Samaritan Hebrew

Samaritan Hebrew
עברית ‘Ivrit
Spoken in	Israel and Palestinian Authority territories, predominantly in Nablus and Holon.
Native speakers	fewer than 1,000; liturgical only  (date missing)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite Biblical Hebrew Samaritan Hebrew
Writing system	Samaritan abjad
Language codes
ISO 639-3	heb
Linguasphere	12-AAB

Samaritan Hebrew (Hebrew: עברית שומרונית‎), is a reading tradition for Biblical Hebrew as used by the Samaritans for reading the Samaritan Pentateuch. Its pronunciation is highly similar to that of Samaritan Arabic, used by the Samaritans in prayer.

Orthography

Detail of Nabul Samaritan Pentateuch in Samaritan Hebrew.

Samaritan Hebrew is written in the Samaritan alphabet, a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet (itself a variant of the Phoenician alphabet), whereas all other varieties of Hebrew are written in the later Hebrew alphabet, a variation on the Aramaic alphabet.

Phonology

Consonants

Samaritan Hebrew consonants

		Labial	Dental				Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar~Uvular			Pharyn- geal	Glottal
			plain			emphatic			plain		emphatic
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless		t			tˤ			k		q		ʔ
	voiced	b	d						ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s			sˤ	ʃ
	voiced		z									ʕ
Approximant			l					j	w
Trill			r

Samaritan Hebrew shows the following consonantal differences from Biblical Hebrew: The original phonemes */b g d k p t/ do not have spirantized allophones, though at least some did originally in Samaritan Hebrew (evidenced in the preposition "in" ב- /af/ 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. /q/ may also be pronounced as [χ], but this occurs only rarely and in fluent reading.

Vowels

Samaritan vowels

	Front	Back
Close	i iː	u uː
Mid	e eː	(o)
Open	a aː	ɒ ɒː
Reduced	(ə)

Phonemic length is contrastive, e.g. /rɒb/ רב 'great' vs. /rɒːb/ רחב 'wide'. Long vowels are usually the result of the elision of guttural consonants.

/i/ and /e/ are both realized as [ə] in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. /bit/ בית 'house' /abbət/ הבית 'the house' /ger/ גר /aggər/ הגר. In other cases, stressed /i/ shifts to /e/ when that syllable is no longer stressed, e.g. /dabbirti/ דברתי but דברתמה /dabbertimma/. /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. In other environments, /o/ appears in closed syllables and /u/ in open syllables, e.g. דור /dor/ דורות /durot/.

Stress

Stress generally differs from other traditions, being found usually on the penultimate and sometimes on the ultimate.

Parts of speech

Pronouns

Personal

I	anáki
you (male)	átta
you (female)	átti (note the final yohdh)
he	û
she	î
we	anánu
you (male, plural)	attímma
you (female, plural)	éttên
they (male)	ímma
they (female)	ínna

Demonstrative

This: masc. ze, fem. zéot, pl. ílla.

That: alaz (written with a he at the beginning).

Relative

Who, which: éšar.

Interrogative

Who? = mi. What? = ma.

Noun

When suffixes are added, ê and ô in the last syllable may become î and û: bôr (Judean bohr) "pit" > búrôt "pits". Note also af "anger" > éppa "her anger".

Segolates behave more or less as in other Hebrew varieties: beţen "stomach" > báţnek "your stomach", ke′seph "silver" > ke′sefánu (Judean Hebrew kaspe′nu) "our silver", dérek > dirkakimma "your (m. pl.) road" but áreş (in Judean Hebrew: ’e′rets) "earth" > árşak (Judean Hebrew ’arts-ekha) "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: énnar / ánnar = "the youth"; ellêm = "the meat"; a'émur = "the donkey".

Number

Regular plural suffixes are -êm (Judean Hebrew -im) masc., -ôt (Judean Hebrew: -oth.) fem: eyyamêm "the days", elamôt "dreams".

Dual is sometimes -ayem (Judean Hebrew: a′yim), šenatayem "two years", usually -êm like the plural yédêm "hands" (Judean Hebrew yadhayim.)

Tradition of Divine name

Samaritans have the tradition of either spelling out loud with the Samaritan letters

"Yohth, Ie', Baa, Ie’ "

or saying "Shema" meaning "(The Divine) Name" in Aramaic, similar to Judean Hebrew "Ha-Shem" .

Verbs

Affixes are:

	perfect	imperfect
I	-ti	e-
you (male)	-ta	ti-
you (female)	-ti	?
he	-	yi-
she	-a	ti-
we	?	ne-
you (plural)	-tímma	te- -un
you (female, plural)	-tên	?
they (male)	-u	yi- -u
they (female)	?	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

Bibliography

• J. Rosenberg, Lehrbuch der samaritanischen Sprache und Literatur, A. Hartleben's Verlag: Wien, Pest, Leipzig.
• Ben-Ḥayyim, Ze'ev (2000). A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew. Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press. ISBN 1-57506-047-7.