Ugaritic

Not to be confused with Ugric languages.

Ugaritic (/ˌ(j)uːɡəˈrɪtɪk/ (Y)OOG-ə-RIT-ik) is an extinct Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycle.

Ugaritic
Clay tablet of Ugaritic alphabet
Native to	Ugarit
Extinct	12th century BC
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Central Northwest Amorite? Ugaritic
Writing system	Ugaritic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-2	uga
ISO 639-3	uga
Linguist List	uga
Glottolog	ugar1238

Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform".

Corpus

Main article: Ugaritic texts

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

Literary texts discovered at Ugarit include the Legend of Keret or Kirta, the legends of Danel (AKA 'Aqhat), the Myth of Baal-Aliyan, and the Death of Baal. The latter two are also known collectively as the Baal Cycle. These texts reveal aspects of ancient Northwest Semitic religion in Syria-Palestine during the Late Bronze Age.

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 actually referring to Danel, a hero from the Ugaritic Tale of Aqhat.

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.

Consonants

		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)	ɣ		ʕ
Approximant				l		j	w
Trill				r

The following table shows Proto-Semitic phonemes and their correspondences among Ugaritic, Akkadian, Classical Arabic and Tiberian Hebrew:

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

Writing system

Main article: Ugaritic alphabet

Table of Ugaritic alphabet

The Ugaritic alphabet is a 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. Only after an aleph the vowel is indicated (’a, ’i, ’u). With other consonants one can often guess the unwritten vowel, and thus vocalize the text, from (a) parallel cases with an aleph, (b) texts where Ugaritic words are written in Akkadian cuneiform syllables, (c) comparison with other West-Semitic languages, for example Hebrew and Arabic, (d) generalized vocalization rules, and (e), in poetry, parallellisms are also helpful to interpret the consonantal skeleton.

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.

Clay tablets written in Ugaritic provide the earliest evidence of both the Levantine ordering of the alphabet, which gave rise to the alphabetic order of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabets; and the South Semitic order, which gave rise to the order of the Ge'ez script. The script was written from left to right.

Grammar

Ugaritic is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic and Akkadian. It possesses two genders (masculine and feminine), three cases for nouns and adjectives (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also, note the possibility of a locative case]); three numbers: (singular, dual, and plural); and verb aspects similar to those found in other Northwest Semitic languages. The word order for Ugaritic is verb–subject–object (VSO), possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA). Ugaritic is considered a conservative Semitic language, since it retains most of the Proto-Semitic phonemes, the basic qualities of the vowel, the case system, the word order of the Proto-Semitic ancestor, and the lack of the definite article.

The word order for Ugaritic is verb–subject–object (VSO) and subject–object–verb (SOV), 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.

Word order

The word order for Ugaritic is Subject Verb Object (SVO), Verb Subject Object (VSO), possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA).

Morphology

Ugaritic, like all Semitic languages, exhibits a unique pattern of stems consisting typically of "triliteral", or 3-consonant consonantal roots (2- and 4-consonant roots also exist), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed in various ways: e.g. by inserting vowels, doubling consonants, and/or adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.

Verbs

Introduction

Ugaritic verbs are based on mostly three-literal roots (like all Semitic languages) (a few verbs have two- or four-consonant roots). For example, RGM, ‘to say’. By adding prefixes, infixes, and suffixes, and varying the vowels, the various verbal forms are formed. (Because in Ugaritic vowels are hardly written, these vowel variations often are not clearly visible).

Verbs can take several of a dozen stem patterns, or binyanim, that change the basic meaning of the verb, and make it for example passive, causative, or intensive. The basic form (in German: Grundstamm) is the G stem.

The verbal forms for each stem can be divided in five verbal form groups:

• the suffix conjugation, also called qtl (pronounced qatal), or Perfect;
• the prefix conjugation, also called yqtl (pronounced yiqtol), or Imperfect;
• imperatives;
• two different infinitives;
• an active and a passive participle.

Verbs have one of three different vowel patterns, -a-, -i-, and -u-:

• in the qtl (G stem): qatala, qatila, or qatula (cf. Hebrew qaṭal, kavēd, qaṭon);
• in the yqtl (G stem): yiqtalu, yaqtilu, or yaqtulu.

