I
Front Matter
Hebrew עִבְרִית
Dormant for 2,000 years, awakened in the 19th century — the only "dead" language ever successfully revived as a daily tongue.
Derived from Phoenician script around the 10th century BC. A 22-consonant abjad where vowels were later added as diacritical marks (nikud). Used only in Jewish religious liturgy for over 2,000 years, it was revived as a modern spoken language by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the late 19th century alongside the Zionist movement. It remains the only case in history of a "dead" language being successfully revived as a modern everyday tongue.
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Primary Artifact
Aleppo Codex
c. AD 930 · Masoretic text · Shrine of the Book, Jerusalem
Full
Text
Close-up
— Joshua 1:1 · the Masoretic standard with vowel marks (niqqud)
The most authoritative manuscript of the Masoretic Hebrew Bible. It systematically added vowel marks (niqqud) and cantillation (te'amim) to the consonant-only ancient Hebrew, serving as the standard text for a millennium. Stored in the Aleppo synagogue and partially lost to fire in 1947 — the surviving folios were brought to Israel.
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The Letters
Signs · Unicode · TypesSample GlyphsClick to copy
Glyph evolution
Form change over time
Loading evolution data…
V
Reading Mechanics
Direction · Method↔
Direction
Right to Left (RTL)
우→좌 (RTL). 모음 부호(니쿠드)는 성경 및 아동 교육 텍스트에만 사용.
α
System
Abjad
⌨
Input method
Direct Unicode input
Keyboard layout
Standard IME · input chart
Hebrew Keyboard (Israel Standard)
Right-to-left. 22 consonants. Vowel marks entered separately.
/
ק
ר
א
ט
ו
ן
ם
פ
ש
ד
ג
כ
ע
י
ח
ל
ך
ף
ז
ס
ב
ה
נ
מ
צ
ת
ץ
space
⌫
💡 Niqqud (vowel marks) used only in religious/children's texts. Regular text is consonants only.
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The Lineage
Family · DescendantsPhylogeny
Descendants of hieroglyphs
Phylogeny
Related scripts
Ancestors · Descendants · Family
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