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Part of
Usage-Based Studies in Modern Hebrew: Background, Morpho-lexicon, and Syntax
Edited by Ruth A. Berman
[Studies in Language Companion Series 210] 2020
► pp. 27–40

Chapter 2
Historical overview of Modern Hebrew

| The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The chapter starts by outlining the timeline of the language known as “Hebrew” from ancient times since the 2nd millennium BCE and Biblical times via the period of exile when the language existed in a state of diglossia for nearly two millennia, serving mainly for ritual and religious purposes, and up to its transformation into a modern means of literary and journalistic expression in late 18th century Europe, and its revival as a means of everyday communication, both spoken and written, in late 19th century and early 20th century ‘Eretz Yisrael’ (the land of Israel) or Palestine. The chapter delineates the impact of classical strata on Modern Hebrew and traces processes of modernization and standardization involved in its contemporary evolution.

Article outline
  • 1.Timeline
  • 2.The impact of the historical strata of Hebrew
  • 3.The modernization of Hebrew
  • References
Published online: 18 March 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.210.03res
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