Samaritan
Language Information
Samaritan refers to both the Samaritan script and the Samaritan Hebrew and Aramaic used by the Samaritan community. Today about 900 Samaritans live in two communities, on Mount Gerizim near Nablus in the West Bank and in Holon, near Tel Aviv, in Israel.
The Samaritans follow their own version of the Torah, the Samaritan Pentateuch, written in the Samaritan script, a descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Samaritan Hebrew is used in prayer and scripture reading, and Samaritan Aramaic survives as a liturgical language. Everyday speech is Arabic and Modern Hebrew.
The Samaritans follow their own version of the Torah, the Samaritan Pentateuch, written in the Samaritan script, a descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet. Samaritan Hebrew is used in prayer and scripture reading, and Samaritan Aramaic survives as a liturgical language. Everyday speech is Arabic and Modern Hebrew.
- Language Family
- Afro-Asiatic (Hamito-Semitic)
- Subgroup
- Semitic
- Branch
- Northwest Semitic