TThe Hebrew language has a rich and fascinating history dating back 3,000 years. This course will provide a systematic and detailed overview origins of this...

History of the Hebrew Language 
 (HEBR0115)

TThe Hebrew language has a rich and fascinating history dating back 3,000 years. This course will provide a systematic and detailed overview origins of this history, beginning with the earliest evidence for the language in the Iron Age Near East. It will examine the language of the Bible,  considering the question of whether it is possible to date biblical texts accurately using linguistic methods, and will explore issues such as the development of the Hebrew alphabet, literacy in biblical times, and gender and social factors reflected in ancient Hebrew.  

The course will go on to consider the huge historical changes that the Jewish people underwent between the biblical and rabbinic periods, and how these left their mark on the language of the Mishnah and Talmud. It will investigate the fate of Hebrew after it died out as a spoken language around 200 CE, and examine the rich and varied ways that it continued to be used as a language of written creativity. This includes the spread of Hebrew throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Europe, and beyond, the relationship between Hebrew and the spoken Jewish languages that evolved in the Diaspora, and the practice of translating scientific writing and literature into Hebrew throughout the medieval period.  

The module will then explore the use of Hebrew in Eastern Europe in the early modern and modern periods, which laid the ground for its revival as a spoken language in Palestine at the end of the 19th century. It will examine the dramatic historical and linguistic circumstances of this revival, and consider hotly debated questions such as whether Israeli Hebrew still a Semitic language. The course will conclude by examining 21st-century issues such as the Haredi variety of Hebrew currently used in the Diaspora, the emergence of non-binary forms of Hebrew, and the relationship between Hebrew and Arabic in Israel and Palestine..