Modern Hebrew; ʿivrít ḥadašá עברית חדשה
Native Speakers: 5 million; L2 Speakers: 4 million
State of Israel; Jewish Diaspora (worldwide)
Official: State of Israel
Semitic, Canaanite branch
Hebrew was replaced as the vernacular of the Jewish people by a dialect of Aramaic around the 3rd century BCE. It continued to be used as a literary and liturgical language and was later revived as a spoken language for the State of Israel in the 19th and 20th centuries. Hebrew is generally a subject-verb-object (SVO) language and its syntax and morphology generally follow that of Mishnaic Hebrew, although there have been influences from many other languages as well. Hebrew also incorporates a significant number of loanwords from Arabic, Aramaic, Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), English, German, Polish, and Russian.
The two main dialects of Hebrew are Ashkenazi (originating from Jewish people of European origin) and Sephardi (originating from Jewish immigrants of Middle Eastern origin).
Hebrew alphabet
There are approximately 220,000 fluent speakers of Hebrew in the United States, many of which immigrated from Israel. Many more learn Biblical Hebrew as a liturgical language in Hebrew schools across the country. The majority of those who live in the U.S. are descended from the Ashkenazi Jewish people from Europe (roughly 90-95%). Many Jewish-Americans, particularly from the Hasidic community, speak Yiddish instead of Hebrew.
At Latitude Prime, we offer Hebrew translation, Hebrew interpretation, and Hebrew localization services in numerous specialized subject areas and multiple dialects. Whether you need to translate a prospectus from Hebrew to English for a business negotiation, need a Hebrew interpreter for a court case in Washington, DC, or want to localize your website into Hebrew to market your products or services in Israel and/or local Israeli-Jewish communities, Latitude Prime has the customized language solution to meet all of your Hebrew language needs.
