Hebrew language
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The Hebrew language is a Semitic language. It is the language of Israel.
As a language, it was spoken by Israelites in very old Israel before and at the time of the Bible. After Israel was destroyed in old times, the Jews were taken captive to Babylon and started speaking Aramaic. The Hebrew language was not spoken anymore in day-to-day life, but it was known by most Jews who studied religious books.
In the 20th century, many Jews agreed to make Hebrew into a spoken language again. It became the language of the new country of Israel, which was born in 1948. People in Israel came from many places, and decided to learn Hebrew so they could all speak one language.
Hebrew is close to the Arabic language. Hebrew words are made of a combination of a root with a pattern. In Israeli Hebrew some words are translated literally from European languages like English, French, German, and Russian. Many words from the Old Testament were given new meanings in Israeli Hebrew. In Hebrew you need to learn the grammar first in order to read correctly without vowels. In Israeli Hebrew there is no verb "to be" in the present tense, only in the future and the past tenses. In Biblical Hebrew there are no tenses but only two aspects: imperfect and perfect. The imperfect corresponds approximately to the future and the present tenses. The perfect corresponds to the past tense. Mishnaic Hebrew is the Hebrew spoken as well as Judeo-Aramaic in the period of Jesus and in the period of the Bar-Kokhba revolt (2d A.D) until the Byzantine Empire of Justinian (6 c A.D).
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