Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	Hebrew
Nativename	|pronunciation = standard Israeli: - ,standard Israeli (Sephardi): ,Iraqi: , Yemenite: ,Ashkenazi:
Region	Israel Global (as a liturgical language for Judaism), in West Bank, and Gaza
Speakers	Total Speakers < 9,000,000 First Language 5,200,000 (2009);Second Language 2,500,000 (2009) Home Language 200,000 (approx.) in the United States speak Hebrew at home
Rank	77
Familycolor	Afro-Asiatic
Fam2	Semitic
Fam3	Central Semitic
Fam4	Northwest Semitic
Fam5	Canaanite
Script	Hebrew alphabet
Nation	Judaism
Agency	Academy of the Hebrew Language ()
Iso1	he |iso2=heb
Lc1	heb |ld1=Modern Hebrew
Lc2	hbo |ld2=Ancient Hebrew |ll2=Biblical Hebrew language
Lingua	12-AAB-a

Hebrew (, , ) is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Culturally, it is considered the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages that originated among diaspora Jews exist. Hebrew in its modern form is spoken by most of the seven million people in Israel while Classical Hebrew has been used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world for over two thousand years. It is one of the official languages of Israel, along with Arabic. Ancient Hebrew is also the liturgical tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Palestinian Arabic is their vernacular, though today about 700 Samaritans remain. As a foreign language it is studied mostly by Jews and students of Judaism and Israel, archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations, by theologians, and in Christian seminaries.

The core of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible), and most of the rest of the Hebrew Bible, is written in Classical Hebrew, and much of its present form is specifically the dialect of Biblical Hebrew that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BC, around the time of the Babylonian exile. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as (), "The Holy Language", since ancient times.

The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "ivri" (plural "ivrim") one of several names for the Jewish people. It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham's ancestor, Eber ("ever" עבר in Hebrew) mentioned in Genesis 10:21. This name is possibly based upon the root "`avar" () meaning "to cross over" and homiletical interpretations of the term "ivrim" link it to this verb. In the Bible, "Hebrew" is called () because Judah () was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation, late 8th century BCE (Is 36, 2 Kings 18). In Isaiah 19:18, it is also called the "Language of Canaan" (.

History

Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages.

Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the 10th to 7th centuries BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile, when the predominant language in the region was Old Aramaic.

Hebrew was extinct as a spoken language by Late Antiquity, but it survived as a literary language and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew, until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century.

Oldest Hebrew inscriptions

The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered was found at Khirbet Qeiyafa in July 2008 by Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel. A 3,000-year-old pottery shard bearing five lines of faded characters was found in the ruins of an ancient town south of Jerusalem. Garfinkel noted that the find suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts.

The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon. Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks and Etruscans later became the Roman script. The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it.

lintel, from the tomb of a royal steward found in Siloam, dates to the 7th century BCE.]] Numerous older tablets have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example Protosinaitic. It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs, though the phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite, and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from Egyptian. One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam Inscription, found near Jerusalem, is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include the ostraka found near Lachish which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE.

Classical Hebrew

In its widest sense, Classical Hebrew means the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between the 10th century BCE and the turn of the 4th century CE. It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them.

Archaic Biblical Hebrew from the 10th to the 6th century BCE, corresponding to the Monarchic Period until the Babylonian Exile and represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible (Tanach), notably the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5). Also called Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew. It was written in a form of the Canaanite script. (A script descended from this is still used by the Samaritans, see Samaritan Hebrew language.)

Standard Biblical Hebrew around the 8th to 6th centuries BCE, corresponding to the late Monarchic period and the Babylonian Exile. It is represented by the bulk of the Hebrew Bible that attains much of its present form around this time. Also called Classical Biblical Hebrew (or Classical Hebrew in the narrowest sense).

Late Biblical Hebrew, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BCE, that corresponds to the Persian Period and is represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible, notably the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Basically similar to Classical Biblical Hebrew, apart from a few foreign words adopted for mainly governmental terms, and some syntactical innovations such as the use of the particle shel (of, belonging to). It adopted the Imperial Aramaic script.

Israelian Hebrew is a proposed northern dialect of biblical Hebrew, attested in all eras of the language, in some cases competing with late biblical Hebrew as an explanation for non-standard linguistic features of biblical texts.

Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, corresponding to the Hellenistic and Roman Periods before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and represented by the Qumran Scrolls that form most (but not all) of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Commonly abbreviated as DSS Hebrew, also called Qumran Hebrew. The Imperial Aramaic script of the earlier scrolls in the 3rd century BCE evolved into the Hebrew square script of the later scrolls in the 1st century CE, also known as ketav Ashuri (Assyrian script), still in use today.

Mishnaic Hebrew from the 1st to the 3rd or 4th century CE, corresponding to the Roman Period after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and represented by the bulk of the Mishnah and Tosefta within the Talmud and by the Dead Sea Scrolls, notably the Bar Kokhba Letters and the Copper Scroll. Also called Tannaitic Hebrew or Early Rabbinic Hebrew.

Sometimes the above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today, most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as a set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceases as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba War around 135 CE.

Around the 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah, destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the East in Babylon. During the Babylonian captivity, many Israelites were enslaved within the Babylonian Empire and learned the closely related Semitic language of their captors, Aramaic. The Babylonians had taken mainly the governing classes of Israel while leaving behind in Israel presumably more-compliant farmers and laborers to work the land. Thus for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. (see below, Aramaic spoken among Israelites).

After Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he released the Jewish people from captivity. "The King of Kings" or Great King of Persia, later gave the Israelites permission to return. As a result, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew, also the Assyrian empire before that caused Israel to speak a variant of Aramaic for trade, in Israel-Judea these languages co-mingled. The Greek Era saw a brief ban on the Hebrew language until the period of the Hasmoneans. By the beginning of the Common Era, Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian, Babylonian and Galileen Jews, western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek, but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as a vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE, certain Sadducee, Pharisee, Scribe, Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs, and simple easy to remember quotes from the Hebrew texts. scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the early half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Geiger and Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as by the start of Israel's Hellenistic Period in the 4th century BCE, and that as a corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Segal, Klausner, and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946-1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to the average Israelite, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicates a multi-lingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman Period, or about 200 CE. It continued on as a literary language down through Byzantine Period from the 4th century CE. Many Hebrew linguists even postulate the survival of Hebrew as a spoken language until the Byzantine Period, but some historians do not accept this.

