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
Revival of the Hebrew language Declaration of 1917 and the Second Aliyah. As a greater number of children passed through Hebrew language schools, the number of people who spoke Hebrew as their first language grew. As the number of people whose primary language was Hebrew increased, so did demand for Hebrew reading materials and entertainment such as books, newspapers, and plays. By 1916-1918, about 34,000 Jews in Palestine recorded Hebrew as their native language. After World War I, it was legislated by the Mandate over Palestine that English, Hebrew, and Arabic would be the official spoken language of Palestine. As the Jewish community in Palestine,