Samaritan Hebrew (Hebrew: עברית שומרונית‎) is a reading tradition as used liturgically by the Samaritans for reading the Ancient Hebrew language of the Samaritan Pentateuch, in contrast to Biblical Hebrew (the Ancient Hebrew language of the Jewish Pentateuch).For the Samaritans, Ancient Hebrew as a spoken everyday language became extinct and was succeeded by Aramaic (see Samaritan Aramaic language), which itself ceased to be a spoken language some time between the 10th and the 12th centuries and succeeded by Arabic (or more specifically Samaritan Palestinian Arabic).The phonology of Samaritan Hebrew is highly similar to that of Samaritan Arabic, used by the Samaritans in prayer.