The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins, and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with the rest of the Mideast; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. Communities of Jews (and non-Jews) are known, who immigrated to Judea from these other lands and continued to speak Aramaic or Greek. According to another summary, Greek was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among the upper class of Jerusalem, and Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt, Judaeans were forced to disperse and many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north.

The Christian New Testament contains some clearly Aramaic place names and quotes. Although the language of such Semitic glosses (and in general the language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is usually referred to as "Hebrew"/"Jewish" in the text, this term often seems to refer to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, many glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well; and it has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic, lay behind the composition of the Gospel of Matthew. See the Hebrew Gospel or Matthaei Authenticum and Aramaic of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels. A Jew familiar with the two languages would note that the older place names such as Bethlehem are clearly pure Hebrew, and many had already been named after Roman and Greek rulers.

Mishnah and Talmud

The term generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which was a spoken language, and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language. The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, though many of the stories take place much earlier, and was written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of the dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim (Sifra, Sifre, Mechilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere; the generic term for these passages is Baraitot. The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew.

About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. The later section of the Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which sometimes occurs in the text of the Gemara, all are constantly quoting the Hebrew Law of Moses.

Because as early as the Torah's transcription the Scribe has been the highest position in Judaism, Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as a spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries throughout history. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt, the Israelites adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry, and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms, and Masorite Scribes eventually realized vowels were required around 200CE.

Medieval Hebrew

: 10th century Hebrew Bible with Masoretic pointing (Joshua 1:1).]]

After the Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the remarkable scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting the Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac script, precursor to the Arabic script, also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex, a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century likely in Tiberias and survives to this day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. In the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic. Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj, Jonah ibn Janah and later (in Provence) David Kimhi. A great deal of poetry was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Judah ha-Levi and the two Ibn Ezras, in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The Humanist, Philosopher and member of the Platonic Academy in Florence, Pico della Mirandola, (1463–1494) already proficient in Latin and Greek,studied Hebrew and Arabic in Padua with Elia del Medigo, a Jewish Averroist, and read Aramaic manuscripts with him as well. Del Medigo also translated Judaic manuscripts from Hebrew into Latin for Pico, as he would continue to do for a number of years.

The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to a distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic.) Another important influence was Maimonides, who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah. Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and the Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud.

Hebrew persevered along the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses - not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been, of course, many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could once conversed in Latin.

Revival

Hebrew has been 'revived' several times as a literary language, and most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th century Germany. Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, owing to the ideology of the national revival (Shivat Tziyon, later Zionism), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of the Second Aliyah, it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects such as the Judeo-Spanish language (also called Judezmo or Ladino), Yiddish, Judeo-Arabic, and Bukharian language, or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian, Persian, and Arabic.

The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along the 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Turkish and Arabic (mainly by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of the newly declared State of Israel. Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today.

In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition as pronounced in Jerusalem revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew, Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew, New Hebrew, Israeli Standard Hebrew, Standard Hebrew, and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits many features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic.

The literary and narrative use of Hebrew was revived beginning with the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Hameassef (The Gatherer), was published by Maskilim literati in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. HaMagid, founded in Lyck, Prussia, in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Chaim Nachman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky; there were also novels written in the language.

The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine, then a part of the Ottoman Empire. Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora "shtetl" lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making the literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language. However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Achad Ha-Am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into a gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904-1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with a truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology, was to take its place among the current languages of the nations.

While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of the Palestine Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. Later it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language, an organization that still exists today. The results of his and the Committee's work were published in a dictionary (The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by the beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar, refused to speak Hebrew and only spoke Yiddish. However, while this ideological stance persists in certain quarters, almost all members of these groups have learned modern Hebrew in order to interact with outsiders.

Modern Hebrew grammar

Hebrew grammar is partly analytic, expressing such forms as dative, ablative, and accusative using prepositional particles rather than grammatical cases. However, inflection plays a decisive role in the formation of the verbs and nouns. E.g. nouns have a construct state, called "smikhut", to denote the relationship of "belonging to": this is the converse of the genitive case of more inflected languages. Words in smikhut are often combined with hyphens. In modern speech, the use of the construct is sometimes interchangeable with the preposition "shel", meaning "of". There are many cases, however, where older declined forms are retained (especially in idiomatic expressions and the like), and "person"-enclitics are widely used to "decline" prepositions.

Phonology

Consonants

The Hebrew word for consonants is (). The following table lists the Hebrew consonants and their pronunciation in IPA transcription:

Begadkefat

The pairs ~, ~, and ~ were historically allophonic – as seen still today in some word derivations, such as ערב ← ערביים ("evening" → "twilight"), מלך ← מלכה ("king" → "queen"), אלף ← אלפית ("a thousand" → "a thousandth") – as a consequence of the phenomenon of spirantization known as "begadkefat".

In Modern Hebrew, however, all six sounds are sometimes phonemic; compare e.g. פִּסְפֵּס "striped" and פִסְפֵס "missed", הִתְחַבֵּר "connected" and הִתְחַבֵר "befriended" or לככב "to star", whose common pronunciation preserves the manner of articulation of each kaf in the word it is derived from: כּוֹכָב "a star" (first plosive, then fricative), as opposed to the prescribed pronunciation , which regards the variation in pronunciation of kaf ←→ as allophonic and determines its manner of articulation according to historical phonological principles.

This phonemic divergence might be due to a number of factors: #mergers involving formerly distinct sounds (historical pronunciation of vav merging with fricative bet, becoming , historical pronunciation of kuf merging with plosive kaf, becoming , and historical pronunciation of het merging with fricative kaf, becoming ), #loss of consonant gemination, which formerly distinguished the stop members of the pairs from the fricatives when intervocalic – e.g. in the inflections קפץ ← קיפץ , historically ("jumped" → "hopped"), שבר ← שיבר , historically ("broke" → "shattered"), שכן ← שיכן , historically ("resided" → "housed"), #the introduction of syllable-initial (e.g. פברק "fabricated") and non-syllable-initial (e.g. הפנט "hypnotized") and (e.g. ג׳וב "job") through foreign borrowings.

