It is one of the two official languages of Israel along with Arabic. It belongs to Canaanite group of Semitic language and is classified as the Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Estimated number of speakers is about 7 million mostly in Israel and other Jewish communities across the world. It is very closely related to Aramaic language. Hebrew has somewhat limited vocabulary especially when it is compared to Arabic but its vocabulary has been updated significantly for scientific and technological terms.
Earlier, Hebrew was written in Phoenician script however the modern script is based on Proto-Hebrew/Early Aramaic. It is based on Hebrew letters and has 22 letters written from right to left horizontally. It has minimal usage of vowels and fluency in the language doesn’t require vowels. Instead of vowels a system of dots and dashes called n’kudot was introduced. These dots and dashes are written wither above or below the letter and text using such a system is called pointed text or block print or Assyrian text commonly found in Hebrew books. Currently two dialects of Hebrew language are common called Standard Hebrew and Oriental Hebrew which basically differs in pronunciation. In grammar, verbs and nouns are usually formed through inflection.
