Hebrew language: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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Hebrew was not used as a spoken language for roughly 2300 years. However the Jews have always devoted much effort to maintaining high standards of literacy among themselves, the main purpose being to let any Jew read the [[Tanakh|Hebrew Bible]] and the accompanying religious works in the original (see [[rabbinic literature]], [[Halakha#Codes_of_Jewish_law | Codes of Jewish law]], [[Judaism#The_Traditional_Jewish_Bookshelf | The Jewish Bookshelf]]). It is interesting to note that the languages that the Jews adopted from their adopted nations, namely [[Judaeo-Spanish|Ladino]] and [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] were not directly connected to Hebrew (the former being based on Spanish and Arabic borrowings, latter being a remote dialect of [[Middle High German]]), however, both were written from right to left using the Hebrew script. Hebrew was also used as a language of communication among Jews from different countries, particularly for the purpose of international trade.

The most important contribution to preserving traditional Hebrew pronunciation in this period was that of scholars called [[Masoretes]] (from ''[[Masoret]]'' 'tradition'), who from about the seventh to the tenth centuries CEAD devised detailed markings to indicate vowels, stress, and [[cantillation]] (recitation methods). The original Hebrew texts used only consonants, and later some consonants were used to indicate long vowels. By the time of the Masoretes this text was too sacred to be altered, so all their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters.

===Revival===