Varieties of ayin

is historically pronounced as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Most modern Ashkenazi Jews do not differentiate between and ; however, many Mizrahi Jews distinguish these phonemes, as well as Jews from any background wishing to speak Hebrew in its pure form. Georgian Jews pronounce it as a glottalized q. Western European Sephardim and Dutch Ashkenazim traditionally pronounce it (like ng in sing) a pronunciation which can also be found in the Italian tradition and, historically, in south-west Germany. (The remnants of this pronunciation are found throughout the Ashkenazi world, in the name "Yankl" and "Yanki", diminutive forms of Jacob, Heb. .)

Historical sound changes

Standard (non-Oriental) Israeli Hebrew (SIH) has undergone a number of splits and mergers in its development from Biblical Hebrew. BH had two allophones, and ; the allophone has merged with into SIH Whereas BH has become SIH , the phoneme has been re-introduced into modern Israeli Hebrew in some loanwords, the pronunciation of whose source contains , and their derivations (see Hebrew Vav → Vav as consonant) BH had two allophones, and ; the allophone has merged with into SIH , while the allophone has merged with into SIH BH and have merged into SIH BH and have usually merged into SIH , but this distinction may also be upheld in educated speech of many Sephardim and some Ashkenazim BH had two allophones, and ; the incorporation of loanwords into Modern Hebrew has probably resulted in a split, so that and are separate phonemes.

Dagesh

Hebrew also has dagesh, a phonological process of consonant strengthening that is indicated in fully pointed texts by a dot placed in the center of a consonant. There are two kinds of strengthenings: light (kal, known also as dagesh lene) and heavy (hazak or dagesh forte). The light version applies to the phonemes (historically, also , and ), causing them to be pronounced as stops rather than fricatives, and operates when the dagesh occurs in the beginning of a word or after a consonant (i.e. a silent shva). The heavy dagesh occurs after vowels and applies to all consonants except gutturals and , originally causing them to be pronounced as geminate (doubled) consonants; it also selects the stop allophone of , , , etc. (In Modern Hebrew, gemination has disappeared, and hence the heavy dagesh has a phonological effect only on , affecting them the same as the light dagesh.) Traditional Hebrew grammar distinguishes two sub-categories of the heavy dagesh according to their historical origin: structural heavy (hazak tavniti) and complementing heavy (hazak mashlim). Structural heavy dagesh corresponds to consonant doubling that was inherited from Proto-Semitic, and occurs in certain verb conjugations and noun patterns (mishkalim and binyanim; see the section on grammar below). Complementing heavy dagesh corresponds to consonant doubling that arose within Hebrew as a result of consonant assimilation, most commonly of an to a following consonant (e.g. Biblical Hebrew "you (m. sg.)" vs. Classical Arabic ).

Vowels

The Hebrew word for vowels is (תְּנוּעוֹת). The orthographic representations for these vowels are called Niqqud. Israeli Hebrew has 5 vowel phonemes, represented by the following Niqqud-signs: {|class=wikitable style="text-align:center" |- !rowspan=2|phoneme !rowspan=2| inModern Hebrew !rowspan=2|approximate pronunciationin English !colspan=3|orthographic representation |- !"long" *!!"short" *!!"very short" / "interrupted" * |- |||||(as in "spa") || ( ָ ) || ( ַ ) || ( ֲ ) |- | || ||(as in "bed") || ( ֵי ) or ( ֵ ) || ( ֶ ) || ( ֱ ), sometimes ( ְ ) |- | || ||(as in "ski") || ( ִי ) || ( ִ ) ||  |- | || ||(as in "more")|| ( וֹ ) or ( ֹ ) || ( ָ ) || ( ֳ ) |- | || ||(as in "flu" but with no diphthongization) || () || ( ֻ ) ||  |- |colspan=6|* The severalfold orthographic representation of each phoneme attests to the broader phonemic range of vowels in earlier forms of Hebrew. Some linguists still regard the Hebrew grammatical entity of Shva na—marked as Shva (ְ)—as representing a sixth phoneme, . However, the phonetic realisation of any Shva in modern Hebrew is never a Schwa (the mid central vowel denoted as ) or any vowel otherwise phonetically distinguishable from the other phonemes, but is rather always either identical to those of the phoneme or is mute, therefore there is no consensus in this matter. |}

In Biblical Hebrew, each vowel had three forms: short, long and interrupted (). However, there is no audible distinction between the three in modern Israeli Hebrew, except that is often pronounced as in Ashkenazi Hebrew.

Shva

The Niqqud sign "Shva" represents four grammatical entities: resting (nach / נָח), moving (na' / נָע), floating (merahef / מְרַחֵף) and "bleating" or "bellowing" ('ga'ya' / גַּעְיָּה). In earlier forms of Hebrew, these entities were phonologically and phonetically distinguishable. However, in Modern Hebrew these distinctions are not observed. For example, the (first) Shva Nach in the word קִמַּטְתְ (fem. you crumpled) is pronounced () even though it should be mute, whereas the Shva Na in זְמַן (time), which theoretically should be pronounced, is usually mute (). Sometimes the shva is pronounced like a tsere when accented, as in the prefix "ve" meaning "and".

Stress

Hebrew has two frequent kinds of lexical stress, on the last syllable (; מלרע) and on the penultimate syllable (the one preceding the last, ; מלעיל), of which the first is more frequent. Contrary to the prescribed standard, some words exhibit a stress on the antepenultimate syllable or even further back. This occurs often in loanwords, e.g. פּוֹלִיטִיקָה , "politics", and sometimes in native Hebrew words, e.g. אֵיכְשֶׁהוּ , "somehow"; אֵיפֹשֶׁהוּ , "somewhere". Colloquial stress is also often shifted from the last syllable to the penultimate, contrary to the prescribed standard, e.g. כּוֹבַע, normative stress , colloquial stress "hat"; שׁוֹבָךְ normative stress , colloquial stress , "dovecote". This is also common in the colloquial pronunciation of many personal names, for example דָּוִד normative stress , colloquial stress , "David".

