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title: Hebrew
description: Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language revived as a modern spoken tongue in the 20th century after millennia as a liturgical literary language. Israel’s standard is one of history’s most successful language revitalization projects.
llms_summary: "Hebrew. (Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel). Profile. Grammatical Typology SVO, Fusional, Root-and-pattern. L1 Native Speakers 5000000 (5M). Language Family Afro-Asiatic / Semitic / Northwest Semitic. Language Vitality Index 8/10 (National) scale. Number of Countries 1 countries. Standard Script Hebrew abjad. Total Speakers 9000000 (9M). UNESCO Risk Category Safe. Web Domain Share (%) 0.1 %. Writing System Complexity Level 3 (Abjad) level. Linguistics & Culture. Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language revived as a modern spoken tongue in the 20th century after millennia as a liturgical literary language. Israel’s standard is one of history’s most successful language revitalization projects.  canonical profile on Structured Pages"
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indexed_at: "2026-08-05T14:05:49.391Z"
date_modified: 2026-08-04
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---
# Hebrew

Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language revived as a modern spoken tongue in the 20th century after millennia as a liturgical literary language. Israel’s standard is one of history’s most successful language revitalization projects.

*Last updated: 2026-08-04*

## Record

- **Title**: [Hebrew](https://structuredpages.com/hebrew/?format=md)
- **Place**: Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel
- **Range**: israel
- **Use case**: Linguistics & Culture
- **Website**: https://hebrew-academy.org.il/
- **Contact address**: Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel
- **Coordinates**: 31.7683, 35.2137

### Summary

Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language revived as a modern spoken tongue in the 20th century after millennia as a liturgical literary language. Israel’s standard is one of history’s most successful language revitalization projects.

### Description

## Historical Evolution

Biblical Hebrew gave way to Mishnaic and Medieval literary forms; by the early modern period Hebrew was primarily sacred and scholarly. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Zionist project engineered spoken revival, coining neologisms and establishing schools. Modern Israeli Hebrew absorbed influences from Yiddish, Arabic, and European languages.

## Phonology

Modern Hebrew has five vowels; consonants include pharyngeal /ʕ/ and uvular /χ/ though these weaken in casual speech. Stress is typically penultimate or final. The alphabet is abjad: vowels marked optionally by niqqud in religious texts, rarely in everyday writing.

## Syntax

Hebrew is primarily SVO in modern usage with prepositions. Verbs use root-and-pattern morphology with binyanim (verb stems) encoding voice and aktionsart. Gender and number agreement on verbs and adjectives is mandatory; definite article ha- is proclitic.

### Categories

- language
- semitic

### Attributes

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Grammatical Typology | SVO, Fusional, Root-and-pattern |
| L1 Native Speakers | 5000000 (5M) |
| Language Family | Afro-Asiatic / Semitic / Northwest Semitic |
| Language Vitality Index | 8/10 (National) scale |
| Number of Countries | 1 countries |
| Standard Script | Hebrew abjad |
| Total Speakers | 9000000 (9M) |
| UNESCO Risk Category | Safe |
| Web Domain Share (%) | 0.1 % |
| Writing System Complexity | Level 3 (Abjad) level |