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The revival of the Hebrew language took place in Europe and Israel 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 started arriving in Palestine in the first half of the nineteenth century and used Hebrew as a lingua franca.^[1] However, 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.^[2]

Today, Hebrew is the only known language that is being spoken by millions of people after it had no native speakers at all for centuries.^[3]

Hebrew served as the language of Jewish people through the 10th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, during which the Talmudic dialect of Mishnaic Hebrew played the most important role.^[4] The choice of languages changed as they Jewish Diaspora took place, when other Jewish languages and local languages across Asia, Africa, and Europe replaced the dominant status of Hebrew.^[5] During this time, Hebrew existed as a language for religious and ceremonial purposes and was often adopted by Jews as a second language.^[6] Despite the decreasing usage over time, the Hebrew phonology and vocabulary were still largely preserved by the liturgical status of Hebrew language, along with the works of religious literature.^[7]

The revival of the Hebrew language in practice advanced in two parallel strains: The revival of written-literary Hebrew and the revival of spoken Hebrew. In the first few decades, the two processes were not connected to one another and even occurred in different places: Literary Hebrew was renewed in Europe's cities, whereas spoken Hebrew developed mainly in Palestine. The two movements began to merge only in the beginning of the 1900s, and an important point in this process was the immigration of Haim Nahman Bialik to Palestine in 1924. But after the transfer of literary Hebrew to Palestine, a substantial difference between spoken and written Hebrew remained, and this difference persists today. The characteristics of spoken Hebrew only began to seep into literature in the 1940s, and only in the 1990s did spoken Hebrew start widely appearing in novels. ^[8]

Another difficulty faced by Haskalah Hebrew writers was that the audience was exclusively male with profound study background, which means the women and the less educated men were pushed to against reading Hebrew by reading Yiddish literature, which let a number of writers write in Yiddish to find audiences.^[9]

Mendele's language was considered a synthetic one, as it consisted of different echelons of Hebrew development and was not a direct continuation of a particular echelon. However, today, his language is often considered a continuation of Rabbinic Hebrew, especially grammatically. He was considered as the representative figure who provided great literatures to whichever language he was associated with.^[10]

Devorah Baron (also spelled Dvora Baron and Deborah Baron) (December 4, 1887 - August 20, 1956), is a Hebrew writer who fascinated the readers by her uniqueness of the language in Eastern Europe, which was dominant by Yiddish speakers. Her early writings mostly involve the feminine Yiddish traditions, and she worked on more feminist topics in her later writings. The topics were mostly divided into two sort:(1) the marginalization of female in the religious and family life;(2) the tension between men and women, and between generation to generation.^[11]

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922) (אליעזר בן יהודה), is often regarded as the "reviver of the Hebrew language" ("מחיה השפה העברית").^[12]

The revival of spoken Hebrew can be separated into three stages, which are concurrent with (1) the First Aliyah, (2) the Second Aliyah, and (3) the British Mandate Period. In the first period, the activity centered on Hebrew schools in the Settlements and in the Pure Language Society;^[13] in the second period, Hebrew was used in assembly meetings and public activities; and in the third period, it became the language used by the Yishuv, the Jewish population during the Mandate Period, for general purposes.

Throughout all periods, Hebrew signified for both its proponents and detractors the antithesis of Yiddish. Against the exilic Yiddish language stood revived Hebrew, the language of Zionism, of grassroots pioneers, and above all, of the transformation of the Jews into a Hebrew nation with its own land. Yiddish was degradingly referred to as a jargon, and its speakers encountered harsh opposition, which finally lead to a Language War between Yiddish and Hebrew.^[14]

Nonetheless, Ghil'ad Zuckermann believes that "Yiddish is a primary contributor to Israeli Hebrew because it was the mother tongue of the vast majority of language revivalists and first pioneers in Eretz Yisrael at the crucial period of the beginning of Israeli Hebrew".^[15]

According to Zuckermann, although the revivalists wished to speak Hebrew with Semitic grammar and pronunciation, they could not avoid the Ashkenazi mindset arising from their European background. He argues that their attempt to deny their European roots, negate diasporism and avoid hybridity (as reflected in Yiddish) failed. "Had the language revivalists been Arabic-speaking Jews (e.g. from Morocco), Israeli Hebrew would have been a totally different language – both genetically and typologically, much more Semitic. The impact of the founder population on Israeli Hebrew is incomparable with that of later immigrants."^[16]

Part of a series on
Aliyah
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Promised Land Gathering of Israel Diaspora Negation Jews who remained in the Land of Israel Homeland for the Jewish people Zionism Jewish question Law of Return
Pre-Modern Aliyah
Return to Zion Old Yishuv Perushim
Aliyah in modern times
First Second during World War I Third Fourth Fifth Aliyah Bet Bricha from Muslim countries Yemen Iraq Morocco Lebanon from the Soviet Union post-Soviet from Poland from Ethiopia from Romania from Latin America
Absorption
Revival of the Hebrew language Hebraization of surnames Hebraization of place names Ulpan Kibbutz Youth village One Million Plan Immigrant camps Ma'abarot Development town Austerity
Organizations
World Zionist Organization Jewish National Fund Jewish Agency for Israel Youth Aliyah Mossad LeAliyah Bet El Al Ministry of Aliyah and Integration Nefesh B'Nefesh Am Yisrael Foundation
Related topics
Yishuv Sabra Yerida Jewish refugees History of the Jews in the Land of Israel Demographic history of Palestine (region) Historical Jewish population Yom HaAliyah
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With the rise of Jewish nationalism in 19th-century Europe, Eliezer Ben Yehuda was captivated by the innovative ideas of Zionism. At that time, it was believed that one of the criteria needed to define a nation worthy of national rights was its use of a common language spoken by both the society and the individual. On 13 October 1881, while in Paris, Ben Yehuda began speaking Hebrew with friends in what is believed to be the first modern conversation using the language.^[17]

In Jerusalem, Ben Yehuda tried to garner support for the idea of speaking Hebrew. He determined that his family would only speak Hebrew and attempted to convince other families to do so as well, founded associations for speaking Hebrew, began publishing the Hebrew newspaper HaZvi, and for a short while taught at Hebrew schools, for the first time making use of the method of "Hebrew in Hebrew." In 1889, there were plays in Hebrew and the schools teaching children to speak Hebrew.^[18]

On the other hand, widespread activity began in the moshavot (agricultural settlements) of the First Aliyah, which was concentrated in the Hebrew schools. In 1886, the first Hebrew school was established in the Jewish settlement of Rishon LeZion, where a part of the classes were taught in Hebrew. The Literature Council, which based on the Pure Language Society, in 1990, to experimented in the municipal and rural schools, showed the possibility to make Hebrew the only language in the settlement.^[19]

Accordingly, Hebrew education continued to expand, as more and more Hebrew educational institutions came about, including Hebrew high schools. Hebrew teachers recreated the Hebrew Language Council (later the Academy of the Hebrew Language), which began to determine uniform linguistic rules, as opposed to the disjointed ones which had arisen previously.^[20]

Researchers studying the Google Books database noted a fivefold increase in the rate of appearance of new words in printed Hebrew between books published in 1915 and 1920, which they credit to the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the Second Aliyah.^[21]

• Hebrew literature
• Language revitalization
• Yiddish Renaissance

• History of the Ancient and Modern Hebrew Language, David Steinberg.
• Let my people know!, Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Jerusalem Post, 18 May 2009.
• Hybridity versus Revivability: Multiple Causation, Forms and Patterns, Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Journal of Language Contact, Varia 2, pp. 40–67 (2009).
• Learn Hebrew Phrases with Audio