Specific rules correlate the location or absence of stress in a syllable with the written representation of vowel length and whether or not the syllable ends with a vowel or a consonant. Since spoken Israeli Hebrew does not distinguish between long and short vowels, these rules are not evident in speech. They usually cannot be inferred from written text either, since usually vowel diacritics are omitted. The result is that nowadays stress has phonemic value, as the following table illustrates: acoustically, the following word pairs differ only in the location of the stress; orthographically they differ also in the written representation of the length of the vowels, however if vowel diacritics are omitted (as is usually the case in Modern Israeli Hebrew) they are written identically:

{|class=wikitable |- !rowspan=2|common spelling(Ktiv Hasar Niqqud) !colspan=3|-stressed !colspan=3|-stressed |- !spelling with vowel diacritics !pronunciation !translation !spelling with vowel diacritics !pronunciation !translation |- |ילד||יֶלֶד||||boy||יֵלֵד||||will give birth |- |אוכל||אֹכֶל||||food||אוֹכֵל||||eating (masculine singular participle) |- |בוקר||בֹּקֶר||||morning||בּוֹקֵר||||cowboy |}

Little ambiguity exists, however, due to context and syntactic features; compare e.g. the English word "conduct" in its nominal and verbal forms.

Morphology

Triliteral roots

Like all Semitic languages, the Hebrew language exhibits a pattern of stems consisting typically of "triliteral", or 3-consonant consonantal roots (2- and 4-consonant roots also exist), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed in various ways: e.g. by inserting vowels, doubling consonants, lengthening vowels, and/or adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.

Many of the Hebrew triliteral roots are shared with the other Semitic languages. This fact eases Hebrew learning for persons with a large vocabulary in another Semitic language, and eases learning of other Semitic languages by Hebrew speakers.

One-letter prefixes

Hebrew uses a number of one-letter prefixes that are added to words for various purposes. These are called "Letters of Use" (Hebrew: אותיות השימוש, Otiyot HaShimush). Such items include: the definite article ha- () (="the"); prepositions be- () (="in"), le- () (="to"), mi- () (="from"; a shortened version of the preposition min'); conjunctions ve- () (="and"), she- () (="that"), ke-'' () (="as", "like").

The vowel accompanying each of these letters may differ from those listed above, depending on the first letter or vowel following it. The rules governing these changes, hardly observed in colloquial speech as most speakers tend to employ the regular form, may be heard in more formal circumstances. For example, if a preposition is put before a word which begins with a moving Shva, then the preposition takes the vowel (and the initial consonant may be weakened): colloquial be-kfar (="in a village") corresponds to the more formal bi-khfar.

The definite article may be inserted between a preposition or a conjunction and the word it refers to, creating composite words like mé-ha-kfar (="from the village"). The latter also demonstrates the change in the vowel of mi-. With be and le, the definite article is assimilated into the prefix, which then becomes ba or la. Thus *be-ha-matos becomes ba-matos (="in the plane"). Note that this does not happen to mé (the form of "min" or "mi-" used before the letter "he"), therefore mé-ha-matos is a valid form, which means "from the airplane".

:* indicates that the given example is grammatically non standard.

Syntax

Like most other languages, the vocabulary of the Hebrew language is divided into verbs, nouns, adjectives, and so on, and its sentences structure can be analyzed by terms like object, subject, and so on. However, persons who speak only Indo-European languages (e.g. English, French, Hindi) may find the structure of Hebrew sentences quite surprising. Hebrew sentences do not have to include verbs. The verb To Be does not exist in present tense in Hebrew. Unlike the verb To Have, none of the possession terms in Hebrew is a verb. There is no word that is supposed to come before every singular noun. Moreover, many sentences can have a few correct orders of words.

==Writing system== Modern Hebrew is written from right to left using the Hebrew alphabet, which is an abjad, or consonant-only script of 22 letters. The ancient paleo-Hebrew alphabet is similar to those used for Canaanite and Phoenician. Modern scripts are based on the "square" letter form, known as Ashurit (Assyrian), which was developed from the Aramaic script. A cursive Hebrew script is used in handwriting: the letters tend to be more circular in form when written in cursive, and sometimes vary markedly from their printed equivalents. The medieval version of the cursive script forms the basis of another style, known as Rashi script. When necessary, vowels are indicated by diacritic marks above or below the letter representing the syllabic onset, or by use of matres lectionis, which are consonantal letters used as vowels. Further diacritics are used to indicate variations in the pronunciation of the consonants (e.g. bet/vet, shin/sin); and, in some contexts, to indicate the punctuation, accentuation and musical rendition of Biblical texts (see [

Modern Israeli Hebrew

Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However, the earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native tongue and often brought into Hebrew idioms and literal translations from Yiddish.

The pronunciation of modern Israeli Hebrew is based mostly on the Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation. However, the language has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following:

the elimination of pharyngeal articulation in the letters chet () and ayin () by many speakers. the conversion of () from an alveolar flap to a voiced uvular fricative or trill , by most of the speakers. see Guttural R the pronunciation (by many speakers) of tzere as in some contexts (sifrey and teysha instead of Sephardic sifré and tésha') the gradual elimination of vocal Shva (zman instead of Sephardic zĕman)

in popular speech, penultimate stress in proper names (Dvóra instead of Dĕvorá; Yehúda instead of Yĕhudá)

similarly in popular speech, penultimate stress in verb forms with a second person plural suffix (katávtem "you wrote" instead of kĕtavtém).

Loan words

Modern Israeli Hebrew has borrowed many words from Aramaic, Yiddish, Ladino, Arabic (spoken Arabic, mainly Judeo Arabic and Palestinian Arabic), German, Latin, Greek, Polish, Russian, English and other languages.

