IV.

Modern Hebrew

When Jews moved to Palestine in the 19th century, Hebrew was revived as a spoken language. Modern Hebrew, Ivrit, was declared the official language of Israel in 1948. The language is written from right to left and employs an alphabet of 22 characters; the vocabulary is based on biblical Hebrew and the syntax on Mishnaic Hebrew. Long vowels are generally expressed in writing by unpronounced consonant sounds. Scriptures, children's books, and poetry use the Masoretic points, which are dots or dashes to indicate vowels. Pronunciation is modeled on that of the Sephardic Jews who live mainly in Turkey, Greece, and Bulgaria. A great number of new words, particularly scientific terms, were needed in order to adapt the ancient written language to contemporary use; the Lithuanian-born scholar Eliezer ben Yehuda single-handedly coined 4000 new words from biblical Hebrew roots. The national languages of Israeli immigrants and Yiddish, the language of the Ashkenazi, or Eastern European Jews, have also influenced modern Hebrew.