Samaritan Hebrew

Samaritan Hebrew (Samaritan Hebrew: ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ, romanized: ʿÎbrit) 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. 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.