There is no one-on-one link between morphology and tense. This is because Ugaritic is an aspect language: verbal forms do not primarily indicate the timing of activities (in the past, present or future), but they indicate aspect: the suffix conjugation (qtl) has perfective aspect, it is used when viewing an activity as having a beginning and an end; the prefix conjugation (yqtl) has imperfective aspect, it is used when it is deemed irrelevant whether the activity has an end or beginning.

Ugaritic verbs can have several moods, both indicative and injunctive (jussive, cohortative). Moods are most clearly visible in the prefix conjugation (see below).

Suffix conjugation

The suffix conjugation (qtl) has perfective aspect. Taking the root RGM (which means "to say") as an example, ragama may be translated as “he says” (at this very moment), or “he has said” (and has finished speaking).

The vowel between the second and third root consonant can be -a-, -i-, or -u-. Most verbs describe an activity (so-called “active verbs”) and have -a-. Verbs describing a state or property (“stative verbs”) have -i- or (rarely) -u-.

The paradigm of the suffix conjugation (or Perfect) is as follows for the a-verb RGM, the i-verb ŠB‘ (“to be (become) satiated”), and the u-verb MRṢ (“to fall ill”):

Morphology of the Ugaritic suffix conjugation (in the simple active pattern, G stem)

			model	a-verb			i-verb		u-verb
Singular	1st	masc. & fem.	STEM-tu (or STEM-tī?)	rgmt	RaGaMtu (or RaGaMtī?)	“I say, have said”	šabi‘tu (or šabi‘tī?)	“I am satiated”	maruṣtu (or maruṣtī?)	“I fall ill, have fallen ill”
	2nd	masculine	STEM-ta	rgmt	RaGaMta	“you (m.) say”	šabi‘ta	(etc.)	maruṣta	(etc.)
		feminine	STEM-ti	rgmt	RaGaMti	“you (f.) say”	šabi‘ti		maruṣti
	3rd	masculine	STEM-a	rgm	RaGaMa	“he says”	šabi‘a		maruṣa
		feminine	STEM-at	rgmt	RaGaMat	“she says”	šabi‘at		maruṣat
Dual	1st	masc. & fem.	STEM-nayā	rgmny	RaGaMnayā	“the both of us say”	šabi‘nayā		maruṣnayā
	2nd	masc. & fem.	STEM-tumā	rgmtm	RaGaMtumā	“you two say”	šabi‘tumā		maruṣtumā
	3rd	masculine	STEM-ā	rgm	RaGaMā	“they both (m.) say”	šabi‘ā		maruṣā
		feminine	STEM-atā	rgmt	RaGaMatā	“they both (f.) say”	šabi‘atā		maruṣatā
Plural	1st	masc. & fem.	STEM-nū	rgmn	RaGaMnū	“we say”	šabi‘nū		maruṣnū
	2nd	masculine	STEM-tum(u)	rgmtm	RaGaMtum(u)	“you (m. Pl.) say”	šabi‘tum(u)		maruṣtum(u)
		feminine	STEM-tin(n)a	rgmtn	RaGaMtin(n)a	“you (f. Pl.) say”	šabi‘tin(n)a		maruṣtin(n)a
	3rd	masculine	STEM-ū	rgm	RaGaMū	“they (m.) say”	šabi‘ū		maruṣū
		feminine	STEM-ā	rgm	RaGaMā	“they (f.) say”	šabi‘ā		maruṣā

Prefix conjugation

The prefix conjugation yqtl- takes three forms: yiqtal-, yaqtil-, and yaqtul-. There is no simple one-on-one relation with the three qtl forms, qatal, qatil, and qatul. For example, the following three verbs are all of the qatal type, but have different yqtl patterns:

verb		qtl		type	yqtl
QR’	“to call, invoke”	qara’a	“he calls”	yiqtal-	yiqra’u	“he will call”
YRD	“to go down”	yarada	“he goes down”	yaqtil-	yaridu	“he will go down”
RGM	“to say, speak”	ragama	“he says”	yaqtul-	yargumu	“he will say”

The Imperfect paradigms for the three patterns are as follows, for the verbs RGM, “to say” (yaqtul- pattern), Š’iL, “to ask” (yiqtal- pattern), and YRD, “to go down” (yaqtil pattern):

