Samaritan Hebrew language

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Samaritan Hebrew עברית ‘Ivrit
Pronunciation:	[ʔiwˈʁiθ]
Spoken in:	Israel and Palestinian Authority territories, predominantly in Samaria and Holon.
Total speakers:	fewer than 1,000; liturgical only
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Northwest Semitic Canaanite Samaritan Hebrew
Writing system:	Samaritan abjad
Official status
Official language in:	none
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`—`
ISO 639-3:	`heb`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Samaritan Hebrew language is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew as pronounced and written by the Samaritans. It is used in the reading tradition of the Samaritan Pentateuch.

1 Writing
2 Pronunciation
3 Grammar
4 Bibliography

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

The Samaritan pronunciation of Hebrew differs in several respects from most others. The laryngeals He and Heth have disappeared or turned into vowels. Beth and Waw both are pronounced as b (in fact, the letters' names are pronounced Bît and Ba), only the waw-conjunctive is pronounced as u. There is no double pronunciation of the Shin like Jewish Hebrew; it is always pronounced sh. Consonants with dagesh are pronounced geminate. Stress is commonly penultimate rather than ultimate.

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

This: masc. ze, fem. zéot, pl. ílla.

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

Who, which: éšar.

Who? = mi. What? = ma.

When suffixes are added, ê and ô in the last syllable may become î and û: bôr "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", kesef "silver" > kesfánu "our silver", dérek > dirkakimma "your (m. pl.) road" but áreş "earth" > árşak "your earth".

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".

Regular plural suffixes are -êm masc., -ôt fem: eyyamêm "the days", elamôt "dreams".

Dual is sometimes -ayem (šenatayem "two years"), usually -êm like the plural (yédêm "hands".)

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

"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 "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 "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

u: or
em: if, when
avel: but

la: not
kâ: also
afu: also
ín-ak: you are not
ífa (ípa): where?
méti: when
fâ: here
šémma: there
mittét: under

J. Rosenberg, Lehrbuch der samaritanischen Sprache und Literatur, A. Hartleben's Verlag: Wien, Pest, Leipzig.
Ben-Hayyim, Ze'ev, and Tal, Abraham, A Grammar of Samaritan Hebrew Based on the Recitation of the Law in Comparison with the Tiberian and Other Jewish Traditions: 2000 ISBN 1-57506-047-7