Classification

The vast majority of scholars see Modern Hebrew as a direct continuation of Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew, though they concede that it has acquired some European vocabulary and syntactical features, in much the same way as Modern Standard Arabic (or even more so, dialects such as Moroccan Arabic). There are two minor dissenting views, which have not been accepted by most scholars, and are in fact subject to much criticism. They are: Paul Wexler claims that modern Hebrew is not a Semitic language at all, but a dialect of "Judaeo-Sorbian". He argues that the underlying structure of the language is Slavic, but "re-lexified" to absorb much of the vocabulary and inflexional system of Hebrew in much the same way as a creole. This view forms part of a larger complex of theories, such as that Ashkenazi Jews are predominantly descended from Slavic and Turkic tribes rather than from the ancient Israelites, none of which are accepted by mainstream scholarship. Ghil'ad Zuckermann compromises between Wexler and the majority view: according to him, "Israeli" (his term for Israeli Hebrew) is a Semito-European hybrid language, which is the continuation not only of literary Hebrew but also of Yiddish, as well as Polish, Russian, German, English, Ladino, Arabic and other languages spoken by Hebrew revivalists. Thus, "Yiddish is a primary contributor to Israeli Hebrew because it was the mother tongue of the vast majority of revivalists and first pioneers in Eretz Yisrael at the crucial period of the beginning of Israeli Hebrew". According to Zuckermann, although the revivalists wished to speak Hebrew, with Semitic grammar and pronunciation, they could not avoid the Ashkenazi mindset arising from their European background. He argues that their attempt to deny their European roots, negate diasporism and avoid hybridity (as reflected in Yiddish) failed. "Had the revivalists been Arabic-speaking or Berber-speaking Jews (e.g. from Morocco), Israeli Hebrew would have been a totally different language – both genetically and typologically, much more Semitic. The impact of the founder population on Israeli Hebrew is incomparable with that of later immigrants."

So far, neither view has gained significant acceptance among mainstream linguists, and both have been criticized by some as being based less on linguistic evidence than post- or anti-Zionist political motivations. However, some linguists, for example American Yiddish scholar Dovid Katz, have employed Zuckermann's glottonym "Israeli" and accept his notion of hybridity. Few would dispute that Hebrew has acquired some European features as a result of having been learned by immigrants as a second language at a crucial formative stage. The identity of the European substrate/adstrate has varied: in the time of the Mandate and the early State, the principal contributor was Yiddish, while today it is American English. There has also been some influence, on vocabulary rather than structure, from Arabic, both in the form of Palestinian Arabic and, during the large scale immigrations of Mizrahi Jews during the 1950-60s, the Yemenite and North African dialects. Some Russian influence may also be observed, both during the founding period and as a result of the wave of immigration from the former Soviet Union following its collapse in 1991.

Modern dialects and accents

Hebrew has two dialects; a Jewish one and a Samaritan one. In the beginning of the 20th century, the Samaritan dialect nearly became extinct, along with the Samaritan population itself. It is now generally used only for Samaritan religion purposes.

According to the Academy of the Hebrew Language, in 1880s (the time of the beginning of the Zionist movement and the Hebrew revival) there were mainly three groups of Hebrew regional accents: The Ashkenazi (German), The Sephardi (Hispanic/Mediterranean) and that of Jewish communities who had little influence from those two groups of Jews, mostly in Iraq, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yemen. Ben-Yehuda decided that the standard accent would be the Sephardi one, but eventually, the standard accent became something in between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi one.

In the 2010s most Hebrew speakers have that standard accent. Most of the other Hebrew speakers have an accent with more Sephardi/Iraqi/Yemenite influence since they try to keep on with non-Ashkenazi tradition, and since they try to avoid the ambiguity that the standard accent forces by making various consonants sound alike. This accent can be called Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) accent. A third group has an accent with more Ashkenazi influence. It includes mostly a minority group within the Hasidic Ashkenazi Jews.

Phonologically, standard Hebrew accent may most accurately be described as an amalgam of pronunciations preserving Sephardic vowel sounds and some Ashkenazic consonant sounds with Yiddish-style influence, its recurring feature being simplification of differences among a wide array of pronunciations. This simplifying tendency also accounts for the collapse of the Ashkenazic and allophones of () into the single phone . Most Sephardic and Mizrahi accents share this feature, though some (such as those of Iraq and Yemen) differentiate between these two pronunciations as and . Within Israel, however, the pronunciation of Hebrew more often reflects the diasporic origin of the individual speaker, rather than the specific recommendations of the Academy. For this reason, over half the population pronounces as (a uvular trill, as in Yiddish) or as (a voiced uvular fricative, as in Standard German and French), rather than as , an alveolar trill, as in Spanish and Italian.

There are mixed views on the status of the two accents. On the one hand, prominent Israelis of Sephardic or Oriental origin are admired for the purity of their speech and Yemenite Jews are often employed as newsreaders. On the other hand, the speech of middle-class Ashkenazim is regarded as having a certain Central European sophistication, and many speakers of Mizrahi origin have moved nearer to this version of Standard Hebrew, in some cases even adopting the uvular resh.

; Main differences between the accents:

Yiddish influence on the consonants In Ashkenazi and standard accents:

The is instead of its original Semitic sound .

is pronounced as a guttural R instead of a rolled R .

disappearance of the Semitic sound , that in Standard and Ashkenazi Hebrew sounds just like the ^{with a dot inside} .

In the Ashkenazi accent, and by many of the speakers of Israeli Hebrew: the sounds just like , and the like the merging into or becoming silent. These changes are not part of standard Hebrew and occur in the speech of many speakers, but not all.

In Yemenite accent, when the is a consonant, it is pronounced as a and not as a . sounds:

In the Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and standard accents the and the ^{with a dot inside} had lost their original difference and merged into .

In Ashkenazi accent the ^{without a dot inside} (th) sounds like while in all the others it sounds like a regular .

Stress: in the Ashkenazi accent many more words are pronounced with a stress on the beginning of the word.

Vowels:

In the Ashkenazi and Yemenite accents many more (Kamats) are pronounced instead of .

In the Ashkenazi accent many more (Tsere) are pronounced like in the English word “ate” instead of .

Hebrew language instruction in the Soviet Union

The Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with both Judaism and Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the Narkompros (Commissariat of Education) as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself didn't cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being the spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, A policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in the 1980s in the USSR, Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel (refuseniks). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, for example, Ephraim Kholmyansky, Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of USSR.