Morphology of the Ugaritic prefix conjugation (in the simple active pattern, G stem)

			model	yaqtul pattern			yiqtal pattern		yaqtil pattern
Singular	1st	masc. & fem.	’a/’i-STEM-	’argm	’aRGuMu	“I will say”	’iš’alu	“I will ask”	’aridu	“I will go down”
	2nd	masculine	ta/ti-STEM-	trgm	taRGuMu	“you (m.) will say”	tiš’alu	(etc.)	taridu	(etc.)
		feminine	ta/ti-STEM-īna	trgmn	taRGuMīna	“you (f.) will say”	tiš’alīna		taridīna
	3rd	masculine	ya/yi-STEM-	yrgm	yaRGuMu	“he will say”	yiš’alu		yaridu
		feminine	ta/ti-STEM-	trgm	taRGuMu	“she will say”	tiš’alu		taridu
Dual	1st	masc. & fem.	na/ni-STEM-ā	nrgm	naRGuMā	“the both of us will say”	niš’alā		naridā
	2nd	masc. & fem.	ta/ti-STEM-ā(ni)	trgm(n)	taRGuMā(ni)	“you two will say”	tiš’alā(ni)		taridā(ni)
	3rd	masculine	ya/yi-STEM-ā(ni)	yrgm(n)	yaRGuMā(ni)	“they both (m.) will say”	yiš’alā(ni)		yaridā(ni)
		feminine	ta/ti-STEM-ā(ni)	trgm(n)	taRGuMā(ni)	“they both (f.) will say”	tiš’alā(ni)		taridā(ni)
Plural	1st	masc. & fem.	na/ni-STEM-	nrgm	naRGuMu	“we will say”	niš’alu		naridu
	2nd	masculine	ta/ti-STEM-ū(na)	trgm(n)	taRGuMū(na)	“you (m. Pl.) will say”	tiš’alū(na)		taridū(na)
		feminine	ta/ti-STEM-na	trgmn	taRGuMna	“you (f. Pl.) will say”	tiš’alna		taridna
	3rd	masculine	ya/yi-STEM-ū(na)	yrgm(n)	yaRGuMū(na)	“they (m.) will say”	yiš’alū(na)		yaridū(na)
		feminine	ta/ti-STEM-na	trgmn	taRGuMna	“they (f.) will say”	tiš’alna		taridna

The prefix conjugation takes four or five different endings (yqtl, yqtlu, yqtla, yqtln). There are three clear moods (indicative, jussive, and volitive or cohortative). The so-called energic forms, yqtln, with an -n suffix (-an, -anna; possibly also -un, -unna), apparently have the same meaning as the shorter forms without the -n suffix.

Form	Name	Mood	Tense	Aspect	Example	Translation	Notes
yqtlu	Imperfect	Indicative	Present - Future	imperfective	yargumu	“he says, will say”
			Past	continued action		“he used to say, is wont to say”
yqtl	‘short form’	Indicative	Past	imperfective	yargum	“he said”
		Jussive	—	—		“may he say, let him say”
yqtla	Volitive	Volitive (Cohortative, Subjunctive)	—	—	yarguma	“may he say, he shall say”
yqtln	Energic	Jussive	—	—	yarguman(na)	“may he say”
	Energic #2	Indicative	Past	imperfective	yargumun(na)	“he said, says”	existence doubted

Imperative

The imperative probably takes three forms, qatal, qutul, and *qitil, where the vowels correspond with the vowels in the imperfect.

Examples (the verb YRD “to go down, to descend” is a so-called ‘weak’ verb, the first consonant Y disappears in the imperative):

		a-type		i-type		u-type
	verb:	PTḤ, “to open”		YRD, “to descend”		RGM, “to say, speak”		(speaking to:)
(Imperfect, 3 Sg. m.:)		yiptaḥu	“he will open”	yaridu	“he will descend”	yargumu	“he will say”
Imperative, 2 Singular	masculine	pataḥ	“open!”	rid	“descend!”	rugum	“say!”, “speak!”	a man
	feminine	pataḥī		ridī		rugumī		a woman
2 Dual	masculine	pataḥā		?		rugumā		two men
	feminine	?		?		?		two women
2 Plural	masculine	pataḥū		ridū		rugumū		three or more men, or men and women
	feminine	pataḥā (?)		?		rugumā (?)		three or more women

Participles

The paradigm of the active participle (G stem, verb MLK, “to be king”) is as follows:

Singular	masculine	māliku	“reigning (king)”
	feminine	malik(a)tu	“reigning (queen)”
Plural	masculine	malikūma	“reigning (kings)”
	feminine	mālikātu	“reigning (queens)”

