical dialects of Hebrew. These flourished between the 12th and 6th centuries BCE and comprise all of the Hebrew Bible but for several Aramaic sections and isolated loanwords. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic

The precise meaning of the term Biblical Hebrew varies with context and may refer to any of the following:

• all Hebrew dialects found in the Hebrew Bible, including the Archaic Biblical, Biblical, and Late Biblical Hebrew dialects
• the Hebrew of only the corpus of the Hebrew Bible itself, not including other texts - such as inscriptions - that use related Hebrew dialects
• Tiberian Hebrew, also called Masoretic Hebrew, which is an early-medieval vocalization of the Hebrew Bible's ancient consonantal text

From a linguistic point of view, the Classical Hebrew language is usually divided into two periods: Biblical Hebrew, and Roman Era Hebrew, having very distinct grammatical patterns. Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct (yet very well documented Oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields

Biblical Hebrew is further divided into the so called 'Golden Age' Hebrew (before 500 BCE) and 'Silver Age' Hebrew (500 BCE to 60 BCE). Year 60 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar. Events By place Rome Gaius Julius Caesar suppressed an uprising and Silver Age Hebrew has many borrowings from Aramaic, for example the use of the conditional particle ˈilluː (אִלּוּ) replacing luː (לוּ). Aramaic is a Semitic language with Another shibboleth between the two, is the use of the relative pronoun ʔaˈʃer (אֲשֶר) (introducing a Restrictive clause, 'that') in the earlier period, being replaced with the clitic ʃe- (-שֶ) in the later, both being used in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew. Shibboleth (ˈʃɪbəlɛθ or ˈʃɪbələθ is any practice which is indicative of one's social or regional origin A relative pronoun is a Pronoun that marks a Relative clause within a larger sentence. In Linguistics, a clitic is a grammatically independent and phonologically dependent Word.

Roman Era Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew, was further influenced by Greek and Persian, mainly through the dialect of Aramaic which was the Lingua franca of the area at the time. The Roman Era is a period in Western history when Ancient Rome was the centre of power of the world around the Mediterranean Sea, where Latin was the The term Mishnaic Hebrew refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud, excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly Aramaic is a Semitic language with A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely

Modern adaptions of Classical Hebrew are in active use today, mostly in the form of various modern Jewish dialects of Hebrew, as well as Samaritan Hebrew language, which is used primarily by the Samaritans. Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of The Samaritan Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew as pronounced and written by the Samaritans It is used in the reading tradition of the Samaritan

As Biblical-Hebrew vocalization is derived from the Masoretic system applied to ancient texts, Biblical Hebrew is somewhat a mixture of these elements. It is the mixed language that is discussed in this article.

Most words in Biblical Hebrew are derived from a three letter root usually given in the Qal perfect 3rd masculine singular form. There are exceptions to this rule though most of these are loan words from non-semitic roots. For most English speaking readers who use the Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon it is this three letter root word that must be looked up to find a definition.

Descendant languages

• Samaritan Hebrew language (liturgical)
• Mishnaic Hebrew language (Jews)
• Tiberian Hebrew language (liturgical)
• Yemenite Hebrew language (liturgical)
• Sephardi Hebrew language (liturgical)
• Ashkenazi Hebrew language (liturgical)
• Modern Hebrew (State of Israel)

Phonology

The phonology as reconstructed for Biblical Hebrew is as follows (from Lambdin, with modifications):

Name	Letter	Phoneme and Allophone (IPA)
’āleph	א	/ʔ/
bêhṯh	ב	/b/ - [v] allophonically
gîmel	ג	/ɡ/ - [ɣ] allophonically
dāleṯ	ד	/d/ - [ð] allophonically
hē'	ה	/h/, null at the end of words. The Samaritan Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew as pronounced and written by the Samaritans It is used in the reading tradition of the Samaritan The term Mishnaic Hebrew refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud, excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible Judaism (from the Greek Ioudaïsmos, derived from the Hebrew יהודה Yehudah, " Judah " in Hebrew יַהֲדוּת Yahedut Tiberian Hebrew is an extinct (yet very well documented Oral tradition of pronunciation for ancient Hebrew, especially the Hebrew of the Tanakh, that was Yemenite Hebrew, also referred to as Temani Hebrew, is the pronunciation system for Biblical and liturgical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. Sephardi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Sephardi Jewish practice Ashkenazi Hebrew is the pronunciation system for Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew favored for liturgical use by Ashkenazi Jewish practice For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Thomas Oden Lambdin is one of the leading scholars of the Semitic and Egyptian languages
wāw	ו	/w/, null after /o/ or /u/
zayin	ז	/z/
Cḥehṯh '	ח	/ħ/
ṭēhṯh	ט	/tˁ/
yōhḏh	י	/j/, null after /ɛ/, /e/, or /i/
kaph	כ, ך	/k/ - [x] allophonically
lāmeḏh	ל	/l/
mēm	מ, ם	/m/
nûn	נ, ן	/n/
sāmeḵh Samaritam Sin´gath/Sin´kath	ס	/s/
‛ayin	ע	/ʕ/
pē'	פ, ף	/p/ - [f] allophonically
tṣāḏēh Samaritan tṣāḏ	צ, ץ	/sˁ/
qōph	ק	/kˁ/ (But Like /q/)
rēhšh	ר	/r/ (Prob. Trilled like Arabic. )
śîn/šhîn/Shin	ש	[ɬ], [ʃ]
tāw Samaritam tāph-Tāf	ת	/t/ - [θ] allophonically

