Samaritan Hebrew
Reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Samaritan Hebrew (Samaritan Hebrew: ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ, romanized: ʿÎbrit) is a reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch.
For the Samaritans, Ancient Hebrew ceased to be a spoken everyday language. It was succeeded by Samaritan Aramaic, which itself ceased to be a spoken language sometime between the 10th and 12th centuries and was succeeded by Levantine Arabic (specifically, the Samaritan variety of Palestinian Arabic.
The phonology of Samaritan Hebrew is very similar to that of Samaritan Arabic and is used by the Samaritans in prayer.[2] Today, the spoken vernacular among Samaritans is evenly split between Modern Hebrew and Samaritan Arabic, depending on whether they reside in Holon or Kiryat Luza
History and discovery
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The early history of Samaritan Hebrew is poorly documented, though it cannot be easily associated with early Israelian Hebrew. Because of the relatively late divergence of Samaritanism from mainstream Judaism its only by the first century BCE that there was definitely a separate Samaritan dialect. The roots of the Samaritan dialect are likely older than this, but were not at this point distinctly Samaritan.[3]
The dialect did not survive long in a literary form as by the first century CE, it was already being supplanted by Samaritan Aramaic. Though it remained in liturgical use, Samaritan Hebrew eventually nearly stopped being used as a language for new literary compositions.
Starting in the 1300s, a liturgical revival of Samaritan Hebrew began, which resulted in new Hebrew piyyutim.[3]
The Samaritan language first became known in detail to the Western world with the publication of a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch in 1631 by Jean Morin.[5] In 1616 the traveler Pietro Della Valle had purchased a copy of the text in Damascus. This manuscript, now known as Codex B, was deposited in a Parisian library.[6]
In five volumes between 1957 and 1977, Ze'ev Ben-Haim published his monumental Hebrew-language work on the Hebrew and Aramaic traditions of the Samaritans. Ben-Haim, whose views prevail today, proved that modern Samaritan Hebrew is not very different from the Hebrew spoken by other local groups in the Second Temple period before Middle Aramaic supplanted it.[7]
Orthography
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Samaritan Hebrew is written in the Samaritan alphabet, a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which in turn is a variant of the earlier Proto-Sinaitic script.
The Samaritan alphabet is close to the script that appears on many Ancient Hebrew coins and inscriptions.[8] By contrast, all other varieties of Hebrew, as written by Jews, employ the later square Hebrew alphabet, which is in fact a variation of the Aramaic alphabet that Jews began using in the Babylonian captivity following the exile of the Kingdom of Judah in the 6th century BCE. During the 3rd century BCE, Jews began to use this stylized "square" form of the script used by the Achaemenid Empire for Imperial Aramaic, its chancellery script[9] while the Samaritans continued to use the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which evolved into the Samaritan alphabet.
In modern times, a cursive variant of the Samaritan alphabet is used in personal affects.
Letter pronunciation
Consonants
| Name | A'laf | Bit | Ga'man | Da'lat | Iy | Baa | Zen | It | Ṭit | Yut | Kaaf | La'bat | Mim | Nun | Sin'gaat | In | Fi | Tsaa'diy | Quf | Rish | Shan | Taaf |
| Samaritan Letter | ࠀ | ࠁ | ࠂ | ࠃ | ࠄ | ࠅ | ࠆ | ࠇ | ࠈ | ࠉ | ࠊ | ࠋ | ࠌ | ࠍ | ࠎ | ࠏ | ࠐ | ࠑ | ࠒ | ࠓ | ࠔ | ࠕ |
| Square Hebrew (Ktav Ashuri) letter | א | ב | ג | ד | ה | ו | ז | ח | ט | י | כ | ל | מ | נ | ס | ע | פ | צ | ק | ר | ש | ת |
| Pronunciation | [ʔ] | [b] | [ɡ] | [d] | [ʔ] | [b], [w] | [z] | [ʔ], [ʕ] | [tˤ] | [j] | [k] | [l] | [m] | [n] | [s] | [ʔ], [ʕ] | [f], [b] | [sˤ] | [q], [ʔ] | [r] | [ʃ] | [t] |
Vowels
| Niqqud with ࠌ/מ |  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 ,  ,  |
| value | /a/, /ɒ/ | /e/ | /e/, /i/ | /o/, /u/ | (geminate consonant) | /ʕa/ |
Phonology
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Consonants
Samaritan Hebrew shows the following consonantal differences from Biblical Hebrew: The original phonemes */b ɡ d k p t/ do not have spirantized allophones, though at least some did originally in Samaritan Hebrew (evidenced in the preposition "in" ב- /av/ or /b/). */p/ has shifted to /f/ (except occasionally */pː/ > /bː/). */w/ has shifted to /b/ everywhere except in the conjunction ו- 'and' where it is pronounced as /w/. */ɬ/ has merged with /ʃ/, unlike in all other contemporary Hebrew traditions in which it is pronounced /s/. The laryngeals /ʔ ħ h ʕ/ have become /ʔ/ or null everywhere, except before /a ɒ/ where */ħ ʕ/ sometimes become /ʕ/. /q/ is sometimes pronounced as [ʔ], though not in Pentateuch reading, as a result of influence from Samaritan Arabic.[11] /q/ may also be pronounced as [χ], but this occurs only rarely and in fluent reading.[11]
Vowels
Phonemic length is contrastive, e.g. /rɒb/ רב 'great' vs. /rɒːb/ רחב 'wide'.[13] Long vowels are usually the result of the elision of guttural consonants.[13]
/i/ and /e/ are both realized as [ə] in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. /bit/ בית 'house' /abbət/ הבית 'the house' /ɡer/ גר /aɡɡər/ הגר.[14] In other cases, stressed /i/ shifts to /e/ when that syllable is no longer stressed, e.g. /dabbirti/ דברתי but דברתמה /dabbertimma/.[14] /u/ and /o/ only contrast in open post-tonic syllables, e.g. ידו /jedu/ 'his hand' ידיו /jedo/ 'his hands', where /o/ stems from a contracted diphthong.[15] In other environments, /o/ appears in closed syllables and /u/ in open syllables, e.g. דור /dor/ דורות /durot/.[15]
Stress
Stress generally differs from other traditions, being found usually on the penultimate and sometimes on the ultimate.