The passive participle is quite rare. There seem to be two forms (verbs RGM “to say”, ḤRM “to divide”):

		u-form		i-form
Singular	masculine	ragūmu	“said, spoken”	ẖarimu	“divided”
	feminine	ragūm(a)tu		ẖarim(a)tu
Plural	masculine	?		?
	feminine	ragūmātu		ẖarimātu

Infinitives

Like other Semitic languages, Ugaritic has two infinitives, the infinitive absolute and the infinitive construct. However, in Ugaritic the two have an identical form. The usual form is halāku (“to go”, verb hlk), but a few verbs use an alternative form *hilku, for example niģru, “to guard” (verb nģr).

The infinitive absolute is often used preceding a perfect or imperfect verbal form, to put emphasis on that following verbal form. Such an infinive absolute may be translated as “verily, certainly, absolutely”. For example, halāku halaka, “he certainly goes” (literally, “to go! he goes”). An isolated infinitive absolute may also be used instead of any perfect, imperfect, or imperative verbal form.

The infinitive construct is often used after the prepositions l (“to”) and b (“in, by”): bi-ša’āli “in asking, by asking, while asking” (verb š’al “to ask”; note that after the preposition b (bi) the genitive of the infinitive is used).

Weak Verbs

In Ugaritic, "weak verbs" are verbs whose roots contain a weak consonant, that is, a consonant that may disappear in some forms, or change into another consonant. Weak consonants are w and y, and also n, h, and in one case l (lqḥ, “to take”), if these are the first root consonant. Weak verbs exhibit irregular patterns in their conjugation due to the inherent instability of the weak consonants, often leading to phonetic variations. This phenomenon is akin to that observed in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew.

For instance, the Ugaritic verb yrd, “to go down”, is a weak verb: its imperative is rd /rid/ “go down!”, without the y consonant. The verb hlk, “to go”, has the imperative lk /lik/ “go!”, without the h. Due to their weak consonants, weak verbs can undergo phonetic changes, such as the assimilation of waw (w) to yod (y), especially in the absence of an intervening vowel. This characteristic impacts the verb's inflection, resulting in variations that are atypical compared to regular (strong) verbs.

In Ugaritic there also exist "doubly weak verbs", which contain two weak consonants.

Patterns (stems)

Ugaritic verbs occur in about a dozen reconstructed patterns or binyanim (verb P‘L, “to make, do”):

Verb Patterns
	Hebrew equivalent	Active voice		Passive voice
		Perfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Perfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.)
G stem (simple) and Gp (passive)	qal and qal passive	paʻala, paʻila, paʻula	yipʻalu, yapʻilu, yapʻulu	puʻila	yupʻalu
(?) C stem (causative internal pattern)		(?)	yapʻilu	(?)	(?)
Gt stem (simple reflexive)		ʼiptaʻala	yaptaʻalu	n/a
N stem (reciprocal or passive)	niphʻal	nap(a)ʻala	yappaʻilu (< *yanpaʻilu)	n/a
D stem (factitive) and Dp (passive)	piʻʻel and puʻʻal	paʻʻala	yapaʻʻilu	puʻʻila	yupaʻʻalu
tD stem (factitive reflexive)	hithpaʻʻel	tapaʻʻala	yatapaʻʻalu	n/a
L stem (intensive or factitive) and Lp (passive)	pôlel and pôlal	pāʻala	yupāʻilu	(?)	(?)
Š stem (causative) and Šp (passive)	hiphʻil and hophʻal	šapʻala	yašapʻilu	šupʻila	yušapʻalu
Št stem (causative reflexive)	hištaph‘al	ʼištapʻala	yaštapʻilu	n/a
R stem (factitive) (reduplicated roots)		paʻlala (e.g. karkara)	yapaʻlalu (e.g. yakarkaru)	(?)	(?)

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Nouns and adjectives

Paradigm

Nouns (substantives, adjectives, personal names) in their basic form (nominative singular) end in -u. Nominal forms are categorized according to their inflection into: cases (nominative, genitive, and accusative), state (absolute and construct), gender (masculine and feminine), and number (singular, dual, and plural).

Here is the full paradigm for a masculine substantive (malku, “king”) and a feminine substantive (malkatu, “queen”).

