The following is the results of your search for Hebrew Language.
Hebrew Language: The language of the Hebrew nation, and that in which the Old
Testament is written, with the exception of a few portions in
Chaldee. In the Old Testament it is only spoken of as "Jewish"
(2 Kings 18:26,28; Isaiah 36:11,13; 2 Chronicles 32:18) This name is first used by
the Jews in times subsequent to the close of the Old Testament. It is
one of the class of languages called Semitic, because they were
chiefly spoken among the descendants of Shem. When Abraham entered
Canaan it is obvious that he found the language of its inhabitants
closely allied to his own. Isaiah
(Isaiah 19:18) calls it "the
language of Canaan." Whether this language, as seen in the earliest
books of the Old Testament, was the very dialect which Abraham brought
with him into Canaan, or whether it was the common tongue of the
Canaanitish nations which he only adopted, is uncertain; probably the
latter opinion is the correct one. For the thousand years between
Moses and the Babylonian exile the Hebrew language underwent little or
no modification. It preserves all through a remarkable uniformity of
structure. From the first it appears in its full maturity of
development. But through intercourse with Damascus, Assyria, and
Babylon, from the time of David, and more particularly from the period
of the Exile, it comes under the influence of the Aramaic idiom, and
this is seen in the writings which date from this period. It was
never spoken in its purity by the Jews after their return from
Babylon. They now spoke Hebrew with a large admixture of Aramaic or
Chaldee, which latterly became the predominant element in the national
language. The Hebrew of the Old Testament has only about six thousand
words, all derived from about five hundred roots. Hence the same word
has sometimes a great variety of meanings. The Song of Solomon long as it was a living
language, and for ages after, only the consonants of the words were
written. This also has been a source of difficulty in interpreting
certain words, for the meaning varies according to the vowels which
may be supplied. The Hebrew is one of the oldest languages of which we
have any knowledge. It is essentially identical with the Phoenician
language.
(See MOABITE STONE)
The Semitic languages, to which class the Hebrew and Phoenician
belonged, were spoken over a very wide area: in Babylonia,
Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine and Arabia, in all the countries from
the Mediterranean to the borders of Assyria, and from the mountains of
Armenia to the Indian Ocean. The rounded form of the letters, as seen
in the Moabite stone, was probably that in which the ancient Hebrew
was written down to the time of the Exile, when the present square or
Chaldean form was adopted.
