History
Slang
Grammar and Alphabet
Influences
Vocabulary
100
The language spoken in the ancient land of Israel before Hebrew.
What is Aramaic?
100
"What will we hear?" (Ma nishma)
מָה נִשְׁמַע
What is "what's up" in Israeli slang?
"Hello, ma nishma?"
100
Direction Hebrew is read.
What is right to left?
100
"Internet" in Hebrew
What is (internet) אינטרנט?
100
Shalom שָׁלוֹם
What is "peace" in hebrew?
200
The other official language of Israel.
What is Arabic?
200
"Waste of/Shame on time" (Haval al Hazman)
חֲבָל עַל הַזְּמַן
Means something good, or the best thing ever. Usually adds emphasis to a sentence.
"You should have seen how many people were at the wedding — chaval al hazman!"
200
Two styles of penmanship in which to write Hebrew by hand. Sort of like cursive or regular in English.
What is block and script?
200
The language Hebrew and English borrowed the term Chutzpah חֻצְפָּה from.
What is yiddish?
200
Chai חי
What is "Life" in hebrew?
300
The name of an ancient script/Hebrew alphabet.
What are
- Canaanite
- ketav Ivri (“Hebrew script”) / Phoenician / Proto/Paleo-Hebrew
- ketav Ashurit (“Assyrian script”) or ("Beautiful script")
ketav Ivri:
This is the “alternative” form of the ancient Hebrew alphabet you have discovered. This script was still widely in use during the age of the Mishnah, and was well known to the sages.
ketav Ashurit:
The other script, ketav Ashurit (“Assyrian script”), is the one we know today as the Hebrew alphabet.
300
"My life" (Chaim Sheli) חיים שלי
"You are chaim sheli"
Means my love, endearing term, used very casually.
300
Numerical value of יב
ב is the second letter of the alphabet
י is the tenth letter of the alphabet
What is 12?
300
Two languages spoken by jews in the diaspora.
What is _____ and _____?
These languages tended to adopt structural and lexical elements of the local languages, mixing them with Hebrew and Aramaic words. They were usually written in Hebrew script.
- Yiddish
- Judeo-Spanish/Ladino
- Judeo-Greek
- Judeo-Persian
- Judeo-Berber
- Judeo-Malayalam
- Karaim
- Literaly the language of any country Jews have lived in (English, French, German, Dutch, Hindu, Farsi, Russian)
Judeo-Spanish was spoken by the Jews of medieval Spain, as well as their descendants. It received most of its linguistic characteristics from early medieval Spanish, but it was written in Hebrew characters. Though Ladino is its earliest documented name, the language is also known as Judezmo (which is a linguistic equivalent of Yiddish) and Spanyol.
During the Second Temple Period, Judeo-Greek, also known as Yevanic, was spoken by Jews in the Hellenistic world.
300
Shabbat שַׁבָּת
What is shabbat/the sabath/saturday in Hebrew?
400
The language family Hebrew belongs to. This family also includes Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya, Aramaic, and Maltese.
What are Semitic languages?
400
“living in a movie” (Chai b’seret) חי בסרט
"he chai b’seret"
Means someone being overly dramatic unrealistic
400
Little lines and dots around letters for vowel sounds that native speakers don't need.
What are vowels or nikudot?
400
The language Hebrew borrowed the word (dugri) דוגרי "straight/telling the truth" from.
What is Arabic?
400
Yalla יאללה
What is "Let’s go! / Come on! / Hurry up!" in hebrew?
Originally from Arabic
500
This lexicographer brought Hebrew back to life as a modern secular language after seventeen hundred years of it being used only for study and prayer.
Who is Eliezer Ben-Yehudah (Perlman)?
500
“on the face” (Al ha-panim) על הפנים
"This movie/restaurant/night club was Al ha-panim"
Means terrible or awful, in other words, things are so bad, that you have just fallen face down in the mud.
500
A special form of a letter reserved for when that letter is at the end of a word. Sort of like English capital letters.
What is sofit?
500
An alphabet designed to combine the top half of Arabic letters and the bottom half of Hebrew letters to create words understood by speakers of either language.
Hebrew word for hebrew is Ivrit עִבְרִית
What is Aravrit?
500
Balagan בלאגן
What is "chaos" in hebrew?