Paper Title
A Dead Language Comes to Life

Abstract
Every year, many languages dating from a few hundred years old to thousands, die. Among these are American Indian tribal languages, Polynesian tribal languages, African, Inuit, and others become extinct. African-Americans living in the US lost the tribal languages they spoke in Africa 400 years ago and today they speak English. The peoples of South America speak little or no Mayan, Aztec, or Incan but all of them speak Spanish. The vast majority of the Welsh in Wales speak only English and this is true for the Scots and Irish as well. The Aboriginals in Australia and the Inuits speak English while their native tongues are being forgotten and disappearing. On the other hand, there are nations fighting to preserve their languages as a means of preserving their nationhood: the Basques and Catalunians in Spain (in the face of Spanish), the Navajo in the US (in the place of English, or at least in equal parts), the Berbers in Morocco (as opposed to Arabic). Some of the Welsh are battling to keep their language as are some Incas in Peru. The Scots and the Irish have mostly given up the cause. However, there is no instance in human history of a people that was conquered, driven from their land and persecuted in the four corners of the earth and who perforce spoke all of the languages in the countries they emigrated to but who, after 2000 years returned to their native land and began speaking their national language. Why did this people, the Jewish people, do this? This paper will attempt to answer the question as well as shed light on the manner in which this “language miracle” took place. Keywords - Hebrew, Language Miracle