Grammar
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Pronouns
Personal
| singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st person | ࠀࠍࠊࠉ ā̊nā̊ki | ࠀࠍࠇࠍࠅ ā̊nā̊nnu | |
| 2nd person | male | ࠀࠕࠄ åttå | ࠀࠕࠌ attimma |
| female | ࠀࠕ(ࠉ) åtti (note the final yodh) | ࠀࠕࠍ attən | |
| 3rd person | male | ࠄࠅࠀ ū | ࠄࠌ imma |
| female | ࠄࠉࠀ ī | ࠄࠍࠄ inna | |
Demonstrative
| this | that | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | masc | ࠆࠄ zē | alaz (written with a he at the beginning).[citation needed] |
| fem | ࠆࠀࠕ zē'ot | ||
| plural | ࠀࠋࠄ illa | ||
Relative
Who, which: éšar.
Interrogative
- Who? = ࠌࠉ mī.
- What? = ࠌࠄ mā̊.
Noun
When suffixes are added, ē and ō in an unstressed syllable may become ī and ū: bōr (Judean bohr) "pit" > buˈrōt "pits". Note also af "anger" > ˈeppa "her anger".
Segolates behave more or less as in other Hebrew varieties: ˈbeṭen "stomach" > ˈbaṭnek "your stomach," ke′seph "silver" > ke′sefánu (Judean Hebrew kasˈpenu) "our silver," ˈderek > dirkaˈkimma "your (m. pl.) road" but ˈareṣ (in Judean Hebrew: ˈʾereṣ) "earth" > ˈarṣak (Judean Hebrew ˈʾárṣeḵa) "your earth".
Article
The definite article is a- or e-, and causes gemination of the following consonant unless it is a guttural; it is written with a he, but as usual, the h is silent. Thus, for example: ˈennar / ˈannar = "the youth"; elˈlēm = "the meat"; aˈʾemor = "the donkey".
Number
Regular plural suffixes are
- masc: -ˈēm (Judean Hebrew -im)
- eyyaˈmēm "the days"
- fem: -ˈt (Judean Hebrew: -oth.)
- elaˈmōt "dreams"
Dual is sometimes -aˈyem (Judean Hebrew: -ˈayim), šenatayem "two years," usually -ˈēm like the plural yeˈdēm "hands" (Judean yaˈḏayim.)
Tradition of the Divine Name
Similar to Jews, Samaritans have the tradition of taboo avoidance of the Tetragrammaton, either spelling out loud with the Samaritan letters: "Yoḏ Ye Bā Ye", or saying Shema "the Name" in Aramaic, similar to Judean HaShem.
Verbs
| perfect | imperfect | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| 1st person | -ti | -nu | e- | ne- | |
| 2nd person | male | -ta | -tímma | ti- | te- -un |
| female | -ti | -tên | ti- -i | te- -na | |
| 3nd person | male | - | -u | yi- | yi- -u |
| female | -a | ? | ti- | ti- -inna | |
Particles
Prepositions
"in, using", pronounced:
- b- before a vowel (or, therefore, a former guttural): b-érbi = "with a sword"; b-íštu "with his wife".
- ba- before a bilabial consonant: bá-bêt (Judean Hebrew: ba-ba′yith) "in a house", ba-mádbar "in a wilderness"
- ev- before other consonant: ev-lila "in a night", ev-dévar "with the thing".
- ba-/be- before the definite article ("the"): barrášet (Judean Hebrew: Bere'·shith') "in the beginning"; béyyôm "in the day".
"as, like", pronounced:
- ka without the article: ka-demútu "in his likeness"
- ke with the article: ké-yyôm "like the day".
"to" pronounced:
- l- before a vowel: l-ávi "to my father", l-évad "to the slave"
- el-, al- before a consonant: al-béni "to the children (of)"
- le- before l: le-léket "to go"
- l- before the article: lammúad "at the appointed time"; la-şé'on "to the flock"
"and" pronounced:
- w- before consonants: wal-Šárra "and to Sarah"
- u- before vowels: u-yeššeg "and he caught up".
Other prepositions:
- al: towards
- elfáni: before
- bêd-u: for him
- elqérôt: against
- balêd-i: except me
Conjunctions
- u: or
- em: if, when
- avel: but
Adverbs
- la: not
- kâ: also
- afu: also
- ín-ak: you are not
- ífa (ípa): where?
- méti: when
- fâ: here
- šémma: there
- mittét: under
References
Bibliography
External links
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