		Masculine						Feminine
		ending		malku, “king”				ending		malkatu, “queen”
number	case	abs. state	cs. state	absolute state		construct state		abs. state	cs. state	absolute state		construct state
Singular	nominative	-u		mlk	malku			-u		mlkt	malkatu
	genitive	-i		mlk	malki			-i		mlkt	malkati
	accusative	-a		mlk	malka			-a		mlkt	malkata
Dual	nominative	-āma (or -āmi?)	-ā	mlkm	malkāma / malkāmi	mlk	malkā	-āma / -āmi	-ā	mlktm	malkatāma / malkatāmi	mlkt	malkatā
	gen. & acc.	-êma (or -êmi?)	-ê	mlkm	malkêma / malkêmi	mlk	malkê	-êma / -êmi	-ê	mlktm	malkatêma / malkatêmi	mlkt	malkatê
Plural	nominative	-ūma	-ū	mlkm	mal(a)kūma	mlk	malakū	(*)-u		mlkt	mal(a)kātu
	gen. & acc.	-īma	-ī	mlkm	mal(a)kīma	mlk	malakī	(*)-i		mlkt	mal(a)kāti

Note (*): with lengthening of the final vowel of the stem: mal(a)kat- > mal(a)kāt-.

Case

Ugaritic has three grammatical cases corresponding to: nominative, genitive, and accusative. Normally, singular nouns take the ending -u in the nominative, -i in the genitive and -a in the accusative. After prepositions as a rule the genitive is used. The accusative is also used adverbially (ṭābu, “good” > ṭāba, “well”) and as a kind of locative (šamîma = “to the heavens, in heaven”). More often, a locative is formed by appending a suffix -h to the accusative: ’arṣu, “earth”, accusative ’arṣa, locative ’arṣah, “earthward”. There is no dative; instead the preposition lê, “to, for”, + genitive is used.

As in Arabic, some exceptional nouns (known as diptotes) have the suffix -a in the genitive. There is no Ugaritic equivalent for Classical Arabic nunation or Akkadian mimation.

State

Nouns in Ugaritic occur in two states: absolute and construct. The construct (or ‘bound’) state indicates that a noun is closely linked to the following noun. For example, “the house of the king” could in Ugaritic in principle be expressed in two ways:

1. “the house” (absolute state) “of the king” (absolute state, genitive). This might be called the ‘Latin’ way of expression (domus regis);

2. “the house of” (construct state) “the king” (absolute state, genitive). This might be called the ‘Hebrew’ way of expression (bēt hammelek).

The construct state is also the basic form used when a personal pronoun is suffixed: malakūma = “(the) kings” (absolute state, nominative) > malakū (construct state) > malakūhu = “his kings”; similarly malakĩhu = “(of) his kings” (genitive, accusative).

Ugaritic, unlike Arabic and Hebrew, has no definite article.

Gender

Nouns which have no gender marker are for the most part masculine, although some feminine nouns do not have a feminine marker. However, these denote feminine beings such as ʼumm- (mother). /-t/ is the feminine marker which is directly attached to the base of the noun.

Number

Ugaritic distinguishes between nouns based on quantity. All nouns are either singular when there is one, dual when there are two, and plural if there are three or more.

Singular

The singular has no marker and is inflected according to its case.

Dual

The marker for the dual in the absolute state appears as /-m/. However, the vocalization may be reconstructed as /-āma/ or /-āmi/ in the nominative (such as malkāma, malkāmi "two kings") and /-êma/ or /-êmi/ for the genitive and accusative (e.g. malkêma, malkêmi). For the construct state, it is /-ā/ and /-ê/ respectively.

Plural

Masculine absolute state plurals take the forms -ūma in the nominative and -īma in the genitive and accusative. In the construct state they are -ū and -ī respectively. There are a few irregular (or broken) plurals; for example bt (bêtu), “house”, plural bhtm (bahatūma); and bn (binu), “son”, plural banūma (with Ablaut).

The female afformative plural is /-āt/ with a case marker probably following the /-t/, giving /-ātu/ for the nominative and /-āti/ for the genitive and accusative in both absolute and construct state.

Adjectives

Adjectives follow the noun and are declined exactly like the preceding noun.

