Tonight in shul I heard one fellow tell another that [Modern] Hebrew is a Tamei language. But he told him this in Hebrew [the other guy boomed in response "אתה משוגע!!!"]. Movies are Tamei - so none of us watch movies [I hope....]. TV is Tamei. So we don't watch TV [ditto...]. Of course. So if Hebrew is really Tamei, what business does he have speaking it?
It is also true that the goal of Ben Yehuda and his cronies was that the Modern Hebrew language and living in the land should replace Torah and Mitzvos. So while in the olden days speaking Hebrew was a way of preserving our heritage ["שלא שינו לשונם"], in more contemporary times it actually became a means to jettison our heritage [sorta like the מצבה idea]. So in the earlier part of the previous century, there was a battle waged between the Torah Jews and secular Jews over the Hebrew language. The Torah Jews ferociously insisted on holding on to Yiddish and so was the language of the [Ashkenazi] Yeshivos. Alas, the Zionists won. In even the most Chareidi of Yeshivos and Kollelim, Modern Hebrew is spoken [although some shiurim are still given in Yiddish. In the Chasidish Yeshivos, Yiddish is much more ubiquitous]. A large percentage of boys don't even understand Yiddish [רח"ל:-)]!
So on one hand - much of Modern Hebrew IS based on Lashon Hakodesh, with words taken from the Tanach and Torah Shebial Peh. On the other - the pronunciation, many of the words and concepts and the motivation behind its rebirth, are not traditional or even ANTI-traditional.
Like most things in life - there are multiple facets and it is not all black or white.
