1United States Census 2000 PHC-T-37. Ability to Speak English by Language Spoken at Home 2000. Table 1a.PDF&_160;(11.8&_160;KiB)Extinct as a regularly spoken language by the 4th century CE, but survived as a liturgical and literary language; revived in the 1880s
The modern word "Hebrew" is derived from the word "ivri" which in turn may be based upon the root "`avar" (???) meaning "to cross over". The related name Eber occurs in Genesis 1021 and possibly means "the one who traverses". In the Bible "Hebrew" is called Yehudith (??????) because Judah (Yehuda) was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation, late 8th century BCE (Is 36, 2 Kings 18). In Isaiah 1918, it is also called the "Language of Canaan" (?????? ????????)
The core of the Tanakh (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 Leshon HaKodesh (???? ?????), "The Holy Tongue", since ancient times.