Hebrew in Judaism

According to some Jewish traditions, Hebrew was the language of the creation. Likewise, Hebrew is considered to be the one language spoken by the united mankind before the dispersion connected with the Tower of Babel. According to Jewish esoteric teachings, the Hebrew letters are the lifeforce of all things created, determining their essence.

Liturgical use

Hebrew has always been used as the language of prayer and study, and the following pronunciation systems are found.

Ashkenazi Hebrew, originating in Central and Eastern Europe, is still widely used in Ashkenazi Jewish religious services and studies in Israel and abroad, particularly in the Haredi and other Orthodox communities. It was influenced by the Yiddish language.

Sephardi Hebrew is the traditional pronunciation of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews and Sephardi Jews in the countries of the former Ottoman Empire. This pronunciation, in the form used by the Jerusalem Sephardic community, is the basis of the Hebrew phonology of Israeli native speakers. It was influenced by the Judezmo language.

Mizrahi (Oriental) Hebrew is actually a collection of dialects spoken liturgically by Jews in various parts of the Arab and Islamic world. It was possibly influenced by the Aramaic and Arabic languages, and in some cases by Sephardi Hebrew, although some linguists maintain that it is the direct heir of Biblical Hebrew and thus represents the true dialect of Hebrew. The same claim is sometimes made for Yemenite Hebrew or Temanit, which differs from other Mizrahi dialects by having a radically different vowel system, and distinguishing between different diacritically marked consonants that are pronounced identically in other dialects (for example gimel and "ghimel".)

These pronunciations are still used in synagogue ritual and religious study, in Israel and elsewhere, mostly by people who are not native speakers of Hebrew, though some traditionalist Israelis are bi-dialectal.

Many synagogues in the diaspora, even though Ashkenazi by rite and by ethnic composition, have adopted the "Sephardic" pronunciation in deference to Israeli Hebrew. However, in many British and American schools and synagogues, this pronunciation retains several elements of its Ashkenazi substrate, especially the distinction between tsere and segol.

See also

Cantillation

Cursive Hebrew

Hebraization of English

Hebrew acronyms

Hebrew alphabet

Hebrew literature

Hebrew phonology

Jewish languages

Romanization of Hebrew

Study of the Hebrew language

References

Bibliography

Hoffman, Joel M, In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-3654-8.

Izre'el, Shlomo, "The emergence of Spoken Israeli Hebrew", in: Benjamin Hary (ed.), The Corpus of Spoken Israeli Hebrew (CoSIH): Working Papers I (2001)

Kuzar, Ron, Hebrew and Zionism: A Discourse Analytic Cultural Study. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter 2001. ISBN 3-11-016993-2, ISBN 3-11-016992-4.

Laufer, Asher. "Hebrew", in: Handbook of the International Phonetic Association. Cambridge University Press 1999. ISBN 0-521-65236-7, ISBN 0-521-63751-1.

Sáenz-Badillos, Angel, 1993 A History of the Hebrew Language (trans. John Elwolde). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55634-1

External links

Ancient Hebrew Research Center Research and Learning Hebrew Resources

Fully Transliterated Modern Hebrew Course (with listing of verb roots and derived verbs)

Hebrew-English (Webster's Rosetta Edition)

Collection of Hebrew bilingual dictionaries

Morfix online dictionary

Early Hebrew Newspapers Thousands of pages of mid- to late-19th-century and early 20th-century newspapers written in Hebrew and readable on line.

[http://www.hebrew-language.com Categorized Hebrew language study resources on the Internet

Category:Fertile Crescent Category:Hebrew Bible topics Category:Languages of Israel Category:Semitic languages Category:VSO languages

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	The Streets
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Michael Geoffrey Skinner
Born	November 27, 1978
Origin	Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Instrument	Vocals, keyboards, guitar|
Genre	UK garage Electronica Hip-Hop
Years active	1994–present
Label	Locked On/679 Recordings (UK)Vice/Atlantic Records (US) (2000–2010) Warner Music (Worldwide)
Url

Michael Geoffrey "Mike" Skinner (born 27 November 1978), more commonly known by his stage name The Streets, is a British rapper, musician and record producer from Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Early life and beginnings

Skinner began using a keyboard at the tender age of five. As a teenager, he built a miniature recording studio in his bedroom. He began writing hip hop and garage music in his home in West Heath in Birmingham, with a crew of other rappers including best friend Chris Panton. He describes his background as "Barratt class: suburban estates, not poor but not much money about, really boring."

In the mid-1990s, following secondary education at Bournville School, Skinner became a student at Sutton Coldfield College, in Sutton Coldfield, and was working in fast food jobs while trying to start his own independent record label and sending off demos.

Although born in Birmingham, Skinner has often been criticised for using a Mockney accent during interviews and in many songs. He can be heard speaking in his normal accent at the beginning of the song "Fake Streets Hats". Skinner has however always identified himself with Birmingham and he is a keen supporter of Birmingham City. He even wore the club's replica shirt on stage.

Music career

2000–2003: Original Pirate Material

The Streets started out as a group project but quickly became a one-man act as band members fell away. At the end of 2000, the Locked On label, who had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, agreed to release "Has It Come To This" under the name The Streets. Skinner moved from Birmingham to Brixton to pursue his recording career, he then moved to Camden Town for three years before returning to Brixton. "Has It Come to This?" proved to be a breakthrough hit for the Streets, going Top 20 in March 2001. For The Streets' debut album, Original Pirate Material, Skinner wanted to take UK garage in a new direction with material reflecting the lifestyle of clubbers in Britain. The track "Let's Push Things Forward" reflects the philosophy of the album. The album was released and proved to be successful both with critics and the general public alike. In the UK, the album was nominated for the Mercury Prize and was favourite with the bookies to win it (it was later won by Ms. Dynamite). The Streets was nominated for best album, best urban act, best breakthrough artist and best British male artist in the 2002 BRIT Awards. The NME named it as one of their top five albums of 2002. The cover image is Towering Inferno by the acclaimed photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg. Subsequent singles from that album included "Don't Mug Yourself", "Weak Become Heroes" and "Let's Push Things Forward" which all reached the top forty in the UK. Many of his songs have a UK garage feel. Original Pirate Material had debuted and peaked at number twelve in the UK album charts, and wouldn't reach any higher until his next album was released.