Pronouns

Independent personal pronouns

Independent personal pronouns in Ugaritic are as follows (some forms are lacking because they are not in the corpus of the language):

person	gender	case	Singular		Dual		Plural
1st			’n (ʼanā) and ’nk (ʼanāku)	“I”	?	“we two”	’anḥn? (ʼanaḥnu?)	“we”
2nd	masculine		’at (ʼatta)	“you (m.)”	’atm (ʼattumā)	“you two”	’atm (ʼattumu)	“you all (m.)”
	feminine		’at (ʼatti)	“you (f.)”			’atn? (ʼattina?)	“you all (f.)”
3rd	masculine	nominative	hw (huwa)	“he”	hm? (humā?)	“them two”	hm? (humū?)	“they”
		gen., acc.	hwt (huwāti)	“him”			hmt (humutu?)	“them”
	feminine	nominative	hy (hiya)	“she”	hm? (humā?)	“them two (f.)”	hn (hinna)	“they (f.)”
		gen., acc.	hyt (hiyāti)	“her”	hmt (humāti?)		hmt (humūti?)	“them (f.)”

Suffixed (or enclitic) personal pronouns

Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns (mainly denoting the genitive and accusative) are as follows:

Person	Gender	Case	Singular			Dual		Plural
			after nouns, prepositions	after verbs
1st	m. & f.	nominative	-— (-î)	-n (-nī)	“me, my”	-ny (-nayā / -niyā)	“us, our”	-n (-nā / -nū)	“us, our”
		gen., acc.	-y (-ya)
2nd	masculine		-k (-ka)		“you, your”	-km (-kumā)	“you, your”	-km (-kumū?)	“you, your”
	feminine		-k (-ki)		“you, your (f.)”			-kn (-kin(n)a)	“you, your (f.)”
3rd	masculine	nominative	-h (-hu)		“him, his”	-hm (-humā?)	“them, their”	-hm (-humū?)	“them, their”
		gen., acc.	-h, -nh, -n, -nn (-hu, -annahu, -annu, -annannu)
	feminine	nominative	-h (-ha)		“her”			-hn (-hin(n)a)	“them, their (f.)”
		gen., acc.	-h, -nh, -n, -nn (-ha, -annaha, -anna, -annanna?)

Other pronouns

The relative (or ‘determinative’) pronoun is d (dū), “that of, of which”; often simply translatable as “who, which”. It introduces a specification, property, or action by the subject and is congruent with the governing noun. Declension: dī, dā; feminine dt (dātu, dāti, dāta); plural dt (dūtu, dūti(?)).

The demonstrative (or ‘deictic’) pronouns are hnd (hānādū), “this”, and hnk (hānākā) “that”. Extended forms are hanadūna, hanadūti, hanamati.

Interrogative pronouns are my (mīyu) “who?”, and mh (maha) “what?”.

Indefinite pronouns seem to be derived from the interrogative pronoun by appending to them the particles -n(a)-, -k(a), and/or -m(a) (in that order). Thus, for example: mnkm (mīnukumu?) and mnm (mīnama?) “anyone, someone”, mhkm (mahkīma?) and mnm (mannama?) “anything, something, whatever”.

Numerals

The following is a table of Ugaritic numerals:

Number	Masculine	Feminine
1	ʼaḥḥadu	ʼaḥattu
2	ṯinā	ṯittā
3	ṯalāṯu	ṯalāṯatu
4	ʼarbaʻu	ʼarbaʻatu
5	ḫam(i)šu	ḫam(i)šatu
6	ṯiṯṯu	ṯiṯṯatu
7	šabʻu	šabʻatu
8	ṯamānu	ṯamānītu
9	tišʻu	tišʻatu
10	ʻaš(a)ru	ʻaš(a)ratu
20	ʻašrāma
30	ṯalāṯūma
100	miʼtu
200	miʼtāma
1000	ʼalpu
10000	ribbatu

Ordinals

The following is a table of Ugaritic ordinals:

Number	Masculine	Feminine
1	prʿ	prʿt
2	ṯanū	ṯanītu
3	ṯalīṯu	ṯalīṯatu
4	rabīʻu	rabīʻatu
5	ḫamīšu	ḫamīšatu
6	ṯadīṯu	ṯadīṯatu
7	šabīʻu	šabīʻatu
8	ṯamīnu	ṯamīnatu
9	tašīʻu	tašīʻatu

Particles

Among particles in Ugaritic the so-called enclitic particles deserve special note, especially -n (-na) and -m (-ma). These particles do not seem to change the meaning of words, but create confusion between different forms, and thus complicate the analysis and interpretation of words, in particular verbal forms. For example, rgmtm can be ragamtumu, “you (plural) say”, but it can also be ragamtu-ma, an extension of ragamtu, “I have said”. And mlkm (malkuma), can be the plural malkûma, “kings”, but it can also be an extended singular, malku-ma, “the king”.

