Editing Hebrew language (section)

===Classical Hebrew===
====Biblical Hebrew====
{{main|Biblical Hebrew}}
In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between {{circa|1000 BCE}} and {{circa|400 CE}}.<ref name=dvbrbw>{{Cite web|url=http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_36.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204035409/http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/Articles/article_36.pdf|url-status=dead|title=William M. Schniedewind, "Prolegomena for the Sociolinguistics of Classical Hebrew", The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures vol. 5 article 6|archivedate=4 February 2012}}</ref> 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, also called Old Hebrew or Paleo-Hebrew, from the 10th to the 6th century BCE, corresponding to the Monarchic Period until the [[Babylonian captivity|Babylonian exile]] and represented by certain texts in the Hebrew Bible ([[Tanakh]]), notably the [[Song of Moses]] (Exodus 15) and the [[Song of Deborah]] (Judges 5). It was written in the [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet]]. A script descended from this, the [[Samaritan alphabet]], is still used by the [[Samaritans]].
* [[File:Sefer-torah-vayehi-binsoa.jpg|thumb|right|Hebrew script used in [[Ktav Stam|writing a Torah scroll]]. Note ornamental "[[Ktav Stam#Serifs (tagin)|crowns]]" on tops of certain letters.]] Standard Biblical Hebrew, also called Biblical Hebrew, Early Biblical Hebrew, Classical Biblical Hebrew or Classical Hebrew (in the narrowest sense), 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.
* Late Biblical Hebrew, from the 5th to the 3rd centuries BCE, corresponding to the [[Persian period]] and 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 ''she-'' (alternative of "asher", meaning "that, which, who"). It adopted the [[Aramaic alphabet|Imperial Aramaic script]] (from which the modern Hebrew script descends).
* [[Israelian Hebrew]] is a proposed northern dialect of biblical Hebrew, believed to have existed 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.

====Early post-Biblical Hebrew====
* [[Dead Sea Scrolls|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 revolt|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).<ref name=Segal>M. Segal, ''A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927).</ref> 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.<ref name=Qimron>[[Elisha Qimron|Qimron, Elisha]] (1986). ''The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls''. Harvard Semitic Studies 29. (Atlanta: Scholars Press).</ref>

By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] around 135 CE.