Mishnaic Hebrew century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew began to fall into disuse as a spoken language. The Babylonian Gemara (, circa 500), as well as the earlier Jerusalem Talmud published between 350 and 400, generally comment on the Mishnah and Baraitot in Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which sometimes occurs in the Gemara text. Many of the characteristic features of Mishnaic Hebrew pronunciation may well have been found already in the period of Late Biblical Hebrew. A notable characteristic distinguishing it from Biblical Hebrew of the
Leiden Jerusalem Talmud Talmud the Leiden Talmud was lost for around three hundred years. It was only to be rediscovered in the mid nineteenth century in the Library of the city of Leiden. It had been entrusted to the Library by the notable Protestant scholar Joseph Scaliger who was a professor at Leiden. The Leiden Talmud was transferred to the University of Leiden Library along with the rest of Scaliger's collection of manuscripts. Recently the Academy of Hebrew Language published an exact transcription of the Leiden Talmud along with carefully annotated corrections. In 1973 the manuscript was restored and rebound. Leiden Jerusalem Talmud