Lesson 52 - Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Hebrew Lesson Number 52:

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

The Hebrew we speak today is actually less than 200 years old…but born of the language of Biblical Hebrew. Let’s find out how it came to be…and meet the Reviver of the Hebrew Language.

Learn Hebrew Pod - Lesson No. 52

Did you know that Hebrew is the only language in history to have returned to regular spoken use after having no native speakers? Between the 3rd Century C.E. and the late 1800’s, Hebrew was the language of prayer and bible study, studied by rabbis and scholars.  

Today over 9 million people speak Hebrew as their mother tongue, and over 4 million more speak it as a second language. 

Eliezer and Hemda Ben-Yehuda

אליעזר וחמדה בן-יהודה

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda

Reviver of the Hebrew Language

אליעזר בן-יהודה

מחייה השפה העברית

But of course, for a language to be truly alive, reviving it not enough.  How does a language spoken by millions keep up with modern ideas, modern technology, even modern sports?

The Israeli Knesset helped to answer this question in 1953 by creating the Academy of the Hebrew Language--Ha-Akademia Lasafa Ha-Ivrit--as the “supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language.” The Academy is the successor to the Hebrew Language Committee (an organization co-founded in 1890 by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda himself).

Academy of the Hebrew Language

While the Academy’s decisions are binding upon all governmental agencies, including the Israel Broadcasting Authority, they are, of course, not binding upon the public. So every day in Israel, on the streets and in the coffee houses, the daily speakers of this living, breathing language contribute to Hebrew’s constant renewal and growth.

Photos used with permission of The Academy of the Hebrew Language. For more information about the Academy, its daily work, and its many publications and projects, please visit the Academy's website at http://hebrew-academy.huji.ac.il/.

Team Conversation from The Lesson

Dan, Jonathan & Liat

Our Advanced Level Hebrew Teachers

*Listen to the full team conversation by clicking the A audio/visual lesson at the top of this page. Listen to the ‘Eliezer Ben-Yehuda' Hebrew article here

Some Grammar from This Lesson:

Hebrew Vocabulary Discussion

Jonthan: meule, toda. Let’s review some notes about a few of our new words. Let’s start with the nickname by which Ben-Yehuda is known.  In Dan’s article it appears in the last sentence:

Dan: hu yadu-a ba-kinuy: “mecha-ye hasafa ha-Ivrit”- He is known by the nickname: “The Reviver of the Hebrew Language”.

מחייה השפה העברית

Jonathan: Let’s take a look at how this expression is formed:

Liat: The first part of it is mecha-ye hasafa. It is of course a contiguity form. A contiguity form is a sort of possessive expression – The reviver OF the language.

The contiguity form is a ‘complete entity’. For specifying the contiguity form as definite, we use the ‘hey’ prefix only on its second half:

mecha-ye safa – language reviver

mecha-ye ha-safa  – The reviver of the language

First Government of Israel on May 1, 1949

Dan: The second part of it describes the language: ha-safa ha-Ivrit – The Hebrew language. This part is comprised of a noun and an adjective, and it, of course, complies with the ‘cheese cream’ rule.

For specifying a noun and its description as definite, we use the ‘hey’ prefix both on the noun and its description:

safa Ivrit  - Hebrew language

ha-safa ha-Ivrit – the Hebrew language

Jonathan: bedi-yuk! And in Ben-Yehuda’s nickname we see the combination of these:

“mecha-ye hasafa ha-Ivrit”

A definite contiguity form that includes an adjective!

Now, let’s talk about the word: Tana”ch.

Liat: Tana”ch is Bible. In Hebrew there is another word for it: Mikra. We can see this word used in Dan’s article as an adjective: Ivrit mikra-it – Biblical Hebrew.

Dan: The word Tana”ch is more commonly used. It is actually an acronym comprised from the initials of the three holy books it contains –

תורה-נביאים-כתובים

תנ"ך

Tora – Torah – we take the ‘taf’

Nevi-im – Prophets - we take the ‘nun’

Ktuvim – Writings– we take the ‘kaf’

The taf, the nun and the letter kaf in its light pronunciation add up to Hebrew’s most famous acronym: Tana”ch.

Jonathan: It is important to note that the Hebrew acronym form can be inflected, as it appears later in the article – mekorot tanachi”im – Biblical resources.

Okay, the last word to be reviewed here is a Hebrew word Eliezer Ben-Yehuda actually invented:

Liat: Before Ben-Yehuda, the word Hebrew used for dictionary was its literal word-to-word translation from German: sefer milim - a book of words.

Dan: In an article he wrote in 1880, Ben-Yehuda explained that the suffix ‘nun’ is often used in Hebrew for" indicating the place in which we can find the concept that is called by that name…"

Liat: mila in Hebrew is a word.

And utilizing the method he described above, Ben-Yehuda created the new word milon, indicating a ‘thing’ or a book which holds inside of it the words of the language.

The word milon sounds quite similar to the fruit melon. In Hebrew, a melon is simply melon. So please pay attention. In the supermarket ask for melon.

Dan: In the library, ask for milon.

*Read and listen to the Full Hebrew Discussion - Join the Learn Hebrew Pod Speaking Hebrew Advanced Program.