Hebrew
Hebrew was revived as a spoken language two millennia after it ceased to be spoken, and is considered a language revival "success story". The language was extinct as a spoken language until the 19th century when it was revived by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda; prior to that, though respected and preserved as the holy language of Judaism, it was considered impractically archaic or too sacred for day-to-day communication, although it was, in fact, used as an international language between Jews who had no other common tongue, with several Hebrew-medium newspapers in circulation around Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, and a number of Zionist conferences being conducted exclusively in Hebrew. It is now, however, spoken by over 7,000,000 people. Most of these live in Israel, where Hebrew is the official and most commonly spoken language, but many in Jewish communities outside Israel have undertaken its study.
Read more about this topic: List Of Revived Languages
Famous quotes containing the word hebrew:
“Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise; why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes, 7:16-17.
“It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.”
—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs 21:9.
“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”
—Bible: Hebrew Exodus, 20:16.
The ninth commandment.