Samaritan Hebrew

Samaritan Hebrew is a special way of reading used by the Samaritans. It helps them read the Biblical Hebrew found in the Samaritan Pentateuch during their prayers and ceremonies.

Long ago, the Samaritans stopped speaking Ancient Hebrew in their daily lives. Instead, they began using Samaritan Aramaic, which also eventually stopped being a everyday spoken language. By the time between the 10th and 12th centuries, most Samaritans spoke a special type of Levantine Arabic, known as Samaritan Palestinian Arabic.

Today, Samaritans living in places like Holon often speak Modern Hebrew, while those in Kiryat Luza speak Samaritan Arabic. Even though they use different languages now, Samaritan Hebrew remains important for their religious traditions and prayers. The sounds of Samaritan Hebrew are quite similar to the sounds they use in their everyday speech.

History and discovery

The early history of Samaritan Hebrew is not well known. It likely began to separate from regular Hebrew around the first century before Christ, but its roots may go back even further. Over time, it was replaced by another language called Samaritan Aramaic, though it stayed important for religious services.

Later, around the 1300s, people started using Samaritan Hebrew again for special religious poems. The world learned more about this language when a important copy of their holy book was shared in 1631. A famous scholar later wrote a big book about these traditions in the middle of the last century.

Orthography

Main articles: Samaritan alphabet and Samaritan vocalization

Samaritan Hebrew is written with a special set of letters called the Samaritan alphabet. This alphabet comes from an older way of writing called the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which is related to an even older script known as the Proto-Sinaitic script.

The Samaritan alphabet looks similar to the writing found on ancient Hebrew coins and inscriptions. Most other types of Hebrew writing, used by Jews, use a different style called the square Hebrew alphabet. This square style comes from the Aramaic alphabet, which Jews started using after they were taken away from their homeland during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. Around the 3rd century BCE, Jews began using this square script, which was used by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire for their official writing called Imperial Aramaic. The Samaritans, however, kept using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which later became the Samaritan alphabet.

Today, people sometimes use a flowing, cursive style of the Samaritan alphabet for personal items.

Letter pronunciation

Consonants

Vowels

Phonology

Samaritan Hebrew has some special sounds that make it different from other Hebrew traditions. For example, some sounds that were once different are now pronounced the same, and some sounds have changed over time.

The way words are stressed, or which part of the word gets extra emphasis, is also different in Samaritan Hebrew. It is usually on the second-to-last syllable of a word, or sometimes the last syllable.

Consonants

Vowels

Stress

Grammar

Samaritan Hebrew has special ways of speaking about people, places, and things. For example, when adding endings to words, some sounds change. Like, "bōr" meaning "pit" can become "buˈrōt" for "pits."

The language also has special words for making things definite, like adding "the" in English. For example, "the youth" is said as "ˈennar" or "ˈannar."

Tradition of the Divine Name

Like Jews, Samaritans have a special way to talk about a very important holy name. They either say the letters or use a word meaning "the Name" in another language.

Particles

Samaritan Hebrew uses special little words called particles to show relationships between words. For example, "in" can sound different depending on the word that follows it.

There are also words for "and," "or," "if," and "but," as well as many other small words that help sentences make sense.