Revival of Hebrew spoken language

[mikbone]

Learn something new everyday.  ChatGPT response:

The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language is one of the most remarkable linguistic phenomena of modern times. Hebrew, which had been a liturgical and scholarly language for over a millennium, was brought back to daily use through a deliberate and concerted effort in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

### Historical Context:
Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language around the 3rd or 4th century CE, surviving primarily as a liturgical language for Jewish religious practices and scholarly writings. For everyday life, Jews across the diaspora adopted the languages of their surrounding cultures (such as Yiddish, Ladino, or Arabic).

### The Key Figures:
The revival of spoken Hebrew is largely attributed to **Eliezer Ben-Yehuda**, a linguist and Zionist pioneer, who is often called the "father of modern Hebrew." Ben-Yehuda believed that the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language was essential for the cultural and national rejuvenation of the Jewish people, especially in the context of the emerging Zionist movement, which sought to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

### Key Developments in the Revival:
1. **Ben-Yehuda’s Personal Efforts**: Ben-Yehuda was determined to speak only Hebrew in his home, beginning with his family. His son, Itamar Ben-Avi, became the first native speaker of modern Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda also compiled a comprehensive Hebrew dictionary, adding modern terms for new technologies and concepts.

2. **The Hebrew Language Committee**: In 1890, Ben-Yehuda established the *Va'ad HaLashon* (later the Hebrew Language Academy), which played a central role in standardizing Hebrew vocabulary, grammar, and orthography, helping to ensure the language could serve as a medium for modern communication.

3. **Education System**: A significant factor in the spread of spoken Hebrew was the establishment of Hebrew-language schools in Palestine. Hebrew was adopted as the medium of instruction, first in kindergartens and eventually throughout the education system. The commitment to teaching Hebrew in schools created a new generation of native Hebrew speakers.

4. **Zionist Movement**: The rise of Zionism and waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine (particularly from the 1880s onward) provided a fertile environment for the revival of Hebrew. Immigrants from diverse linguistic backgrounds needed a common language, and Hebrew served as both a practical and symbolic choice.

5. **Official Language**: Under the British Mandate of Palestine, Hebrew was recognized as one of the official languages (alongside Arabic and English) in 1922. This gave further legitimacy to Hebrew as a national language and accelerated its adoption.

6. **Establishment of Israel**: With the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, Hebrew was declared the official language. It became the language of government, the military, the media, and daily life, cementing its role in the modern Jewish state.

### Challenges and Successes:
The revival of Hebrew faced significant challenges. It had to be modernized to accommodate new technologies, social changes, and ideas that had no equivalent in ancient Hebrew. Additionally, Jews from various countries had to learn Hebrew and abandon the languages they had been speaking for generations.

Despite these difficulties, the revival of Hebrew is considered a success. Today, it is the native language of millions of people in Israel, used in every facet of life, from science and business to the arts and casual conversation.

 

[mordorbund]

I trust ChatGPT’s facts even less than I trust Wikipedia’s. It is optimized to sound like natural language (I think it’s well on its way but still sounds like a high school essay in every response). It is not optimized for accuracy. The content is filled in based on what sounds “right”, where “right is defined as “I can imagine a person sayin this” and “a person” ranges anywhere from an expert to your loony uncle at Thanksgiving after 3 drinks.

[mikbone]

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333033680_The_re-emergence_of_Hebrew_as_a_national_language

There are plenty of journal articles as well.

I have been watching i24 news recently to get the Israel version of the Gaza war news.  Al Jazeera seems pretty biased.  I was intrigued to hear how harsh the Hebrew language can sound especially during a disagreement.  I became curious and went down a rabbit hole.

Pretty interesting.

My father relates that his father and uncles used to speak bohemian but his mother asked that he not teach it to the children because she considered it as a low brow working class language and wanted better for her children.

Dumb.  I wish I knew Czech.