Ugaritic

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Not to be confused with the Ugric languages.
Ugaritic
Native toUgarit
Extinct12th century BC[1]
Ugaritic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2uga
ISO 639-3uga
uga
Glottologugar1238
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Ugaritic

Baal cycle. It has been used by scholars of the Hebrew Bible to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which the cultures of ancient Israel and Judah found parallels in the neighboring cultures.[11][12]

Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the

Mesopotamian cuneiform".[13]

Corpus

The Ugaritic language is attested in texts from the 14th through the 12th century BC. The city of Ugarit was destroyed roughly 1190 BC.[14]

Literary texts discovered at Ugarit include the Legend of Keret, the legends of Danel, the Myth of Baal-Aliyan, and the Death of Baal. The latter two are also known collectively as the Baal Cycle. All reveal aspects of ancient Northwest Semitic religion.

Edward Greenstein has proposed that Ugaritic texts might help solve biblical puzzles such as the anachronism of Ezekiel mentioning Daniel in Ezekiel 14:13–16.[11]

Writing system

Main article: Ugaritic alphabet
Clay tablet of Ugaritic alphabet
Table of Ugaritic alphabet

The

cuneiform script used beginning in the 15th century BC. Like most Semitic scripts, it is an abjad
, where each symbol stands for a consonant, leaving the reader to supply the appropriate vowel.

Although it appears similar to Mesopotamian cuneiform (whose writing techniques it borrowed), its symbols and symbol meanings are unrelated. It is the oldest example of the family of West Semitic scripts such as the Phoenician, Paleo-Hebrew, and Aramaic alphabets (including the Hebrew alphabet). The so-called "long alphabet" has 30 letters while the "short alphabet" has 22. Other languages (particularly Hurrian) were occasionally written in the Ugarit area, although not elsewhere.

Ge'ez script
. The script was written from left to right.

Phonology

Ugaritic had 28 consonantal phonemes (including two semivowels) and eight vowel phonemes (three short vowels and five long vowels): a ā i ī u ū ē ō. The phonemes ē and ō occur only as long vowels and are the result of monophthongization of the diphthongs аy and aw, respectively.

Ugaritic consonantal phonemes[citation needed]
Labial Interdental Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain emphatic
Nasal m
n
Stop
 voiceless p
t
 		tˤ k q ʔ
voiced b
d
 		ɡ
Fricative
 voiceless θ s sˤ ʃ x ħ h
voiced ð z ðˤ (ʒ)[1] ɣ[2] ʕ
Approximant
l
 		j w
Trill
r
  1. ^ The voiced palatal fricative [ʒ] occurs as a late variant of the voiced interdental fricative /ð/.
  2. ^ The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, while an independent phoneme at all periods, also occurs as a late variant of the emphatic voiced interdental /ðˤ/.

The following table shows

phonemes and their correspondences among Ugaritic, Classical Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew
:

