Samaritan Aramaic | |
Nativename: | Samaritan Aramaic: ࠀࠓࠌࠉࠕ |
Pronunciation: | in Semitic languages pronounced as /arɑmiθ], [arɑmit], [ɑrɑmɑjɑ], [ɔrɔmɔjɔ|]/ |
Region: | Israel and Palestine, predominantly in Samaria and Holon. |
Extinct: | by 12th century; liturgical use |
Ref: | e18 |
Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
Fam2: | Semitic |
Fam3: | Central Semitic |
Fam4: | Northwest Semitic |
Fam5: | Aramaic |
Fam6: | Western |
Fam7: | Palestinian Aramaic |
Ancestor: | Proto-Afroasiatic |
Ancestor2: | Proto-Semitic |
Ancestor3: | Old Aramaic |
Ancestor4: | Middle Aramaic |
Ancestor5: | Palestinian Aramaic |
Script: | Samaritan alphabet |
Iso2: | sam |
Iso3: | sam |
Glotto: | sama1314 |
Glottorefname: | Samaritan Aramaic |
Samaritan Aramaic, or Samaritan, was 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, with Samaritans switching to Palestinian Arabic as their vernacular language.
In form it resembles the Aramaic of the Targumim, and is written in the Samaritan alphabet.
Important works written in Samaritan include the translation of the Samaritan 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.
Exodus XX.1-6:
Notice the similarities with Judeo-Aramaic as found in Targum Onqelos to this same passage (some expressions below are paraphrased, not literally translated):