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 change from regular Hebrew around the first century before Christ, but it might have started even earlier. Over time, it was replaced by another language called Samaritan Aramaic, but it stayed important for religious services.

Later, around the 1300s, people began using Samaritan Hebrew again for special religious poems. More about this language became known when an 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 uses a special set of letters called the Samaritan alphabet. This alphabet comes from an older writing style named the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which is linked to an even older script called the Proto-Sinaitic script.

The Samaritan alphabet looks similar to the writing on ancient Hebrew coins and writings. Most other types of Hebrew writing, used by Jews, use a different style named the square Hebrew alphabet. This square style comes from the Aramaic alphabet, which Jews began using after they were taken away from their homeland during the Babylonian captivity in the 6th century BCE. Around the 3rd century BCE, Jews started using this square script, which was used by the rulers of the Achaemenid Empire for their official writing called Imperial Aramaic. The Samaritans kept using the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which later turned into 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. Some sounds that used to be different are now said the same way, 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 to talk about people, places, and things. For example, sounds can change when adding endings to words. "Bōr" means "pit" and can change to "buˈrōt" for "pits."

The language also has special words to make 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 small words called particles to show relationships between words. For example, "in" can sound different depending on the next word.

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