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The revival of the Hebrew language [a] took place in Europe and the Levant region toward the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century, through which the language's usage changed from purely the sacred language of Judaism to a spoken and written language used for daily life among the Jews in Palestine, and later Israel.
HaZvi revolutionized Hebrew newspaper publishing in Jerusalem by introducing secular issues and techniques of modern journalism, especially after Itamar Ben-Avi, Ben-Yehuda's son, joined the paper. Influenced by the French press, Ben-Avi brought in sensational headlines and a style of reporting that differed from newspapers of the old school.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda largely spearheaded the revival efforts, and his son Itamar Ben-Avi was raised as the first native Hebrew speaker since Hebrew's extinction as an everyday language. Hebrew is now the primary official language of Israel, and the most commonly spoken language there. [9] It is spoken by over 9,000,000 people today. [10]
Developed as part of the revival of Hebrew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it is the official language of the State of Israel and the only Canaanite language still spoken as a native language. The revival of Hebrew predates the creation of the state of Israel, where it is now the national language.
He was also a major proponent in the revival of the Hebrew language, teaching in and directing public schools in Palestine. [2] He pioneered the “natural method” of teaching Hebrew, in which the teacher makes explanations only in Hebrew. [3] [4] He was brother of the writer Zalman Epstein. [citation needed]
Additionally, the revival of the Hebrew language as the national language of Israel, created a significant decline in the use of Yiddish in the daily Jewish life. [25] To some, Yiddish was seen as the language of the Jewish people in diaspora and believed its use should be extinguished in the early establishment of Israel. [ 26 ]
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is the main revivalist of Hebrew as a modern spoken language, although in his book Language in Time of Revolution, Israeli scholar Benjamin Harshav diminishes Ben-Yehuda's role and attributes the success of the revival to a wider movement in the Jewish society.
The total revival of a dead language (in the sense of having no native speakers) to become the shared means of communication of a self-sustaining community of several million first language speakers has happened only once, in the case of Hebrew, resulting in Modern Hebrew – now the national language of Israel. In this case, there was a unique ...