Biblical Hebrew had a vowel system based on the cardinal vowels /i u e o a/, which occurred in short, long, and extra-long forms. Some follow Lambdin's use of macrons to mark long vowels and circumflexes to mark extra-long ones. A macron, from Greek el μακρόv ( makrón) meaning "long" is a Diacritic ¯ placed over or under a Vowel which was originally Pitch The circumflex accent was first used in the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, where it occurred (subject to certain rules on the accented syllable Aside from these vowels, there were also four "reduced", extra-short ones, ə, ă, ĕ, and ŏ (all but the schwa, /ə/ seem to have been allophonic). The International Phonetic Alphabet uses a Breve,, to indicate a speech sound (usually a Vowel) with less than normal duration In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme.

Historical sound changes

Consonantism

As Biblical Hebrew (BH) evolved from Proto-Semitic (PS) it underwent a number of mergers^[1],^[2]:

• PS */ð/ and */z/ merged as BH /z/
• PS */θ/ and */ʃ/ merged as BH /ʃ/
• PS */θˁ/, */ɬˁ/, and */sˁ/ merged as BH /sˁ/
• PS */ɣ/ and */ʕ/ merged as BH /ʕ/¹⁾
• PS */x/ and */ħ/ merged as BH /ħ/¹⁾
• PS */w/ and */j/ merged as BH /j/ in word-initial position; > Ø between vowels
• PS */ʕ/ > BH Ø (with compensatory lengthening) in the syllable coda
• PS *-/át/ > BH -/áː/ in the ending of the feminine; not in the status constructus). Proto-Semitic is the hypothetical Proto-language of the Semitic languages. Compensatory lengthening in Phonology and Historical linguistics is the lengthening of a Vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following Consonant In Phonology, a syllable coda comprises the Consonant sounds of a Syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a Vowel The status constructus or construct state is a Noun form occurring in Afro-Asiatic languages.
• PS */h/ > BH Ø between vowels in the pronominal suffix (with contraction, see below). Elision is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a Vowel, a Consonant, or a whole Syllable) in a word or phrase producing a result that is easier

1) Greek transcriptions (see also "Various names in Hebrew and Greek". ) provide evidence that Biblical Hebrew maintained the proto-Semitic consonants /ɣ/, /x/ for longer than the writing system might suggest. The term Hebrew Bible is a generic reference to those books of the Bible originally written in Biblical Hebrew (and the related Biblical Aramaic Thus ʿǍmōrāh (עֲמוֹרָה) is transcribed as Gómorrha (Γόμορρα) in Greek, whereas ʿĒḇer (עֵבֶר) is transcribed as Éber (Ἔβερ) with no intrusive g; since comparative Semitic evidence shows that proto-Semitic */ɣ/ and */ʕ/ both became ʿayin (ע) in later Hebrew, this suggests that the distinction was still maintained in Classical times. Eber ( עֵבֶר, Standard Hebrew ʿÉver, Tiberian Hebrew ʿĒḇer, Arabic: ھود is a person from the Hebrew For the village in Azerbaijan see Əyin. or is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Similarly Raħēl (רָחֵל) is transcribed as Rhakhḗl (Ῥαχήλ), whereas Yisˁħāq (יִצְחָק) becomes Isaák (Ἰσαάκ). Rachel (; meaning "ewe" is the second and favorite Wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph and Benjamin, first mentioned in the According to the Hebrew Bible, Isaac ( Hebrew: Yitzchak יִצְחָק, Standard Yiẓḥaq

