Hebrew Language and Script

Hebrew Language and Script

The Hebrew alphabet is derived from the Phoenicianalphabet. The modern Hebrew alphabet represents a modification of the so-called Proto-Hebrew script and Early Aramaic script. The oldest Hebrew language manuscripts date back to the 11th century BC.

At the bottom of this page you can read more about the development of the Hebrew alphabet as well as the common origin of the Hebrew alphabet, Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.

Notable features

 

  • Hebrew is written from right to left.
  • The Hebrew alphabet has 22 consonant, of which five have different forms when they are used at the end of a word.
  • Hebrew letters (graphemes) are also used to denote numbers. However, the Arabic numerals (standard western numerals) are used in the contemporary language.

 

The Hebrew Script

Moder Israeli pronunciation

Hebrew Vovels / Nikkud (נִקּוּד טְבֶרְיָנִי)

Contemporary Cursive Hebrew Script (cursive letters)

Rashi Script

 

Rashi  style of writing was mainly used in  printed texts to distinguish the body of the text from commentary upon the text. It appreared  in 1110 AD.

 

A Sample Text in Hebrew

Without vowels

With vowels

Cursive script