At Nablus the Samaritans have still a settlement, consisting of about two hundred persons. Yet they ob- serve the law. and celebrate the Passover on a sacred spot on Mount (ierizim, with an exactness of minute ceremonial which the Jews themselves have long in- termitted. The people are very poor now, and to all appearance their total extinction is not far distant. In recent times many travellers have visited and given an account of the Samaritan remnant, such as Pliny Fisk, Robinson, and A\'ilson. See also Shelaby, Notices of the Modern Samaritans (Lond. 1855). One of the late no- tices is that of M. E. Rogers, in Domestic Life in Pales- tine (1863, 2d ed.), ch. x. Another and fuller account is given in IMill, Three Months' Residence in NablUs, and an A cconnt of the Modeiti Samaritanx{\SG\, 12mo) ; see also Barges, f.es Samai-itains. de Naphmse (Paris, 1855, 8vo). Mr. Grove has given an account of the ceremonial of their atonement, in Vacation Tourists for
SAMARITAN LANGUAGE 288 SAMARITAN LANGUAGE
1801 ; and Stanley, of their Passover, in Lectures on the Jewish Church, Api)end. iii, and still more minutely in Sermons in the East, Append, ii. For oliler monographs on the Samaritans, see Volbeding, Index l'ro(jranimatum, p. 44. See Samahitan Lanolage, Litkkatlrk, AJiD Liturgy; Samakixans, Modern.
SAMARITAN LANGUAdE. The Samaritan is chieriy a compound oC the Hebrew, Chaldcc, and Syriac. Among the words derived from these sources are to be recognised a great number of Cuth;ean words, imi)orted, doubtlessly, by the new colonists. We must therefore not be surprised that Greek, Latin, Persian, Arabic, and possibly other languages as Avell, have each contributed something to enrich the vocabulary. The grammar bears all the signs of irregularity which would charac- terize tliat of an illiterate people; the orthography is uncertain ; there is a profusion of quiescents, and a complete confusion between the several gutturals and cognate letters respectively; the vowels are uncertain, the A sound being most prominent. Such is the dia- lect which was spoken in Samaria till the Arabian con- quest of the country in the seventh century A.D., when the language of the victors was introduced, and by its superior vigor gradually overpowered its rival, till, probably by about the 8th or 9th century, it had en- tirely taken its place. The old language, however, still continued to be understood and written by the priests, so that, like the Jews, they had two sacred languages, •which, however, they had not the skill completely to dis- tinguish from each other. The " Hebrew," consequent- ly, which appears in the correspondence of Samaritaiis with Europeans is largely impregnated with Aramaisms; Arabisms also are not bj' any means unfrequent.
Orthoffraphic L'lemetits.— The Samaritan language, or, 38 the Samaritans call it, the " Hebrew," like all Shera- itic languages, is read from right to left. The alphabet consists only of consonants (twenty-two in number), as in the adjoining table.
Save some points and scanty orthographical signs, there are in Samaritan no accents or other diacritical marks, as in Hebrew. There are no vowel-points, as in other Shemitic languages; but in order to supply this want and to indicate somewhat the pronunciation, some consonants are used as vowels, viz.:
« s n 2>
u (oo) 1 Of two consonants beginning a word, the first is pro- nounced as if it were a slight and indistinct vowel, similar to the Hebrew Sheva.
The only diacritical sign is a stroke over the con- sonant (e. g. S) serving to distinguish two different words written in the same manner, or two different forms derived from one and the same root, or to indi- cate some letter added or omitted. When i)laced over "^ or 1, the stroke indicates that these letters are real consonants, not representing vowels. Words cannot be .separated at the end of the lines, hence the two letters ending the last word are separated from the others and |)lacc<l at the end of the line; but in ])rinting this is generally avoided by diminishing or enlarging the spaces between the words.
As to punctuation, a point is put by the side of the final letter of a word. IJesides this, the following signs have been introduced by the transcribers :
; or • or .; at the end of a sentence.
- - (also •) at the end of part of a sentence, like our colon.
= •: or — <: more seldom — •; etc., or compound — <; = •: etc., at the end of a longer sentence or section.
<•:• = =•!•> or similar signs, sometimes again and again repeated, between the end of one section,
paragraph, or chapter, and the beginning of the other.
The numbers are written as in Hebrew.
O'rammurs. — Chr. Crinesius, JAnyua Samaritica ex Scriptura Sacra Jideliter eruta (Altdorphi, s. a.) ; Chr. Ravis, A Discourse of the Oriental Tonrjues, viz. Ebrev, Samaritane, etc., together with a Grammar of the said Tom/ues (Lond. 1649); Morini, Opuscula Hehrao-Sama- ritana (Paris, 1657) ; Hilligerius, Summarium LingiixB A ramcece, i. e. Chcddeo - Syi-o - Samaritance (Witteb. 1679) ; Cellarius, Ho7-ce Samaritance (Cizse, 1682 ; Fran- cof. et Jenre, 1705); Otho, Synopsis Institutionum Sama- ritamirum, Rahh, etc. (Francof. 3d ed. 173.5) ; Mascleff, Grammatica Hebruica : access, tres Grammatics, Chal- daica, Syriaca, et Saviaritana (Paris, 2d ed. 1743, 2 vols. 12mo) ; Stohr, Theoria et Praxis Linyuarum Sacrarum, sc. Samaritance, Hehr., et Syr. eammque Harmonia (Aug. Vind. 1796); Uhlemann, Institutiones Limjua Samari- tance : accedit Chrestomathia Samaritana Glossario Lo- cupletata (Lips. 1837) ; Nicholls, A Grammar of the Samaritan Language, with Extracts and Voccd)ulary (Lond. 1858) ; Petermann, Brevis Linguce Samaritance Grammatica, etc. (Berolini, 1873).