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As the Old Testament (known as the Tanakh) was written in Hebrew, Hebrew has been central to Judaism and Christianity for more than 2000 years.
The study of Hebrew occurred already in some grammatical notes in the Talmud and Midrash. The Masoretes continued the study as they fixed the text and vocalization of the Hebrew Bible. Under the influence of Arab grammarians, Rabbi Saadia Gaon (tenth century) made the Jewish study of Hebrew grammar almost scientific. Later Jewish grammarians include David Qimhi (known as the Radak), Abraham ibn Ezra and Judah ben David Hayyuj.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is the main revivalist of Hebrew as a modern spoken language, although in his book Language in Time of Revolution, Israeli scholar Benjamin Harshav diminishes Ben-Yehuda's role and attributes the success of the revival to a wider movement in the Jewish society.
The first major non-Jewish grammarian was John Reuchlin (16th century), but it was not until the early 19th century that Hebrew linguistics was studied in a secular, scientific way. The pioneer of this movement was Wilhelm Gesenius, who published thirteen editions of his Hebräische Grammatik. After Gesenius' death in 1842, the 14th through 21st editions were published by E. Rödiger, and the 22nd through 28th editions by Emil Kautzsch. Many of these editions were translated into English. The 28th edition was published in 1910 by A. E. Cowley and is known today simply as Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar . It became the standard Hebrew reference grammar, and although it is somewhat outdated by newer works, it is still widely used in the field in the 21st century.
The largest compendium of Hebrew grammatical material is König's Historisch-Kritisches Lehrgebäude der Hebräischen Sprache (1881-97).
Paul Joüon's Grammaire de l'hébreu biblique (1923) was recently edited and translated into English by Takamitsu Muraoka as A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (1991; revised edition 2006). Muraoka made this into the most complete and up-to-date reference grammar. Also modern is Rudolf Meyer's Hebräische Grammatik (1966-72), but it is not quite as thorough as Joüon-Muraoka. Of note as well is Mayer Lambert's Traité de grammaire hébraïque (1931).
The most thorough, well-organized, and analytically incisive Hebrew grammar is the 29th edition of Gesenius' grammar by Gotthelf Bergsträsser. However, the author only managed to complete the sections on Phonology (1918) and the Verb (1929) before his untimely death. Although other grammars are more current, Bergsträsser's is unsurpassed due to its depth and insight. Another excellent grammar is Hans Bauer and Pontus Leander's Historische Grammatik der Hebräischen Sprache des Alten Testaments (1917-22) although it, too, lacks syntax. Neither grammar has been translated into English, although Bergsträsser's has been translated into Hebrew (Jerusalem, 1972).
Modern Israeli scholars in the field of Hebrew linguistics include Naftali Herz Tur-Sinai, Chaim Menachem Rabin, E. Y. Kutscher, Shelomo Morag, Joshua Blau, Ze'ev Ben-Haim, Haiim B. Rosén, Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Elisha Qimron and Moshe Bar-Asher.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית) in modern Israel is the "Supreme Foundation for the Science of the Hebrew Language", founded by the Israeli Government in 1953. It is responsible for coining neologisms to keep up with today's rapidly changing society. It also has the "final say" concerning matters of spelling and grammar.
Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites, Judeans and their ancestors. It is the only Canaanite language still spoken and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language, and one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still spoken, the other being Aramaic.
Hebrew grammar is the grammar of the Hebrew language.
Amen is an Abrahamic declaration of affirmation first found in the Hebrew Bible, and subsequently in the New Testament. It is used in Jewish, Christian and Islamic worship, as a concluding word, or as a response to a prayer. Common English translations of the word amen include "verily", "truly", "it is true", and "let it be so". It is also used colloquially, to express strong agreement.
Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius was a German orientalist, lexicographer, Christian Hebraist, Lutheran theologian, Biblical scholar and critic.
Georg Heinrich August Ewald was a German orientalist, Protestant theologian, and Biblical exegete. He studied at the University of Göttingen. In 1827 he became extraordinary professor there, in 1831 ordinary professor of theology, and in 1835 professor of oriental languages. In 1837, as a member of the Göttingen Seven, he lost his position at Göttingen on account of his protest against King Ernst August's abrogation of the liberal constitution, and became professor of theology at the University of Tübingen. In 1848, he returned to his old position at Göttingen. When Hanover was annexed by Prussia in 1866, Ewald became a defender of the rights of the ex-king. Among his chief works are: Complete Course on the Hebrew Language, The Poetical Books of the Old Testament, History of the People of Israel, and Antiquities of the People of Israel. Ewald represented the city of Hanover as a member of the Guelph faction in the North German and German Diets.
