In this video we compare Yemenite and Samaritan Hebrew to modern Hebrew, and see where the differences occur in the pronunciation and how well they can understand each other.

Check out Abood's documentary to learn more about Samaritans:
   • Samaritan | Documentary | 2018  

Check out Shahar's performance on The X Factor Israel (there are many more videos):
   • שחר עדוי - Hello | 💙🤍💙 אקס פקטור לאיר...  

If you would like to participate in a video on our channel please contact me on Instagram:   / bahadoralast  

Samaritan Hebrew is used by the Samaritans to read the Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch. Its phonology is similar to that of Samaritan Arabic. It is primarily spoken in Israel and in Nablus and Holon in the Palestinian territories. Samaritans are the descendants of northern Israelite tribes who were not deported by the Neo-Assyrian Empire after the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel.

Modern Hebrew and Yemenite Hebrew are the same language, but the way of pronunciation is significantly different. Yemenite Jews are those Jews who once lived in Yemen, as well as their descendants. Yemen once had over half a million Jews, but by the 1950s, the overwhelming majority of them had left the country, and today there are possibly no Jews left in Yemen. Yemenite Jews have a unique religious tradition that distinguishes them from other Jewish groups and are considered as the ones who have preserved the Hebrew language the best. Modern Hebrew lacks a lot of consonants that exist in Yemenite Hebrew which also has grammatical features from classical Hebrew. At times it can sound much closer to Arabic. In this video Shahar (Yemenite Hebrew speaker), Abood (Samaritan Hebrew speaker), and Yakir (Modern Hebrew speaker) will listen to each other with a bunch of sentences to see where the differences occur, and what they can understand.

Hebrew is a Northwest Semitic language and the only living Canaanite language left in the world. Ancient Hebrew went extinct as a spoken language many centuries ago. However, it survived as a liturgical language for Judaism thanks to Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and other texts. For this reason, Hebrew is now considered the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. In the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language.