The Hebrew languages refer to a variety of Canaanite languages and dialects historically spoken by various peoples in the region of Canaan whom Abrahamic religion believes to have been Hebrews who emigrated from the Chaldees. These different languages were not necessarily more or less related to each other than to other Canaanite languages, and their traditional distinction as Hebrew languages is almost purely by religious belief.

Of the varieties of Hebrew, only one — Modern Hebrew — survives as a spoken language today, and is one of the official languages of the State of Israel. A few others survive as liturgical languages, but are otherwise not actively used in daily life.

The Modern Hebrew language is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. What makes it unique is that the original Bible, the Torah, by Orthodox Jews held to be recorded in the time of Moses 3,300 years ago, was written in Biblical Classical Hebrew. Jews have always called it the לשון הקודש Lashon haKodesh ("The Holy Tongue") as many of them believe that it was chosen to convey God's message to humanity. After the first Destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC, Hebrew was replaced in daily use by Aramaic and became primarily a religious and literary language, used in prayer and study of the Mishnah (part of the Talmud).

Hebrew was reborn as a spoken language during the late 19th and early 20th century as Modern Hebrew, replacing Arabic, Ladino, Yiddish, and other languages of the Jewish diaspora as the spoken language of the majority of the Jewish people living in Israel.

Modern Hebrew is the primary official language of the state of Israel, (Arabic also has official language status). The Hebrew name for the language is עברית, or `Ivrit (pronounced eevREET [ivr\it]). 

Geographic Distribution:

Hebrew is spoken primarily in Israel by its close to six million Jews as well as by the two million Arabs who live there. However, outside of Israel, Sephardic Jews, mainly in France (with over half a million Jews), and expatriate Israelis, mainly in the United States, (about half a million people), tend to use it as a home language. Usually, most Ashkenazi Jews not born in Israel, (about eight million people), find it difficult to learn and use Hebrew in colloquial speech. The minority (perhaps 20% at most) who attended Jewish schools or yeshivas usually have a greater familiarity with and can read and even write Hebrew, but speaking it only seems to really take root and flourish when enough time is spent in Israel talking with native Hebrew speakers.  [...]

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Overview & Classification and Geographical Distribution information comes directly from Wikipedia, "The free encyclopedia"