How did Hebrew become a spoken language again?

Hebrew was kept alive in prayer, study, poetry and correspondence, but it was not anyone's mother tongue for well over a thousand years. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, activists in Palestine turned it into a language of homes, schools and public life. The effort combined Eliezer Ben-Yehuda's advocacy and word-coining, Hebrew-medium schools, language committees, and the needs of Jewish immigrants who spoke many different languages. [1] [2] [3]

After the Jewish dispersion, Hebrew stayed in use in liturgy and as a written language of law, philosophy, poetry and scholarly letters. The University of Chicago program notes that it was not spoken as a mother tongue for more than 1,800 years yet never died. Medieval merchants and communities with different everyday languages also used a modified Hebrew to communicate across regions, including in Jerusalem marketplaces by the early 19th century. [2] [3] [1]

Hebrew schools in the First Aliyah settlements, such as Haviv school in Rishon LeZion in 1886, taught entirely in Hebrew. Vocabulary was a problem, since teachers improvised words and terms differed between schools. Ben-Yehuda's 1889 society Safa Brura and its Language Committee collected and coined terms. The committee was re-established in 1904 at the Teachers' Union's initiative and eventually published some 30,000 terms in 60 subject areas. Its successor, the Academy of the Hebrew Language, was founded in 1953. Hebrew became the language of instruction in Jerusalem schools from 1913, and British Mandate authorities recognized it as an official language, with the Language Committee taking part in those negotiations. [3] [6] [1]

Popular accounts credit Ben-Yehuda as the father of Modern Hebrew. The Wikipedia article says he was the first to raise the idea of revival and to publish on it, but that what finally brought about revitalization was developments in First and Second Aliyah settlements, where schools were established and Hebrew became a language of daily affairs. It describes his fame as stemming from initiation and symbolic leadership. The University of Chicago program likewise notes he was not the only one, naming other scholars who co-founded a society in 1881. Hebrew historian Meirav Reuveny told National Geographic that one person cannot invent a language but that he makes a good hero for a social movement. The sources do not dispute that he was influential, only how decisive he was. [3] [2] [1]

After Israel's founding in 1948, immigrants arrived from many countries, and most families became Hebrew speakers within one to two generations. National Geographic reports that about 55 percent of Israelis aged 20 and over speak it natively. Wikipedia describes the case as unique: no other natural language without native speakers has later gained several million native speakers. [1] [3]