Samaritan Aramaic language
| Samaritan Aramaic | |
|---|---|
| ארמית Arāmît | |
| Pronunciation | [arɑmiθ], [arɑmit], [ɑrɑmɑjɑ], [ɔrɔmɔjɔ] |
| Region | Israel and Palestine, predominantly in Samaria and Holon. |
| Extinct | by 12th century; liturgical use[1] |
| Samaritan alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | sam |
| ISO 639-3 | sam |
Samaritan Aramaic, or Samaritan, is the dialect of Aramaic used by the Samaritans in their sacred and scholarly literature. This should not be confused with the Samaritan Hebrew language of the Scriptures. Samaritan Aramaic ceased to be a spoken language some time between the 10th and the 12th centuries.
In form it resembles the Aramaic of the Targumim, the Aramaic word for “interpretation” or “paraphrase”, and is written in the Samaritan alphabet.
Important works written in Samaritan include the Samaritan translation of the Samaritan Hebrew Pentateuch in the form of the targum paraphrased version. There are also legal, exegetical and liturgical texts, though later works of the same kind were often written in Arabic.
Sample
Exodus XX.1-6:
- Umellel Elâ'e yet kel milleyya aalen elmimar.
- Ana Šema Eluek deppiqtek men ara Mişrem mibbet awadem.
- La ya'i lak ela'en uranem al eppi.
- La tewed lak efsel ukel demu debšumeyya millel wedbaraa millera wedbameyya millera laraa.
- La tisgad lon ula tešememminon ala anaki Šema elaak el qana fuqed ob awaan al banem wel telitaem wel rewi'a'em elsenai.
- Wabed esed lalafem elra'emi welnateri fiqqudi.
Notice the similarities with Judeo-Aramaic as found in Targum Onqelos to this same passage (some expressions below are paraphrased, not literally translated):
Bibliography
- J. Rosenberg, Lehrbuch der samaritanischen Sprache und Literatur, A. Hartleben's Verlag: Wien, Pest, Leipzig.
- Tal, Abraham, A Dictionary of Samaritan Aramaic: Brill 2000 ISBN 90-04-11645-1
External links
- Samaritan Aramaic Targum - Aramaic text of Samaritan Targum with English translation.
References
- ^ Samaritan Aramaic at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