The enclitic particles can be stacked on top of each other. An extreme example is hnny (hannaniya), “behold!, here is”, that is analyzed as a four-step extension of the presentative particle h (ha): hnny (hannaniya) = ha + -n + -na + -ni + -ya. h and hnny have the same meaning, “behold!, here is”.

Poetic techniques

Techniques often encountered in Ugaritic poetry are repetition, parallellisms, chiasms, and ‘numerical cascades’ (“N times X, N+1 times X′”).

Sample Texts

Here is a fragment from the epic “Baal” cycle (KTU tablet 1.4 column 5). Ba‘al, son of Supreme God El, has rebelled, he wants a palace of his own. After some blackmail - Ba‘al withholds his rain from the land - El agrees. Ba‘al's sister Anat brings him the good news:

Ugaritic	vocalized	English
(25) ṣḥq . btlt . ‘nt . tš’u	ṣaḥāqu batūl(a)tu ‘Anatu ; tišša’u	Maiden Anat laughed, she raised
(26) gh . w tṣḥ . tbšr b‘l	gâha wa-taṣīḥu : tabaššir Ba‘lu ;	(her) voice and cried out: “Receive the good news, Baal!
(27) bšrtk . yblt . y[tn]	bašūr(a)tūka yabiltu ; yû[tanu]	Good news for you I bring; there will be gi[ven]
(28) bt . lk . km . ’aḫk . w ḥẓr	bêtu lêka kamā ’aḫḫûka , wa-ḥaẓiru	to you a house like your brothers, and a court
(29) km . ’aryk . ṣḥ . ḫrn	kamā ’aryuka . ṣiḥ ḫarrāna	like your clansmen. Call a caravan (or wooden planks?)
(30) b bhtk . ‘ḏbt . b qrb	bi bahatīka , ‘ḎBT(?) bi qirbi	into your houses, supplies(?) into
(31) hklk . tblk . ġrm	hēkalika ; tabilūka ġūrūma	your palace; the mountains will bring you
(32) m’id . ksp . gb‘m . mḥmd	ma’da kaspa , gab(a)‘ūma maḥmada	much silver, the hills [will bring] desirable
(33) ḫrṣ . w bn . bht . ksp	ḫurāṣa , wa-banā bahātī kaspi	gold, and build houses of silver
(34) w ḫrṣ . bht . ṭhrm	wa-ḫurāṣi , bahātī ṭuḥūrīma	and gold, houses of pure
(35) ’iqn’im	’iqn’īma [...]	lapis lazuli.”

From a list describing the organization of wine deliveries for royal sacrificial rites (KTU 1.91). Wine is to be consumed when ...:

k t‘rb ‘ṯtrt sd bt mlk k t‘rbn ršpm bt mlk

kî ta‘rubu ‘Aṯtaratu-Sadi bêta malki, kî ta‘rubūna Rašapūma bêta malki

“... when Athtart of the Field enters the house of the king, when the Reshaphim enter the house of the king [...]”

From a letter (KTU 2.19):

nqmd mlk ’ugrt ktb spr hnd

Niqmaddu malku ’Ugarīti kataba sipra hānādū

“Niqmaddu, king of Ugarit, has written this document.”

From a “contract” (KTU 3.4):

l ym hnd ’iwr[k]l pdy ’agdn

le-yômi hānādū ’Iwrikallu padaya ’Agdena

“From this day, Iwrikallu has redeemed Agdenu.”

