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Ugaritic

Extinct Northwest Semitic language

Summary

Extinct Northwest Semitic language

Field	Value
name	Ugaritic
states	Ugarit
extinct	12th century BC
familycolor	Afro-Asiatic
fam2	Semitic
fam3	West
fam4	Central
fam5	Northwest
fam6	Amorite?
script	Ugaritic alphabet
iso2	uga
iso3	uga
linglist	uga
glotto	ugar1238
glottorefname	Ugaritic
notice	IPA
imagecaption	Clay tablet of Ugaritic alphabet
image	22 alphabet.jpg

Ugaritic ( ) 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. The script is described as “a special alphabetic Cuneiform,” reflecting an idiom related to Canaanite and Hebrew languages.

Like Hebrew the short script of Ugarit has twenty-two characters: nearly identical to Hebrew in terms of their phonetic values (what they sound like) if not in terms of the visual elements or media of their inscription. Early samples of Hebrew are scratched on stone or potsherds whereas Ugaritic is punched on clay, like cuneiform.

A scholar of the period hailed Ugaritic as "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 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.

Labial	Interdental	Dental/Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal	plain	emphatic	Nasal	Stop	voiceless	voiced	Fricative	voiceless	voiced	Approximant	Trill
				()

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	sem	sem	sem
𐎁	sem	b	ب	ar	ב	sem	𐡁	sem
𐎔	sem	p	ف	ar	פ	sem	𐡐	sem
𐎏	sem;
sometimes sem	z	ذ	ar	ז	sem	𐡃 (older 𐡆)	sem
𐎘	sem	š	ث	ar	שׁ	sem	𐡕 (older 𐡔)	sem
𐎑	sem ;
sporadically sem	ṣ	ظ	ar	צ	sem	𐡈 (older 𐡑)	sem
𐎄	sem	d	د	ar	ד	sem	𐡃	sem
𐎚	sem	t	ت	ar	ת	sem	𐡕	sem
𐎉	sem	ṭ	ط	ar	ט	sem	𐡈	sem
𐎌	sem	š	س	ar	שׁ	sem	𐡔	sem
𐎇	sem	z	ز	ar	ז	sem	𐡆	sem
𐎒	sem	s	س	ar	ס	sem	𐡎	sem
𐎕	sem	ṣ	ص	ar	צ	sem	𐡑	sem
𐎍	sem	l	ل	ar	ל	sem	𐡋	sem
𐎌	sem	š	ش	ar	שׂ	sem	𐡎 (older 𐡔)	sem
𐎕	sem	ṣ	ض	ar	צ	sem	𐡏 (older 𐡒)	sem
𐎂	sem	g	ج	ar	ג	sem	𐡂	sem
𐎋	sem	k	ك	ar	כ	sem	𐡊	sem
𐎖	sem	q	ق	ar	ק	sem	𐡒	sem
𐎙	sem	ḫ	غ	ar	ע	sem	𐡏	sem
𐎃	sem	خ	ar	ח	sem	𐡇	sem
𐎓	sem	ḫ / e	ع	ar	ע	sem	𐡏	sem
𐎈	sem	e	ح	ar	ח	sem	𐡇	sem
𐎛	sem	∅ / sem	ء	ar	א	sem	𐡀/∅	sem
𐎅	sem	∅	ه	ar	ה	sem	𐡄	sem
𐎎	sem	m	م	ar	מ	sem	𐡌	sem
𐎐	sem	n	ن	ar	נ	sem	𐡍	sem
𐎗	sem	r	ر	ar	ר	sem	𐡓	sem
𐎆	sem	w	و	ar	ו	sem	𐡅	sem
𐎊	sem	y	ي	ar	י	sem	𐡉	sem

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”):

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

Prefix conjugation

The prefix conjugation yqtl- takes three forms: yiqtal-, yaqtil-, and yaqtul-. The specific pattern is determined by the stem consonants (laryngals – ‘ ’ h ḥ ḫ –, and weak consonants). Therefore, there is no simple one-on-one relation with the three qtl vowel patterns, qatal, qatil, and qatul, because the qtl vowel pattern depends not on the consonant pattern, but on a verb's meaning (active or stative).

