No, I think Israel still speaks it.
2007-01-08 04:44:18
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answer #1
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answered by Draco Paladin 4
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Hebrew at no point ever died completely.
After the destruction of the first Jewish Commonwealth in Israel (by the Babylonians), many Jews were taken to Babylon (modern day Iraq) where they learned Aramaic, which was the local language there. Hebrew then fell out of favor as a spoken language. However, Hebrew remained in strong use for all religious, legal and scriptural matters, not only through the second temple period (i.e. see the Dead Sea Scrolls), but continuously through today. For most of the last 2000 years, the primary occupation of the "People of the Book" has been scholarship, and there exists a continuous body of scholarship and literature all conducted and recorded in Hebrew.
In the mid-late 19th century, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda successfully resurrected Hebrew as a modern, spoken language, basing the structure on the aforementioned 2000 years of Hebrew literature.
Modern Hebrew differs in many ways from Biblical Hebrew, however they are still very close. Biblical Hebrew can be understood more easily by a Modern Hebrew Speaker than Shakespeare can be understood by the average modern English speaker.
2007-01-09 09:54:05
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answer #2
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answered by Sunhouse 2
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No.
Hebrew is a Canaanite- Semitic language that was flourished as a spoken language in Israel from the 10th century BCE until just before the Byzantine Period in the 3rd or 4th century CE. Then it was extinct as a spoken language (like the rest of the Canaanite languages), but survived as a literary language (like Latin) among the exiled people of Israel.
It was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century by the Jews who built Israel, and now has 7,000,000 speakers approximately (about 3,500,000 mother-tongue speakers).
No, then, Hebrew is not a dead language anymore.
2007-01-08 18:06:18
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answer #3
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answered by yotg 6
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Classic hebrew is a dead language, but in Israel they speak modern hebrew.
The interesting fact about hebrew is that after diaspora (dispersion) the language died. The jewish living in Germany spoke German, the jewish in Russia acquired Russian as mother language etc.
When Israel State was founded in 1948, some jewish language scientists worked hard on modernisation of hebrew language, for that was only religious language.
The people learned this modern hebrew. The children born after that learned hebrew as mother language. Today 60% of the israelian population speaks hebrew as mother language. That's a living language.
2007-01-08 05:04:50
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answer #4
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answered by Alyson Vilela 6
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Ask anyone in Israel (or at your local synagogue) if it's a dead language. Plenty of people can read, write and speak Hebrew.
2007-01-08 04:50:32
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answer #5
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answered by solarius 7
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NO! Why not?
A)I'm learning it right now.
B)It is spoken throughout Israel.
C)It is spoken in synagogues and congregations throughout the world.
In order to be a "dead language," it has to be used sparsely and by a very small population. Ex, Latin, used mainly in the Vatican and in medical fields.
Shavu'ah tov!
2007-01-08 12:05:49
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answer #6
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answered by edbauguess 2
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People still speak it don't they?? I guess I shouldn't be sarcastic when people can't tell I'm being sarcastic. People still speak it. Didn't you know any jewish kids growing up? they had to take hebrew classes before their bar/ bat mitzvah
2007-01-08 04:46:13
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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No. It was, but it has been revived. Many people in Israel speak it as their first language.
2007-01-08 04:49:08
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answer #8
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answered by Goddess of Grammar 7
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Hardly. Its modern form is spoken in Israel and elsewhere and its historic form is used in liturgy, including work being created today.
2007-01-08 04:49:15
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answer #9
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answered by The angels have the phone box. 7
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OMG, no!! It's alive and well and is one of the official
languages of Israel. It's also used by Jews all
over the world.
2007-01-08 04:48:51
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answer #10
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answered by steiner1745 7
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