Wikijunior:Languages/Hebrew

What writing system(s) does this language use?
Hebrew uses a right-to-left abjad system. The Hebrew alphabet consists of twenty-two letters and five final letters, and is derived from the Aramaic alphabet, which in its turn came from the Phoenician alphabet, the source of most writing systems known today. In Hebrew (and other Semitic) writing, most vowels are optionally written as diacritics.

How many people speak this language?
Approximately 10 million people speak Hebrew. About 7 million of them live in Israel.

Where is this language spoken?
Modern Hebrew is spoken by many people all over the world and is the main language of Israel where it is the official language. Other countries with significant Hebrew speaking populations include Argentina, Belgium, The Netherlands, Brazil, Chile, Canada, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, Panama, United States and Uruguay.

What is the history of this language?
Hebrew is a very old language with ancestral links to Aramaic and Arabic. It was the language used to write most of the Jewish Bible, and was spoken in the Middle East. Hebrew stopped being a spoken everyday language when it was replaced by Aramaic, but continued to be used in the reading of the Jewish Bible texts and prayers. By the modern period, Hebrew had ceased to be the mother tongue of the Jewish people because many Jews had left Israel for other countries in the Middle East and Europe and had adopted the languages of their new countries. In Germany, Yiddish, a language based on German but mixed with many Hebrew, Russian and Polish words, arose and became popular. Judeo-Arabic also arose among some Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa, although many Jews in these lands, including those still living in the Land of Israel, used Arabic exclusively. Hebrew remained exclusively the language for religious purposes until it was revived by Eliezer ben-Yehuda at the beginning of the 20th century. Ben-Yehuda began to compile a dictionary which still bears his name today. His children grew up tutored by their father and became the first native speakers of the Hebrew language in the modern period.

Modern Hebrew, like ancient Hebrew, is written without vowels. Written Hebrew vowel symbols were invented by a group of Hebrew scholars named the Massoretes, who lived around Tiberias at the Sea of Galilee during the 10th century CE. The square script, familiar in modern Hebrew, also grew from this 10th century CE period. Hebrew script has evolved through the centuries, from the paleo script to the Qumran distinctive script to cursive script and finally to the modern square script.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
The most famous text in the world, the Bible, was written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Many religious believers believe that the Bible was inspired directly by God, so they would say that God is a very famous author in Hebrew. Another famous author in Hebrew is the Nobel Prize laureate S. Y. Agnon (pronounced Shay Agnon). Among the currently popular writers in Hebrew are Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, Zeruya Shalev and also David Grossman, who writes books for adults and for children.

What are some basic words in this language that I can learn?

 * the sound of 'kh' is like a 'h' coming from the back of your throat; 'hh' is a little less emphatic, at the beginning of a word

A song for the Rain
* Tif-Tif-Taf — the sound of Rain drops in Hebrew.