Translations and Other Language Solutions in Hebrew Language

Hebrew is a modern Jewish language from the Semitic family. Ancient Hebrew is the liturgical language of Judaism. It disappeared as a spoken language around the 4^th century, however, in the beginning of 1880s it was renewed by Sephardi Jews. The population of Israel is around 8 million where the majority are Jews (76.4%). Other ethnic groups live in the country as well – Arabs, Palestinians and members of other ethnic-religious groups such as Samaritans, Druze, Yazidis, etc. Hebrew is one of the two official languages in Israel. Although it practically ceased to be spoken in 200 AD, Jews continued to use it as a sacred language in liturgy, philosophical scripts and in literature. At the end of the 19^th century, Hebrew became a modern form of cultural expression and became an important factor for the national revival movement. During the time of the British Empire, Hebrew, together with English and Arabic, became an official language. It started to be used by Jewish organisations and education institutions. The press and literature in Hebrew experienced its boom with the birth of a new generation of authors and readers. Today Hebrew is a rich, colourful and living language. The vocabulary of Hebrew expanded with more than 120 000 words from 8 000 words, used in Biblical times. The formal linguistic development of the language is under the competence of the Hebrew Academy founded in 1953. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922) was a driving force for the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language. After moving to Israel in 1881, he increased the usage of Hebrew in domestic life and in school. He created thousands of new words, released two periodicals in Hebrew, and was also involved in the establishment of the Hebrew Language Commission (1890). Moreover, he worked with 17 volumes of “A Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew”, compiling some of them. The work with the dictionary began in 1910 and was completed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda’s second wife and his son in 1959. The first prose in Modern Hebrew was created thanks to authors who immigrated. Although their roots were found around the world and in many traditions derived from Eastern European Jewish heritage, their works mainly described reached achievements in the land of Israel, where they had arrived with the Zionist slogan: “To build and to be built.”

THE HEBREW ALPHABET

The Hebrew alphabet is a writing system used to write in Hebrew and other Jewish languages. Historically, two different abjad scripts were used to write in Hebrew. The initial, oldest Hebrew script, known as the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, in a large scale is preserved as a variant of the Samaritan alphabet. The latest “Jewish script” or “square script”, is quite the opposite, a form of stylised Aramean alphabet, and Jewish sages technically called it Ktav Ashuri (literarily “Assyrian script”) because it was considered to be originated from Assyria.

 The Jewish version of the Phoenician alphabet, called the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet by researchers, began to emerge around 800 BC. The oldest historically dated examples of the Aramean alphabet in this region are the Gezer calendar (10^th century BC) and Siloam inscription (around 700 BC) which was found in the Siloam tunnel. In the 3^rd century BC, Jews started to use a stylised, square form of the Aramean alphabet which was used by the First Persian Empire while Samaritans continued to use the Paleo-Hebrew script form called the Samaritan alphabet. After the collapse of the Persian Empire in 330 BC, Hebrews used both writing variants but later returned to the square formed Assyrian writing. The “square” Hebrew alphabet later was adapted and used to write down the languages of the Jewish diaspora, for example, Karait, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish and Yiddish. The Hebrew alphabet started to be used again to write in Hebrew in school and everyday life, when in the 18^th–19^th centuries the Hebrew language was revived as a language, especially in Israel.

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. It is written from the right to the left side. Numbers are an exception – they are written from left to right. Interesting is that there are no capital letters in Hebrew, not in the beginning of a sentence, nor in the beginning of a personal name or titles. It is one of the few alphabets in the world where there are practically no vowels. Vowels are marked with special writing marks, to be more precise, a diacritic mark system is used, such as dots and hyphens called “NEKUDOT”. Printed letters are not used for language notation, but it is necessary to know how to read them. The text is not connected, letters are not joined together. Rarely, when writing fast, connecting letters is allowed. The size of the letters are the same, manual hand script forms are semi-circular or oval. Each letter can also represent a specific number – ALEF=1, BET=2, etc. Throughout the ages, letters of the Hebrew alphabet have played various roles in Jewish religious literature, mainly in mystical texts. Many sources of classical rabbinical literature acknowledge the historical origin of the Hebrew alphabet in use today. In mystical ideas, the alphabet is seen as eternal, before the existing of Earth and the letters alone are sacred and powerful sometimes to such an extent that several stories in the Talmud (the primary law book of Jews and the Jewish religion) illustrate the idea that they cannot be destroyed.

According to the data of Foreign Service Institute, 11 000 hours, or 44 weeks, of learning are needed to reach the fourth or fifth level of mastering the language. According to the four language categories of ACTFL, the Hebrew language is the third most difficult language for English speakers (more difficult that Spanish and German, as difficult as Russian and Turkish, and less difficult that languages such as Arabic and Chinese). That is why learning Hebrew is an exciting intellectual challenge for adults and children that promotes positive thinking development for students of any age. Taking into account the fact that Hebrew is one of the oldest languages in the world and it has a unique alphabet, so it is very difficult to learn the language. The Hebrew alphabet has centuries-long history which is unique and does not have an analogue in any other language. That is why initially it will be needed to learn a completely new alphabet and writing symbols that are not common for other languages. Of course, the most effective way to learn Hebrew is the opportunity to be an in environment where this language is used every day. The Hebrew language has two forms – the modern spoken language and the liturgical language. Through these language forms there is an opportunity to learn about the history, religion, traditions and culture. Hebrew notation is written from right to left and has many sounds that are difficult to pronounce and are new to speakers of other languages. Modern Israeli Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew? Biblical Hebrew is a static language and it has a smaller vocabulary which makes it easier. It is also only a written language. Basically, you must only learn how read it. If the desire to learn the language is to read the Holy Scripture in the original language and understand it, you can learn that in around 18 months of intense studying or in two years of less intense studying. Modern Hebrew is more difficult. It is best to go to Israel. Very motivated people often learn the language in six months, but they cannot write in Hebrew well. After a year in Israel, people can easily use everyday speech, write about easy topics and read newspapers understanding around 80% of the content.

WHERE AND HOW MANY PEOPLE SPEAK HEBREW?