Editing Hebrew alphabet (section)

==History==
[[File:Paleo-Hebrew abjad.svg|300px|thumb|Paleo-Hebrew alphabet containing 22 letters, period, [[geresh]], and [[gershayim]]]]
[[File:Aleppo Codex Joshua 1 1.jpg|300px|thumb|The ''[[Aleppo Codex]]'', a tenth-century [[Masoretic Text]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]]. [[Book of Joshua]] 1:1]]
{{Main|History of the Hebrew alphabet}}
The [[Canaanite languages|Canaanite]] dialects were largely indistinguishable before around 1000 BCE.<ref>{{Citation | first = Joseph | last = Naveh | year = 1987 | contribution = Proto-Canaanite, Archaic Greek, and the Script of the Aramaic Text on the Tell Fakhariyah Statue | editor1-last = Miller | title = Ancient Israelite Religion|display-editors=etal}}.</ref> An example of related early [[Semitic inscriptions]] from the area include the tenth-century [[Gezer calendar]] over which scholars are divided as to whether its language is [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] or [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] and whether the script is [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet|Proto-Canaanite]] or [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet|Paleo-Hebrew]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith|first1=Mark S.|year=2002 |title=The Early History of God: Yahweh and the other deities in ancient Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1yM3AuBh4AsC&dq=Gezer+calendar+phoenician&pg=PA20 |pages=20|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co |isbn=978-0-8028-3972-5}}</ref><ref>[https://esr.academia.edu/AdamBean/Papers/443200/The_Calendar_Tablet_from_Gezer The Calendar Tablet from Gezer, Adam L Bean, Emmanual School of Religion] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110302090228/http://esr.academia.edu/AdamBean/Papers/443200/The_Calendar_Tablet_from_Gezer |date=March 2, 2011 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.bib-arch.org/scholars-study/jezebel-seal-06.asp "Is it "Tenable"?", Hershel Shanks, Biblical Archaeology Review] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225054108/http://www.bib-arch.org/scholars-study/jezebel-seal-06.asp |date=December 25, 2010 }}</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IhFxx8eQIDsC&q=gezer&pg=PA56 Spelling in the Hebrew Bible: Dahood memorial lecture, By Francis I. Andersen, A. Dean Forbes, p56]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pardee|first1=Dennis|title=A Brief Case for the Language of the 'Gezer Calendar' as Phoenician|journal=Linguistic Studies in Phoenician, ed. Robert D. Holmstedt and Aaron Schade|pages=43|publisher=Winona Lake}}</ref><ref name="Rollston2010">{{cite book|author=Chris A. Rollston|title=Writing and Literacy in the World of Ancient Israel: Epigraphic Evidence from the Iron Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kx9Uke_IfloC&pg=PA30|year=2010|publisher=Society of Biblical Lit|isbn=978-1-58983-107-0|pages=30–}}</ref>

A Hebrew variant of the [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet]], called the [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet]] by scholars, began to emerge around 800 BCE.{{sfn|Saénz-Badillos|1993|page=16}} An example is the [[Siloam inscription]] ({{Circa|700 BCE}}).{{sfn|Saénz-Badillos|1993|page=61&ndash;62}}

The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was used in the ancient kingdoms of [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Israel]] and [[Kingdom of Judah|Judah]]. Following the [[Babylonian exile]] of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE, [[Jews]] began using a form of the [[Aramaic alphabet|Imperial Aramaic alphabet]], another offshoot of the same family of scripts, which flourished during the [[Achaemenid Empire]] (and which in turn had been adopted from the [[Assyria]]ns). The [[Samaritans]], who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. During the 3rd century BCE (after the end of the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE), Jews began to use a stylized, "square" form of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet,{{sfn|Saénz-Badillos|1993}} while the Samaritans continued to use a form of the Paleo-Hebrew script called the [[Samaritan alphabet]]. For a few centuries, Jews used both scripts (although use of Paleo-Hebrew was limited then) before eventually, after the 1st century BCE, settling on the square Assyrian form.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

The square Hebrew alphabet was later adapted and used for writing languages of the [[Jewish diaspora]]{{dash}}such as [[Karaim language|Karaim]], the [[Judeo-Arabic languages]], Judaeo-Spanish, and Yiddish. The Hebrew alphabet continued in use for scholarly writing in Hebrew and came again into everyday use with the rebirth of the Hebrew language as a spoken language in the 18th and 19th centuries, especially in [[Israel]].{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}