Hebrew language Gemara, generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which sometimes occurs in the text of the Gemara. Because as early as the Torah's transcription the Scribe has been the highest position in Judaism, Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as a spoken language, it continued to be used as a "lingua franca" among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the
Yemenite Hebrew is written [in the Scriptures]: Ewes ("raḥelim"), two-hundred.' He answered him, 'The language of the Torah is by itself, and the language employed by the Sages is by itself!'" (לשון תורה לעצמה, לשון חכמים לעצמן). This passage from the Talmud is often quoted by grammarians of Yemenite origin to explain certain "discrepancies" found in vocalization of words where a comparable source can be found in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Yemenite tradition in rabbinic literature to say ("maʻbīr"), rather than ("maʻăvīr") – although the latter rendering appears in Scripture , or to say ("zīʻah"), with "ḥīraq", rather than, ("zeʻah"),