Modern Hebrew, also known as Israeli Hebrew or Israeli, and generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew, is the standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. Spoken in ancient times, Ancient Hebrew, a member of the Canaanite branch of the Semitic language family, was supplanted as the Jewish vernacular by the western dialect of Aramaic beginning in the third century BCE, though it continued to be used as a liturgical and literary language. It was revived as a spoken language in the 19th and 20th centuries and is the official language of Israel; this is the kind of Hebrew used in modernized revisions of Bible in Hebrew language. Of the Canaanite languages, Modern Hebrew is the only language spoken today.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem of Givat Ram campus."
Biblical Aramaic is the form of Aramaic that is used in the books of Daniel and Ezra in the Hebrew Bible. It should not be confused with the Aramaic paraphrases, explanations and expansions of the Hebrew scriptures, which are known as targumim.
Menahem ben Saruq was a Spanish-Jewish philologist of the tenth century CE. He was a skilled poet and polyglot. He was born in Tortosa around 920 and died around 970. Menahem produced an early dictionary of the Hebrew language. For a time he was the assistant of the great Jewish statesman Hasdai ibn Shaprut, and was involved in both literary and diplomatic matters; his dispute with Dunash ben Labrat, however, led to his downfall.
Judah ben David Hayyuj was a Moroccan Jewish linguist. He is regarded as the father of scientific grammar of the Hebrew language. He was born in Fez, Morocco, about 945. At an early age he went to Cordoba, where he seems to have remained till his death, which occurred about 1000 CE.
The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and Palestine toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and written language used for daily life in Israel. The process began as Jews from diverse regions started arriving and establishing themselves alongside the pre-existing Jewish community in the region of Palestine in the first half of the nineteenth century, when veteran Jews in Palestine and the linguistically diverse newly arrived Jews all switched to use Hebrew as a lingua franca, the historical linguistic common denominator of all the Jewish groups. At the same time, a parallel development in Europe changed Hebrew from primarily a sacred liturgical language into a literary language, which played a key role in the development of nationalist educational programs. Modern Hebrew was one of three official languages of Mandatory Palestine, and after the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948, one of two official languages of Israel, along with Modern Arabic. In July 2018, a new law made Hebrew the sole official language of the state of Israel, giving Arabic a "special status".
Emil Friedrich Kautzsch was a German Hebrew scholar and biblical critic, born at Plauen, Saxony.
Wilhelm Bacher was a Jewish Hungarian scholar, rabbi, Orientalist and linguist, born in Liptó-Szent-Miklós, Hungary to the Hebrew writer Simon Bacher. Wilhelm was himself a prolific writer, authoring or co-authoring approximately 750 works. He was a contributor to many encyclopedias, and was a major contributor to the landmark Jewish Encyclopedia throughout all its 12 volumes. Although almost all of Bacher's works were written in German or Hungarian, at the urging of Hayyim Nahman Bialik many were subsequently translated into Hebrew by Alexander Siskind Rabinovitz.
Friedrich Eduard König was a German Lutheran divine and Semitic scholar.
The Battalion for the Defence of the Language was a small but militant body established by Jewish students at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, Israel in the 1920s to urge Jews to use only the Hebrew language.
The pluralis excellentiae is the name given by early grammarians of Hebrew, such as Wilhelm Gesenius, to a perceived anomaly in the grammatical number and syntax in Hebrew. In some cases it bears some similarity to the pluralis maiestatis or "royal plural". However the idea of excellence is not necessarily present:
Of (c): the pluralis excellentiae or maiestatis, as has been remarked above, is properly a variety of the abstract plural, since it sums up the several characteristics belonging to the idea, besides possessing the secondary sense of an intensification of the original idea. It is thus closely related to the plurals of amplification, treated under e, which are mostly found in poetry.
Ghil'ad Zuckermann is an Israeli-born language revivalist and linguist who works in contact linguistics, lexicology and the study of language, culture and identity. Zuckermann is Professor of Linguistics and Chair of Endangered Languages at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is the president of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies.
Solomon Zalman ben Judah Loeb ha-Kohen Hanau (later known by the acronym Raza"h or Zalman Hanau, was a German Jewish expert in Hebrew grammar and critical textual critic of Jewish liturgy and prayer nussach.
Daniel Sivan is an Israeli Emeritus professor in the Department of Hebrew Language at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond is a scholarly book written by linguist and revivalist Ghil'ad Zuckermann. It was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. The book introduces revivalistics, a trans-disciplinary field of enquiry exploring "the dynamics and problematics inherent in spoken language reclamation, revitalization, and reinvigoration".
