Language Door has provided classes in dozens of languages to students from all over the North Hills area. Our focus is on small group classes to maximize the interaction between students and teachers. We also offer private lessons, translations, interpreting services, and corporate classes.
Interesting Facts About Hebrew
- In Hebrew, unlike English, all nouns are either masculine or feminine. The neutral form it does not exist.
- As a Semitic language, Hebrew is written from right to left. When reading a Hebrew book you will start from the side of the right cover, finishing your reading on the left – what may seem to you as reading backwards, starting at the end and ending at the beginning!
Learn to Speak Hebrew with Language Door Today!
Language Door’s expert teachers offer instruction for students of all ages. We keep our tuition prices low but offer quality instruction in a pleasant environment. We keep the class size small to maximize the interaction between students and teachers. Our teachers are native speakers and offer the hands on training that will enhance your learning experience.
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Where Is Hebrew Spoken?
Israel is the only country in which Hebrew is considered an official language, and is spoken there by around 5 million people. However, since Jews live in countries the world over, and around 2-3 million of those Jews in the diaspora speak Hebrew, the language is spoken on every continent of the globe.
About the Hebrew Language
Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel. It is a Semitic language spoken by the Jewish people and one of the world’s oldest living languages. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and the language is read from right to left.
Originally the Hebrew language was not written with vowels to indicate how a word should be pronounced. However, around the 8th century as system of dots and dashes was developed whereby marks were placed beneath the Hebrew letters in order to indicate the appropriate vowel. Today vowels are commonly used in Hebrew school and grammar books, but newspapers, magazines and books are largely written without vowels. Readers must be familiar with the words in order to pronounce them correctly and understand the text.
History of the Hebrew Language
Hebrew is an ancient Semitic language. The earliest Hebrew texts date from the second millennium B.C.E. and evidence suggests that the Israelite tribes who invaded Canaan spoke Hebrew. The language was likely a commonly spoken until the fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E.
Once Jews were exiled Hebrew began to disappear as a spoken language, though it was still preserved as a written language for Jewish prayers and holy texts. During the Second Temple Period Hebrew was most likely used only for liturgical purposes. Parts of the Hebrew Bible are written in Hebrew as is the Mishnah, which is Judaism’s written record of the Oral Torah.
Since Hebrew was primarily used for sacred texts prior to its revival as a spoken language, it was often called “lashon ha-kodesh,” which means “the holy language” in Hebrew. Some believed that Hebrew was the language of the angels, while the ancient rabbis maintained that Hebrew was the language originally spoken by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jewish folklore says that all of humanity spoke Hebrew until the Tower of Babel, when God created all the languages of the world in response to humanity’s attempt to build a tower that would reach the heavens.
Revival of the Hebrew Language
Up until a century ago Hebrew was not a spoken language. Ashkenazi Jewish communities generally spoke Yiddish (a combination of Hebrew and German), while Sephardic Jews spoke Ladino (a combination of Hebrew and Spanish). Of course, Jewish communities also spoke the native language of whatever countries they were living in. Jews still used Hebrew (and Aramaic) during prayer services, but Hebrew was not used in everyday conversation.
That all changed when a man named Eliezer Ben-Yehuda made it his personal mission to revive Hebrew as a spoken language. He believed it was important for the Jewish people to have their own language if they were to have their own land. In 1880 he said: “in order to have our own land and political life… we must have a Hebrew language in which we can conduct the business of life.”
Eventually he published a modern dictionary of the Hebrew language that became the basis of the Hebrew language today. Ben-Yehuda is often referred to as the father of Modern Hebrew.
Today Israel is the official spoken language of the State of Israel. It is also common for Jews living outside Israel to study Hebrew as part of their religious upbringing. Typically Jewish children will attend Hebrew School until they are old enough to have their Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah.
