Hebrew, which is today one of the official languages of Israel, was originally spoken by the ancient Jews, and is the language of the Old Testament of the Bible. It originally died out as a spoken language over two thousand years ago, but because of its use in the Jewish religion, it kept being used and learned. At the beginning of this century, it was revived as a spoken language in nearly the same form it was probably spoken in ancient times.

Hebrew is a Semitic language, along with Arabic and several languages of the ancient Middle East, such as Assyrian and Aramaic, and also many languages of present-day Ethiopia.


I also have a more detailed lineage of Hebrew and other Afro-Asiatic languages.

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December 12, 1996