Proto-Semitic Ugaritic Classical Arabic Tiberian Hebrew
Imperial Aramaic
b [b] 𐎁 b ب b [b] ב b/ḇ [b/v] ב b/ḇ [b/v]
p [p] 𐎔 p ف f [f] פ p/p̄ [p/f] פ p/p̄ [p/f]
ḏ [ð] 𐎏 d;
sometimes ḏ [ð] 		ذ ḏ [ð] ז z [z] ד (older ז) d/ḏ [d/ð]
ṯ [θ] 𐎘 ṯ [θ] ث ṯ [θ] שׁ š [ʃ] ת t/ṯ [t/θ]
ṱ [θʼ] 𐎑 ẓ [ðˤ];
sporadically ġ [ɣ] 		ظ ẓ [ðˤ] צ ṣ [sˤ] ט ṭ [tˤ]
d [d] 𐎄 d د d [d] ד d/ḏ [d/ð] ד d/ḏ [d/ð]
t [t] 𐎚 t ت t [t] ת t/ṯ [t/θ] ת t/ṯ [t/θ]
ṭ [tʼ] 𐎉 ṭ [tˤ] ط ṭ [tˤ] ט ṭ [tˤ] ט ṭ [tˤ]
š [s] 𐎌 š [ʃ] س s [s] שׁ š [ʃ] שׁ š [ʃ]
z [dz] 𐎇 z ز z [z] ז z [z] ז z [z]
s [ts] 𐎒 s س s [s] ס s [s] ס s [s]
ṣ [tsʼ] 𐎕 ṣ [sˤ] ص ṣ [sˤ] צ ṣ [sˤ] צ ṣ [sˤ]
l [l] 𐎍 l ل l [l] ל l [l] ל l [l]
ś [ɬ] 𐎌 š ش š [ʃ] שׂ ś [ɬ]→[s] שׂ/ס s/ś [s]
ṣ́ [(t)ɬʼ] 𐎕 ṣ [sˤ] ض ḍ [ɮˤ]→[dˤ] צ ṣ [sˤ] ע (older ק) ʿ [ʕ]
g [ɡ] 𐎂 g ج ǧ [ɡʲ]→[dʒ] ג g/ḡ [ɡ/ɣ] ג g/ḡ [ɡ/ɣ]
k [k] 𐎋 k ك k [k] כ k/ḵ [k/x] כ k/ḵ [k/x]
q [kʼ] 𐎖 q ق q [q] ק q [q] ק q [q]
ġ [ɣ] 𐎙 ġ [ɣ] غ ġ [ɣ] ע ʿ [ʕ] ע ʿ [ʕ]
ḫ [x] 𐎃 ḫ [x] خ ḫ [x] ח ḥ [ħ] ח ḥ [ħ]
ʿ [ʕ] 𐎓 ʿ [ʕ] ع ʿ [ʕ] ע ʿ [ʕ] ע ʿ [ʕ]
ḥ [ħ] 𐎈 ḥ [ħ] ح ḥ [ħ] ח ḥ [ħ] ח ḥ [ħ]
ʾ [ʔ] 𐎛 ʾ [ʔ] ء ʾ [ʔ] א ʾ [ʔ] א/∅ ʾ/∅ [ʔ/∅]
h [h] 𐎅 h ه h [h] ה h [h] ה h [h]
m [m] 𐎎 m م m [m] מ m [m] מ m [m]
n [n] 𐎐 n ن n [n] נ n [n];
total assimilation
before a consonant 		נ n [n]
r [r] 𐎗 r ر r [r] ר r [r] ר r [r]
w [w] 𐎆 w و w [w] ו w [w];
y [j] initially 		ו w [w]
y [j] 𐎊 y [j] ي y [j] י y [j] י y [j]
Proto-Semitic Ugaritic Classical Arabic Tiberian Hebrew Imperial Aramaic

Grammar

Main article: Ugaritic grammar

Ugaritic is an

subject–object–verb (SOV),[15] possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA). Ugaritic is considered a conservative Semitic language, since it retains most of the phonemes, the case system, and the word order of the ancestral Proto-Semitic language.[16]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Ugaritic". Archived from the original on 22 March 2021. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
  2. ^ Rendsburg, Gary A. (1987). "Modern South Arabian as a Source for Ugaritic Etymologies". Journal of the American Oriental Society.
  3. ^ Rendsburg, Gary A. “Modern South Arabian as a Source for Ugaritic Etymologies”. In: Journal of the American Oriental Society 107, no. 4 (1987): 623–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/603304.
  4. ^ "Ugaritic". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.
  5. ISBN 978-90-04-10988-9
    .
  6. ISBN 978-90-429-0815-4
    .
  7. ISBN 9781139469340
    .
  8. JSTOR 409619
    .
  9. ISBN 9781575061092
    .
  10. ISBN 978-1-139-46698-1
    .
  11. ^ a b c Greenstein, Edward L. (November 2010). "Texts from Ugarit Solve Biblical Puzzles". Biblical Archaeology Review. 36 (6): 48–53, 70. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  12. ISBN 978-90-04-17642-3
    .
  13. ^ Gordon, Cyrus H. (1965). The Ancient Near East. Norton. p. 99.
  14. ISBN 978-1-59856-820-2
    .
  15. doi:10.1093/jss/27.1.17
    .
  16. ISBN 9780520039995
    .

References

Further reading

External links

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