---
lang: en
type: Profile
record_kind: entity-profile
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 5 M. Language Family Afro-Asiatic / Semitic / Northwest Semitic. Language Vitality Index 8 scale. Number of Countries 1 countries. Standard Script Hebrew abjad. Total Speakers 9 M. UNESCO Risk Category Safe. Web Domain Share (%) 10% %. 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 Chrisyst Datasets"
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indexed_at: "2026-07-16T13:15:13.715Z"
license: citation-free
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    slug: hebrew
    name: Hebrew
    type: Profile
    profile_url: "https://datasets.chrisyst.com/hebrew/index.md"
---
# 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.

## Record

- **Title**: [Hebrew](https://datasets.chrisyst.com/hebrew/index.md)
- **Geo target**: Jerusalem, Jerusalem District, Israel
- **Website**: https://hebrew-academy.org.il/
- **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.

### Attributes

- **Grammatical Typology**: SVO, Fusional, Root-and-pattern
- **L1 Native Speakers**: 5 M _(quality 5)_
- **Language Family**: Afro-Asiatic / Semitic / Northwest Semitic
- **Language Vitality Index**: 8 scale _(quality 8)_
- **Number of Countries**: 1 countries _(quality 1)_
- **Standard Script**: Hebrew abjad
- **Total Speakers**: 9 M _(quality 9)_
- **UNESCO Risk Category**: Safe
- **Web Domain Share (%)**: 10% % _(quality 0)_