Samaritan Aramaic language


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.
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.

Sample

XX.1-6:
  1. Umellel Elâ'e yet kel milleyya aalen l'mimar.
  2. Ana Šema Eluek deppiqtek men ara d'Mişrem mibbet av'doothah.
  3. La ya'i lakk elah ahkharin, bar minah.
  4. La tewed lakh tsilam v'khal d'mu debšumeyya milleilah wedbaraa millera wedbameyya mil'ra l'ar'ah.
  5. La tisgad l'hon v'la tifli'khinon arei anah ala anaki Šema elaak el kana mas'ar khoveih awaan al b'nin m'rahdin al dahr t'leethai v'ah; dahr r'vee'ai l'sahnai kad mashl'meen b'nayah l'meekhtei bathar avahth'hohn.
  6. Wabed teivoo l'al'fei dahreen l'rahkhamai welnateri fiqqudi.
Notice the similarities with Judeo-Aramaic as found in Targum Onqelos to this same passage :
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