The success of Original Pirate Material in the UK led to a US release of the album through Vice/Atlantic in late 2002. Though the album was not a commercial success in the States, it was received positively by Rolling Stone, Spin, the New York Times, Blender, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times all nominating it as one of the albums of the year. The album was named Entertainment Weekly's "album of the year". The album reached number two on the Billboard electronic charts and the top 20 on the independent and Heatseeker charts in the US in 2003.

2004–2005: A Grand Don't Come for Free

In May 2004, he released a new single, "Fit But You Know It" which became his highest debuting and highest selling single to that point, reaching number four in the UK.

"Fit But You Know It" is from his second album, A Grand Don't Come for Free which is a concept album about a short period in the protagonist's life. The events depicted include losing a thousand pounds, the start of a new relationship, going on holiday, breaking up, and eventually finding the grand again. The MC's remix of "Fit But You Know It" features formerly underground MCs such as Kano, Tinchy Stryder, Donae'o, Lady Sovereign and Devilman (music).

The album debuted at number two in the UK album charts, but later reached the number one position. Soon after the album was released, his success grew even larger in July 2004, with the second single "Dry Your Eyes" debuting at the top of the chart in the UK. The success of this album and its singles led to a re-kindling of interest in the first album Original Pirate Material, which re-entered the UK album charts and beat its original chart peak of two years earlier. "Blinded By the Lights", the third single from A Grand Don't Come for Free, hit the Top 10 in September 2004, and a fourth and final single, "Could Well Be In", was released in late 2004.

2006–2007: The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

Skinner's third studio album under The Streets moniker, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living, was released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom and on 25 April 2006 in North America. In the UK it debuted at number one on the album chart. It was a change in direction from his first two albums, the lyrical theme moving away from the stories about working class Britain and instead focusing on the ups and downs of the fame that Skinner encountered after the huge success of his previous albums.

The lead single, titled "When You Wasn't Famous", was released two weeks prior to the album. The song is about Skinner's troubles with trying to date a famous person, following his new found fame. It was also named 'Track of the Week' by NME in early March 2006, but when it came into the UK singles charts, it only reached the latter course of the top 10, peaking at number eight. There has been much speculation over which celebrity "When You Wasn't Famous" is about - Rachel Stevens and Cheryl Cole are two names that have been ruled out, despite Skinner dedicating the song to Cole on Top Of The Pops. This reluctance to reveal the subject may be more than simple politeness, as some of the descriptions of the unnamed starlet in the track are potentially damaging. At one point, Skinner discloses "my whole life I never thought I'd see a pop star smoke crack."

The second single, "Never Went to Church", is a tribute to Skinner's late father, and appears to use the chord progression of The Beatles' "Let It Be" as a backing beat.

The Streets appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on 26 June 2006 to promote the new album.

The album also featured the track "Prangin Out" which later would go on to be remixed with Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty

2008–2009: Everything Is Borrowed

In September 2008, Skinner released his fourth studio album, Everything Is Borrowed. One song from the album, was on Skinner's MySpace page for a while before being replaced by a cover of "Your Song". In a posting on his MySpace blog, Skinner noted that the group's upcoming LP would contain "peaceful, positive vibes" in comparison with 2006's The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.

In a blurb about the album on Skinner's MySpace, he says "This album started off life as parables but then I realised that it might get a bit cheesy so I got rid of the alien song and the devil song replaced them with more straight up songs. I've pretty much kept my promise that I made to myself not to reference modern life on any of them though which is hard to do and keep things personal at the same time."

2010–present: Computers and Blues

It was originally reported that Skinner said that the fifth record would be similar to Lou Reed's Berlin.

"The final Streets album (the fifth one) will be dark and futuristic. This could not be further from the album you're about to hear, but it's what is on my mind at the moment. I feel inspired by the synthesizer exhibition we just visited in Graz [Austria] after the gig we just did." He has repeatedly stated that it will be the last Streets album, remarking that he is "fucking sick" of the name and connotations that come along with it. In a Beat Stevie episode where he describes the making of Everything Is Borrowed, Skinner says that the final Streets album will be "one more banger" and will be "dancing music to drink tea to".

The album will be released on 7 February 2011.

The first single from the album will be Going Through Hell, the music video for which is currently playing on music channels.

The album's artwork features student accommodation at University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Live line-up

The Streets regularly plays live, and has performed at several major festivals.

Up until recently his playing line-up was Mike Skinner, Leo the Lion singing backing vocals, Eddie "The Kid" playing keyboard, Johnny Drum Machine playing drums, and long-time friend Morgan Nicholls playing bass and guitar. Morgan has since left the band to focus on playing with rock band Muse, playing a variety of instruments as part of their live show.

His current live line-up consists of Kevin Mark Trail on backing vocals, Wayne Vibes on guitar and bass, Chris Brown on keyboards, Magic Mike on samplers and Johnny Drum Machine as drummer and musical director. Skinner has credited Johnny Drum Machine as the only other member of The Streets to have appeared on all the albums.

Performance trademarks include crowd controlling "Go Low" (the whole audience drops to the floor) and "Go Moses" (audience parts down the middle, Skinner runs to the back and crowd surfs back to the stage) with variable success.

Other projects

The Beats Recordings

In 2005, Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem launched the independent record label The Beats Recordings. A subsidiary of 679 Recordings, The Beats was home to British hip hop acts such as The Mitchell Brothers, Example and Professor Green. The label closed in 2007.

Beat Stevie

An online channel currently presented by Mike and business partner Ted Mayhem, Beat Stevie is an "anything goes" blog/music show also shown on Channel 4 in their 4Music late night strand. The episodes often include backstage footage and onstage hijinks.

In one of the episodes, Mike and Ted get trained by pickup artist and dating coach 5.0 of Love Systems on how to approach and talk to women.

Acting

Skinner had a cameo role in the fifth series of Doctor Who as a security guard, featuring in the episode "The Time of Angels".

In December 2010, it was revealed that Skinner had had relationships with both Rachel Stevens and Cheryl Cole (then Tweedy) circa. 2004.