See also

• Ugarit
• Ugaritic alphabet
• Northwest Semitic languages
• Central Semitic languages
• Semitic Languages
• Proto-Semitic language

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Bordreuil, Pierre & Pardee, Dennis (2009). A Manual of Ugaritic: Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 3. Winona Lake, IN 46590: Eisenbraun's, Inc. ISBN 978-1-57506-153-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
• Cunchillos, J.-L. & Vita, Juan-Pablo (2003). A Concordance of Ugaritic Words. Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press. ISBN 978-1-59333-258-7.
• del Olmo Lete, Gregorio & Sanmartín, Joaquín (2004). A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-13694-6. (2 vols; originally in Spanish, translated by W. G. E. Watson).
• Gibson, John C. L. (1977). Canaanite Myths and Legends. T. & T. Clark. ISBN 978-0-567-02351-3. (Contains Latin-alphabet transliterations of the Ugaritic texts and facing translations in English.)
• Gordon, Cyrus Herzl (1965). The Ancient Near East. W. W. Norton & Company Press. ISBN 978-0-393-00275-1.
• Greenstein, Edward L. (1998). Shlomo Izre'el; Itamar Singer; Ran Zadok (eds.). "On a New Grammar of Ugaritic" in Past links: studies in the languages and cultures of the ancient near east: Volume 18 of Israel oriental studies. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-57506-035-4. Found at Google Scholar.
• Hasselbach-Andee, Rebecca (2020). A Companion to Ancient Near Eastern Languages. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1119193296.
• Huehnergard, John (2011). A Grammar of Akkadian, 3rd ed. Eisenbrauns. ISBN 978-1-5750-6941-8.
• Moscati, Sabatino (1980). An Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages, Phonology and Morphology. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 3-447-00689-7.
• Pardee, Dennis (2003). Rezension von J. Tropper, Ugaritische Grammatik (AOAT 273) Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 2000: Internationale Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft vom Vorderen Orient. Vienna, Austria: Archiv für Orientforschung (AfO). P. 1-404 Archived 2014-01-07 at the Wayback Machine.
• Parker, Simon B. (ed.) (1997). Ugaritic Narrative Poetry: Writings from the Ancient World Society of Biblical Literature. Atlanta: Scholars Press. ISBN 978-0-7885-0337-5. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
• Schniedewind, William M. & Hunt, Joel H. (2007). A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and Literature. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5217-0493-9.
• Segert, Stanislav (1997). A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-03999-8.
• Sivan, Daniel (1997). A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language (Handbook of Oriental Studies/Handbuch Der Orientalistik). Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-10614-7. A more concise grammar.
• Tropper, Josef (2000). Ugaritische Grammatik. Ugarit Verlag. ISBN 978-3927120907.
• Woodard, Roger D. (ed.) (2008). The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-68498-9. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)

Further reading

• Pardee, Dennis. “UGARITIC PROPER NOUNS”. In: Archiv Für Orientforschung 36/37 (1989): 390–513. UGARITIC PROPER NOUNS.
• Josef Tropper, Juan-Pablo Vita (2020). Lehrbuch der ugaritischen Sprache. Münster: Zaphon. ISBN 978-3-96327-070-3.
• Watson, Wilfred G.E. "From Hair to Heel: Ugaritic Terms for Parts of the Body". In: ''Folia Orientalia'' Vol. LII (2015), pp. 323–364.
• Watson, Wilfred G.E. "Terms for Occupations, Professions and Social Classes in Ugaritic: An Etymological Study". In: Folia Orientalia Vol. LV (2018), pp. 307–378. DOI: 10.24425/for.2018.124688
• Watson, Wilfred G.E. "Terms for Textiles, Clothing, Hides, Wool and Accessories in Ugaritic: An Etymological Study". In: Aula Orientalis 36/2 (2018): 359–396. ISSN 0212-5730.
• Watson, Wilfred G. E.. "Ugaritic Military Terms in the Light of Comparative Linguistics". In: At the Dawn of History: Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honour of J. N. Postgate. Edited by Yağmur Heffron, Adam Stone and Martin Worthington, University Park, USA: Penn State University Press, 2021. pp. 699–720. coaccess

External links

• Ugarit and the Bible. An excerpt from an online introductory course on Ugaritic grammar (the Quartz Hill School of Theology's course noted in the links hereafter). Includes a cursory discussion on the relationship between Ugaritic and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible literature.
• "El in the Ugaritic tablets" on the BBCi website gives many attributes of the Ugaritic creator and his consort Athirat.
• Abstract of Mark Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel's Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Text.
• Unicode Chart.
• RSTI. The Ras Shamra Tablet Inventory: an online catalog of inscribed objects from Ras Shamra-Ugarit produced at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
• Introduction to Ugaritic Grammar (Quartz Hill School of Theology)
• Introduction to Ugaritic Grammar Archived 2022-02-13 at the Wayback Machine (University of Chicago)