 Whereas the Israelites and later Hebrews suffered a number of exoduses and deportations over the course of history, Samaritans for the most part have remained in Palestine since ancient times.As a result, the Hebrew language of the Samaritans is written in a unique abjad from that of Hebrew; this abjad is called the Samaritan alphabet.Thanks to the Samaritans' sedentary residence in Palestine, the script of Samaritan Hebrew is a direct descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, the script which the Jews abandoned in favor of the modern Ktav Ashuri script in the 4th century BC.