Vocalism

• PS */á:/ > BH /o:/; in word-final position > /a:/ (Canaanite shift)
• PS */a:/ > BH /a:/
• PS */í:/ > BH /i:/ or, before ה ח ע, /i:^a/ (páṯaḥ furtivum);

in word-final position regularly > /ɛ:/

• PS */ú:/ > BH /u:/ or, before ה ח ע, /u:^a/(páṯaḥ furtivum)
• PS */ó:/ > BH /o:/
• PS */o:, u:/ > BH /u:/;

in an open syllable before a following */o:/ > BH /i:/

• PS */a, i, u/ > Ø in word-final position
• PS */a, i, u/ in open unstressed syllables > Ø ("šəwa mobile") two or more syllables before the stressed syllable;

before or after א ה ח ע > /^a/ ("ḥāṭēp̄ pátaḥ") or, if the adjacent syllable has /^{e, ɛ}/ or /^{o, ɔ}/, /^ɛ/ ("ḥāṭēp̄ s^eḡōl") and / ^ɔ/ ("ḥāṭēp̄ qāmeṣ") respectively;

in verbs also in the second syllable of the word if the following syllable is stressed;

in nouns in the second syllable of status constructus > /^ə/ (the consonant carrying the š^eəwa is marked with "dāḡēš dirimens" or the following consonant is fricative, indicating that it was preceded by a vowel). In Historical linguistics, the Canaanite shift is a Sound change that took place in the Canaanite dialects, which belong to the Northwest Semitic In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral

• PS */á/ > BH /a:/ in open syllables (sometimes /a/, /ɛ/)
• PS */a/ > BH Ø;

immediately before the stress > /a:/ (”qāmeṣ antetonicum”);

in closed syllables > /i/

• PS */í, ú/ > BH /e:, o:/ or, before ה ח ע, /e:^a, o:^a/ ("páṯaḥ furtivum");

in closed syllables in verbal forms > /e, o/ or, before ה ח ע, /a/;

in syllables that were closed already in Proto-Semitic > /a/ ("Philippi’s law")

• PS */i/ > BH /i/ or, before or after ה ח ע, /a/;

immediately before the stress > /e:/ ("ṣērē antetonicum")

• PS */u/ > BH Ø ("š^eəwa mobile") or /^ɔ/ (”ḥāṭēp̄ qāmeṣ”);

in closed syllables > /ɔ/ ("qāmeṣ qāṭān") or, before a geminated consonant, /u/

• PS */áw/ > BH /a:w/
• PS */aw/ > BH /o:/
• PS */áy/ > BH /ay/ or in an open syllable, /e:/ or, in word-final position, /ɛ:/
• PS */ay/ > BH /e:/
• Contractions after loss of PS */h/ in the pronominal suffix:

*/-a-hu:/ > /-o:/

*/-a-ha:/ > /-a:/

*/-a-hɛm/ > /-a:m/

*/-e:-hɛm/ > /-e:m/

*/-i:-hu:/ > /-i:w/

*/-i:-hɛm/ > /-i:m/

*/-u:-hɛm/ > /-u:m/

*/-ay-hu:/ > /-a:w/

Resources

• Bonnie Pedrotti Kittel, Vicki Hoffer, and Rebecca Abts Wright, Biblical Hebrew: A Text and Workbook Yale Language Series; New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1989.
• Kautzsch, E. (ed. Emil Friedrich Kautzsch ( September 4 1841 &ndash May 7 1910) was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic ) Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. Eng. ed. A. E. Cowley. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910.
• Lambdin, Thomas O. Introduction to Biblical Hebrew. Thomas Oden Lambdin is one of the leading scholars of the Semitic and Egyptian languages London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1971.
• Würthwein, Ernst. The Text of the Old Testament (trans. Erroll F. Rhodes) Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eardmans Publishing. 1995. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7.

Notes

1. ISBN 1-56563-206-0 Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon by Francis Brown, S. Driver, C. Briggs

External links

• History of the Hebrew Language
  • History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language, David Steinberg
  • Biblical Hebrew Poetry and Word Play - Reconstructing the Original Oral, Aural and Visual Experience
  • Short History of the Hebrew Language, Chaim Rabin

• Grammar and Vocabulary
  • Basic Biblical Hebrew Grammar (introductory)
  • The Kittel Hebrew Words Database (Second Ed.) Learn by use of flashcards 490 important Biblical Hebrew words. Chaim Menachem Rabin (חיים מנחם רבין 1915 - 1996 was an Israeli professor of Hebrew and Semitic languages.
  • Learn to write the Hebrew characters

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