Promotional and campaign work

Skinner is an ardent fan of Reebok Classics shoes; he is often seen wearing a pair of white Workout Plus trainers, and has mentioned them in the lyrics for his song "Let's Push Things Forward", in which he raps, "Let's put on our Classics and have a little dance, shall we?". In 2005, he signed up to appear in a twelve-month ad campaign for Reebok's "I Am What I Am" campaign.

Discography

Original Pirate Material (2002)

A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004)

The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (2006)

Everything Is Borrowed (2008)

Computers and Blues (2011)

References

External links

Mike Skinner on Twitter

Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:English electronic music groups Category:Music from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Grime artists Category:People with epilepsy Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:People from Barnet Category:UK garage musicians

Coordinates	28°36′36″N77°13′48″N
Name	Boaz Mauda
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Boaz Mauda
Born	April 23, 1987Elyakim, Israel
Genre	Mizrahi, Ethnic, acoustic
Occupation	Singer
Years active	2007–present

Boaz Mauda (, b. April 23, 1987) is an Israeli singer and songwriter. He won the fifth season of Kokhav Nolad, the Israeli version of Pop Idol, and represented Israel in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, finishing in 9th place.

His voice has been described as somewhere between David D'Or and Dana International.

Early life

Boaz was born and raised in moshav Elyakim, where he still lives. He is the youngest son of his mother, who became disabled from complications of his birth. He is of Yemeni descent.

Career

Kohav Nolad

Without any history in the music industry, and unknown to Boaz, he was signed up by a friend for the auditions of the fifth season of Kohav Nolad. During the show, Boaz sang many Mizrahi and acoustic songs. His voice was loved by the audience and judges.

At the finals on August 29, 2007, Boaz competed against Marina Maximillian Blumin and Shlomi Bar'el. On that evening he performed two songs: "Señorita" with the experienced Israeli singer David Broza, and then Avner Gadassi's "Menagen veshar" ("Playing and Singing"). He won Kohav Nolad 2007 with 50% of the votes. In addition, he won a contract with the label Hed Artzi.

Kohav Nolad performances

{|class="wikitable" align="left" |colspan="100" bgcolor="CCCCCC" align="Center"|Week # |colspan="100" bgcolor="CCCCCC" align="Center"|Song Choice |colspan="100" bgcolor="CCCCCC" align="Center"|Original Artist |colspan="100" bgcolor="CCCCCC" align="Center"|Result |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 20 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Yad anuga" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Avner Gadassi |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 18 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Neshel hanachash" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Meir Ariel |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 16 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"HaShir al ha'aretz" (duet with Arlene Gold) |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Nurit Galron |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Got a resistance |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 14 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Khayekha vekhayay" (duet with Eden Amzaleg) |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Boaz Sharabi |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Bottom 2 in duets |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 14 - Rescue solo |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Shi'ur moledet" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Hava Alberstein |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 13 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Erev shel yom bahir" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Efraim Shamir |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 12 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Ani shuv mit'ahev" (Duet with Shlomi Bar'el) |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Gidi Gov |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 12 - Rescue solo |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Yare'akh kakhol" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Gan Hayot Band |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 11 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Ahavat khayay" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Hayim Moshe |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 10 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"At li layla" (duet with Daniel Ben Hayim) |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Boaz Sharabi |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Bottom 3 in duets |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 10 - Rescue solo |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Kol galgal" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Shotei HaNevu'ah |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 9 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Maka Afora" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Monica Sex |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 8 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Al tikh'asi, ze lo ason" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Gesher HaYarkon trio |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 7 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Yalduti hashnyia" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Matti Caspi |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 7 |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Homot heimar" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Margalit Tzan'ani |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Safe |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Top 3 (Semi Final 2) |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Mizmor layla" and "Etslekh ba'olam" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Mizmor layla" - Noa; "Etslekh ba'olam" - Evyatar Banai |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Final qualifier |- |- |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Finale |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Señorita" and "Menagen veshar" |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|"Señorita" - David Broza; "Menagen veshar" - Avner Gadassi. |colspan="100" align="center" bgcolor="FAF6F6"|Winner |}

Eurovision Song Contest

, Belgrade, May 2008]] On November 14, the Israel Broadcasting Authority and Israel's Channel 2 announced that Boaz Mauda was chosen to represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia.

The pre-selection occurred in February 2008 in which Mauda sang five songs, and the audience, together with a jury of Israeli experts, voted for the winning song which was Ke'ilu Kan - a song written by Israel's Eurovision winner Dana International.

Mauda participated in the first semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on May 20, 2008. He ended 5th in the semi-finals and was awarded a spot in the final on May 24, 2008 where he ended 9th with 124 points.

Discography

On August 3, 2008 Boaz published his first single, Oreaj baolam [A guest in the world] for what will be his new album, which is called Boaz Mauda, as the singer, this song is written by composer Keren Peles. In March 2009 he published his second single, also by Peles, Lajzor Habaita [back home]. He published the song Time to Pray [Time to pray] with singer Sirusho (Armenian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, which ranked fourth) and the singer Jelena Tomasevic (Serbia representative in the Eurovision Song Contest which was in sixth place). On July 7, 2009 was released their first studio album with the name "Boaz Mauda". This album contains 11 songs, of which only five were new songs: Ma Yafu, Better Days, Time to Pray, Shetishaer and Ausencia. In 2009 he participated in the series Johnny Hollywood playing the famous singer Izhar Cohen, and in August the same year he began his tour of Israel.

Personal life

Mauda still lives with his family in Elyakim. He has dated Sarit Karp, a dancer whom he met through his agency which produced a format similar to So You Think You Can Dance, which Karp was a contestant in. The couple were on an on-again, off-again relationship until 2009. Since then, Mauda is rumored to have dated Kohav Nolad 7's winner Roni Daloomi.

Singles

References

External links

Official site

boazmauda.net boazmauda.co.il boazmauda.com boazmusic.net

royalflash.co.il

Category:1987 births Category:Living people Category:People from North District (Israel) Category:Israeli male singers Category:Israeli people of Yemeni origin Category:Israeli Orthodox Jews Category:Yemenite Orthodox Jews Category:Israeli Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 2008 Category:Israeli Jews Category:Yemenite Jews Category:Kokhav Nolad winners