- Official language in
- Israel
- Script
- Hebrew
Where it's spoken
Israel's Basic Law states that "Hebrew is the state language." Sociolinguistic research describes Hebrew as the national spoken and written language of the Jewish majority in Israel, functioning at every level of use — from small talk to poetry, in science and in sport — and finds that 83% of Israeli Jews use it as their main language.
Sources
- Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People (English translation) — Section IV — Language
- Glinert, Lewis (1989). The Grammar of Modern Hebrew. Cambridge University Press — §1.1, p.1 (status and use of Hebrew; 83% figure)
Script & pronunciation
Hebrew is written in its own script, from right to left. Hebrew letters mainly represent consonants; vowel points (niqqud) exist as separate marks, but, per the Unicode Standard, "these marks are usually omitted in Hebrew." Many of this app's cards follow that convention, leaving the Hebrew text unvocalized, and every card also has a separate romanization field that spells the same words in the Latin alphabet without diacritics — the letters ח and כ are both written "kh", as in תחנת הרכבת (takhanat harakevet, "train station"), and צ is written "ts", as in צפון (tsafon, "north"). Five Hebrew letters also take a different shape at the end of a word; the final ן in צפון is one of them.
Sources
Grammar essentials
Hebrew marks a noun as definite with the prefix ה- (ha-, "the"), attached as a prefix to the noun. Two nouns can also be placed together to form what one reference grammar calls "a particular juxtaposition of nouns" — the construct (smikhut) pattern Hebrew uses for compounds and possession — and in that pattern only one ה- is added, usually to the second noun, as in this app's card איפה תחנת הרכבת? (eifo takhanat harakevet?, "Where is the train station?"), literally "where station-of the-train." Negation is formed by placing the word לא (lo) directly before the verb it negates, as in this app's card אני לא מדבר עברית (Ani lo medaber ivrit, "I can't speak Hebrew"). Hebrew verbs and adjectives agree with the gender of the person or thing they refer to: the same card's notes give the feminine form of "speak" as מדברת (medaberet), and because of this agreement several of this app's cards give both forms joined by a slash, as in אני רוצה/ה למלא מחדש את בקבוק המים שלי (Ani rotse/rotsa lemale mekhadash et bakbuk hamayim sheli, "I'd like to refill my water bottle").
Sources
- Glinert, Lewis (1989). The Grammar of Modern Hebrew. Cambridge University Press — §5.1 definite article; §6.1–6.2 construct state; §29.2 negation with lo
Politeness & etiquette
Israeli Hebrew has what one reference grammar calls "a scale of formality: elevated — formal ('cautious') — casual," in both speech and writing, and it is common for a speaker to switch back and forth between these levels within the same conversation. בבקשה (bevakasha, "please") softens a request, as in this app's card לא מתוק מדי, בבקשה (Lo matok miday, bevakasha, "Not too sweet, please"), and תודה רבה (Toda raba, "Thank you very much") is described as a more emphatic and polite expression of thanks than תודה alone — its adjective רבה takes the feminine form to agree with the feminine noun תודה. שלום (Shalom) — literally "peace" — is described as a greeting used for both hello and goodbye.
Sources
- Glinert, Lewis (1989). The Grammar of Modern Hebrew. Cambridge University Press — §1.3.2, p.3 (scale of formality)