LANGUAGE AND Among the Semitic family of languages, the Hebrew (called in the Old Testament the speech of Canaan; in the later portions of ithe same book the speech of Judea; and first in the Chaldee targums the sacred language, or rather the language of the sanctuary and things connected with it—as the law [inishna], the prayers, etc.) is one of the oldest, and in regard to strength, refine uncut, and elaborate completeness of grammatical structure, one of the most remarkable. (its chief characteristics will be found noticed under SEMITIC LANGUAGES.) Yet it is neither the oldest of Semitic dialects, nor, as was long believed, the first of all human languages. Once identical with the Phenician, it was adopted by Abraham and his farm y is Palestine. The peculiar religious and moral notions of the Hebrews could but impress upon it by degrees a distinct character, and thus Hebrew became a distinct dialect. Although the sacred writings are the oldest Semitic works which we possess, there is yet, except a few archaisms, hardly any trace of the primitive state of the Hebrew language preserved in them; they belong to periods when it was nearly as fully formed and developed as in the time of the exile. The differences in style, manner, and idiom in the different books must rather be traced to the individualities of the various writers. In general, we distinguish two distinct periods—the golden age, up to the Babylonian exile, when, except a few Egyptian words, no fore gn admixture mars the purity of the. language; the second, from the exile downwards, when Persian and _Aramaic elements had largely been introduced. As we find it in the Bible the Hebrew is a poor language enough; yet there is a sublime grandeur, and, in the provinces of religion and agriculture, also a richness, inherent in it which surpasses almost every ancient and modern language. It is hardly to be presumed, in the absence of distinct traces. that there should have been, within the small compass of Palestine, room for several dialects. The different pronunciations of the shin alluded to in Judges xii. must have been only a solitary peculiarity of the Ephraimites, as, at a later period, the Galiieans, and also the inhabitants of Jerusalem, were known for their faulty pronun ciation, as shown in several passages of the New Testament and the Talmud. The Hebrew character still universally employed in writing, and called square, Assyrian, or Babylonian character, first takes the place, at an uncertain period after the exile. of the
older national alphabetic character, which was common in the age of Moses, and in any case, was similar to the old Phenician.
A grammatical treatment of Ilebrew first commenced after the language ceased to he spoken by the people. The vocalization nod accentuation of the text originated in the 6th and 7th centuries after the time of Christ (see iNlAsonx). The Jews made the first attempt at a system of grammar about the dawn of the 10th c., after the example of the Arabians. and originally even in the Arabian language. • Rabbi Saadia Gaon (d. 942 A.D.). Jehnda Chajng (circa 1050 Abraham-ben-Esra (circa 1150 A.D.). and David Kimehi (eireft 1190-1200), are held in classic repute as grammarians. The Hebrew dictionary of he latter was long considered the best that had been executed. The founder of the study of Hebrew among Christians was the famous Johann Reuchlin (d. 1522 A.D.). who, however, like time grammarians .of the next age, Buxtorf and others, strictly adhered to the Jewish tradition and method. A new era began when the study of the other members of the Semitic family of languages, the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Ethiopie, enlarged the Hebraist's field of view; the heralds of this era were the German scholars, Alb. Schultens (d. 1750) and Nik. W. Schroder (d. 1798), who sought to remedy the one-sided, defective method into which the so-called Dutch-chool fell by its too exclusive regard for Arabic. Gesenius, especially, along with a comprehensive and due consideration -of all the allied languages, devoted his attention to the critical observation and exposition of the individual grammatical facts, and a more just and harmonious explanation of them. Since then Ewald (q.v.), who treats the Hebrew language as an organism after the historico-genetic method, has carried the study still further, and in some measure superseded Gesenius. Ewald's Grammatik der Nebr. k5prache (Leip. 1844); Gesenius, Hebriiische Grammatik (Leip. 1813); the 16th edition by ltaliger (Leip. 1851), are the best-known grammars. The most comprehensive Hebrew dictionary is that by Gesenius, entitled Thesaurus Lingute Hebratete (Leip. 1829-42); the best of the smaller lexicons are Gesenius's Hebr. and L7aald. Handworterbuch fiber das Alte Testament (2 vols. Leip. 1810-12; ith ed. 1868); Winer's Lexicon .tilanuale Hebuticum et Chaldalcum (Leip. 1828); and Farst's Hebr. and Chad. Handwurterbuch (Leip. 1857-61).