Samaritan Hebrew
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Samaritan Hebrew (Template:Langx) is a reading tradition used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Biblical Hebrew 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.Template:Sfn 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
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 it is 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.[1]
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.[1]
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.[3] 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.Template:Sfn
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-Ḥayyim, 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.Template:Sfn
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.[4] 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[5] 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
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| Samaritan Letter | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan | Template:Script/Samaritan |
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Vowels
| Niqqud with Template:Script/Samaritan/מ | File:Sam voc a.jpg | File:Sam voc e.jpg | File:Sam voc i.jpg | File:Sam voc o.jpg | File:Sam voc dagesh.jpg | File:Sam voc ayinpatah1.jpg, File:Sam voc ayinpatah2.jpg, File:Sam voc ayinpatah3.jpg |
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Phonology
Consonants
Samaritan Hebrew shows the following consonantal differences from Biblical Hebrew: The original phonemes Script error: No such module "IPA". do not have spirantized allophones, though at least some did originally in Samaritan Hebrew (evidenced in the preposition "in" ב- Script error: No such module "IPA". or Script error: No such module "IPA".). Script error: No such module "IPA". has shifted to Script error: No such module "IPA". (except occasionally Script error: No such module "IPA". > Script error: No such module "IPA".). Script error: No such module "IPA". has shifted to Script error: No such module "IPA". everywhere except in the conjunction ו- 'and' where it is pronounced as Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA". has merged with Script error: No such module "IPA"., unlike in all other contemporary Hebrew traditions in which it is pronounced Script error: No such module "IPA".. The laryngeals Script error: No such module "IPA". have become Script error: No such module "IPA". or null everywhere, except before Script error: No such module "IPA". where Script error: No such module "IPA". sometimes become Script error: No such module "IPA".. Script error: No such module "IPA". is sometimes pronounced as Script error: No such module "IPA"., though not in Pentateuch reading, as a result of influence from Samaritan Arabic.[6] Script error: No such module "IPA". may also be pronounced as Script error: No such module "IPA"., but this occurs only rarely and in fluent reading.[6]
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. Script error: No such module "IPA". רב 'great' vs. Script error: No such module "IPA". רחב 'wide'.[7] Long vowels are usually the result of the elision of guttural consonants.[7]
Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". are both realized as Script error: No such module "IPA". in closed post-tonic syllables, e.g. Script error: No such module "IPA". בית 'house' Script error: No such module "IPA". הבית 'the house' Script error: No such module "IPA". גר Script error: No such module "IPA". הגר.[8] In other cases, stressed Script error: No such module "IPA". shifts to Script error: No such module "IPA". when that syllable is no longer stressed, e.g. Script error: No such module "IPA". דברתי but דברתמה Script error: No such module "IPA"..[8] Script error: No such module "IPA". and Script error: No such module "IPA". only contrast in open post-tonic syllables, e.g. ידו Script error: No such module "IPA". 'his hand' ידיו Script error: No such module "IPA". 'his hands', where Script error: No such module "IPA". stems from a contracted diphthong.[9] In other environments, Script error: No such module "IPA". appears in closed syllables and Script error: No such module "IPA". in open syllables, e.g. דור Script error: No such module "IPA". דורות Script error: No such module "IPA"..[9]
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 | Template:Script/Samaritan ā̊nā̊ki | Template:Script/Samaritan ā̊nā̊nnu | |
| 2nd person | male | Template:Script/Samaritan åttå | Template:Script/Samaritan attimma |
| female | Template:Script/Samaritan åtti (note the final yodh) | Template:Script/Samaritan attən | |
| 3rd person | male | Template:Script/Samaritan ū | Template:Script/Samaritan imma |
| female | Template:Script/Samaritan ī | Template:Script/Samaritan inna | |
Demonstrative
| this | that | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | masc | Template:Script/Samaritan zē | alaz (written with a he at the beginning).Script error: No such module "Unsubst". |
| fem | Template:Script/Samaritan zē'ot | ||
| plural | Template:Script/Samaritan illa | ||
Relative
Who, which: éšar.
Interrogative
- Who? = Template:Script/Samaritan mī.
- What? = Template:Script/Samaritan 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
Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". 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
See also
References
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- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Frederic Madden, History of Jewish Coinage and of Money in the Old and New Testament, page ii
- ↑ Exercitationes ecclesiasticae in utrumque Samaritanorum Pentateuchum, 1631
- ↑ Template:Cite CE1913
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Footnotes".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Footnotes". (while Ben-Hayyim notates four degrees of vowel length, he concedes that only his "fourth degree" has phonemic value)
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Footnotes".
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "Footnotes".
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Bibliography
- J. Rosenberg, Lehrbuch der samaritanischen Sprache und Literatur, A. Hartleben's Verlag: Wien, Pest, Leipzig.
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External links
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