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Gerhard Wedel Introduction 1990 , Abraham Tal began his contribution to the Congress for Samaritan Studies in Oxford with the statement : "Hebrew and Aramaic met twice on the streets of Shekhem during two distinct periods and under different historical and social circumstances " Languages in Contact : Hebrew and Aramaic in the Ancient Samaritan Community , Sydney 1995 , p . 577 ) . With this introductory remark , he emphasized a fact well known by scholars of Samaritan studies : there was scarcely a time in Near Eastern history without multilingual involvement , particulary in the case of minorities . Abraham Tal continued : "It was in the eleventh century that Aramaic was finally abandoned and Arabic remained the only spoken language within the [ Samaritan ] community" ( ibid . ) , touchon the point that various religious groups adopted Arabic as a lingua franca . For a better understanding of this multilingual involvement in the linguistic affairs of the Samaritans , it is necessary ...
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