Hebrew is a language dating back to ancient times, with the earliest written examples dating to the 10th or 11th century BC. The origins of Hebrew are in the Canaanite language. Hebrew (Palestine) and Moabite (Jordan) are called Southern Canaanite dialects, and Phoenician (Lebanon) is referred to as a Northern Canaanite dialect. The other Canaanite dialects have not survived but Hebrew has remained as a spoken language for thousands of years.

Hebrew began to die out as a spoken language among the Jews after they were defeated by the Babylonians in 586 B.C., but remained the language of the Jewish religion. This was largely due to the torah (bible) and the commentary accompanying it being written in Hebrew. So even though it was nearly relegated to academic status around the fifth century B.C. it remained important for religion and literature.

Again after 70 A.D., when the Jews were defeated and driven from Palestine, the status of the language as a spoken language was diminished. Aramaic replaced hebrew as the language of the Jews, and Hebrew was the language of religion and literature. Then in 1948 hebrew became the official language of the state of Israel. Around 5 million Jews in Israel speak hebrew today.

Hebrew is written from right to left, and consists of 22 consonants. Around the 8th century A.D. symbols were introduced for vowel sounds, generally written directly below the consonant they follow.