World History and Languages

In our homeschool history curriculum, we are using "World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective" from A Beka Books and we just LOVE IT! We are currently studying The Middle East: Past and Present. We have been doing the succession of Empires and Isreal - The Land of Promise.

Today, we were talking about Language and Writing through the Ages. We were discussing the Egyptian, Semitic, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew languages, and how they were carried on throughout the world.

The Hebrew language was very interesting to us, so we decided to do a little Googling and these are some of the things we found:

**Some interesting facts about the Hebrew language:

Hebrew, a Semitic language, is one of the oldest languages in the world. Learning Hebrew can be fun, interesting, and challenging. Hebrew is known as the language of the Bible, and is the native language of Israel.

The language almost completely disappeared in everyday speech between the ninth and nineteenth centuries due to lack of use. While the language was used by Jews during prayer and Torah study, it was not commonly spoken outside of the home and synagogue. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Zionists worked to restore the language, making modern Hebrew the official language of the newly formed State of Israel. Today, modern Hebrew somewhat resembles the Biblical variety, with subtle changes to allow the language to work in today's society.

People who are learning Hebrew often struggle with the fact that the language is written from right to left, rather than from left to right.

1. Over 7 million people worldwide speak Hebrew. The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 characters. In the United States, there are over 200,000 native Hebrew speakers, as well as over 2 million non-native speakers.
   
   
2. The oldest examples of written Hebrew date back to between the 11th and 10th centuries BC. Most of the Old Testament in the Bible was written originally in Hebrew.
   
   
3. Today, Modern Hebrew is spoken by more people than speak traditional Hebrew. Hebrew is significant as a traditional and historical language for people of the Christian and Jewish faiths. It is also the origin of the Yiddish language spoken by many Jews in Eastern Europe.
   
   
4. The Hebrew language was traditionally spoken by people from Israel, the Gaza Strip, the WestBank, and other areas in the Middle East, according to Hebrew Language Miscellaneous Facts. It is spoken today by people all over the planet.
   
   
5. Hebrew is the language in which God first spoke to Adam in the Old Testament, per Genesis 2:16. In Genesis 5:21, where the descendants of Adam are listed, all of the names are Hebrew names through the time of Noah.

**We searched for "Steven in Hebrew" and found this....

My Hebrew Name is:


**To learn basic typing on the Israeli Hebrew Keyboard, click HERE!

**To hear the Lord's Prayer in Hebrew, please click HERE!

**To translate English/Hebrew, please click HERE!

We are truly enjoying learning about the Hebrew language and my decide to look into borrowing Rosetta Stone's Learning Hebrew from the library!

ברכות, מהבית שלנו לשלכם
(blessings, from our home to yours)~