For example, the following three verbs all have a qtl of the qatal type, but their yqtl patterns differ:

: {| class="wikitable" |- ! colspan="2" | verb !! colspan="2" | qtl !! type !! colspan="2" | 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):

model	yaqtul pattern	yiqtal pattern	yaqtil pattern	Singular	1st	masc. & fem.	2nd
’a/’i-STEM-(u)	’argm	’aRGuMu	“I will say”	’iš’alu	“I will ask”	’aridu	“I will go down”
''’aRGu'''M'''''	“may I say”	’iš’al	“may I ask”	’arid	“may I go down”
ta/ti-STEM-(u)	trgm	taRGuMu	“you (m.) will say”	tiš’alu	(etc.)	taridu	(etc.)
''taRGu'''M'''''	“may you (m.) say”	tiš’al	tarid
ta/ti-STEM-īna	trgmn	taRGuMīna	“you (f.) ...”;
“may you (f.) ...”	tiš’alīna		taridīna
ya/yi-STEM-(u)	yrgm	yaRGuM(u)	“... he ...”	yiš’al(u)		yarid(u)
ta/ti-STEM-(u)	trgm	taRGuM(u)	“... she ...”	tiš’al(u)		tarid(u)
na/ni-STEM-ā (?)	nrgm (?)	naRGuMā (?)	“... the both of us ...”	niš’alā (?)		naridā (?)
ta/ti-STEM-ā(ni)	trgm(n)	taRGuMā(ni)	“... you two ...”	tiš’alā(ni)		taridā(ni)
ta/ti-STEM-ā(ni);
also ya/yi-STEM-ā(ni)	trgm(n)
or yrgm(n)	taRGuMā(ni)
or yaRGuMā(ni)	“... they both (m.) ...”	tiš’alā(ni)
or yiš’alā(ni)		taridā(ni)
or yaridā(ni)
ta/ti-STEM-ā(ni)	trgm(n)	taRGuMā(ni)	“... they both (f.) ...”	tiš’alā(ni)		taridā(ni)
na/ni-STEM-(u)	nrgm	naRGuM(u)	“... we ...”	niš’al(u)		narid(u)
ta/ti-STEM-ū(na)	trgm(n)	taRGuMū(na)	“... you (m. Pl.) ...”	tiš’alū(na)		taridū(na)
ta/ti-STEM-na	trgmn	taRGuMna	“... you (f. Pl.) ...”	tiš’alna		taridna
ta/ti-STEM-ū(na);
rarely: ya/yi-STEM-ū(na)	trgm(n)
or yrgm(n)	taRGuMū(na)
or yaRGuMū(na)	“... they (m.) ...”	tiš’alū(na)
or yiš’alū(na)		taridū(na)
or yaridū(na)
ta/ti-STEM-ū(na)	trgmn	taRGuMū(na)	“... they (f.) ...”	tiš’alū(na)		taridū(na)

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
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.:)
Imperative,
2 Singular	masculine	pataḥ	“open!”	rid	“descend!”	rugum	“say!”, “speak!”	a man
feminine	pataḥī	ridī	rugumī	a woman
2 Dual	masculine	pataḥā	ridā (?)	rugumā	two men
feminine	two women
2 Plural	masculine	pataḥū	ridū	rugumū	three or more men,
or men and women
feminine	pataḥā (?)	ridā (?)	rugumā (?)	three or more women

Participles

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

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
feminine	ragūm(a)tu
Plural	masculine
feminine	ragūmātu

Other stems than the G (and N) stem form their participles by means of a m- prefix; for example mulaḫḫišu (“conjuror”, D stem LḪŠ “to whisper”), mušamṭiru (“[the god] who rains”, Š stem, MṬR “to rain down”).

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 RGM, “to say”, unless indicated otherwise):

Hebrew equivalent	Verb	Perfect
(3rd sg. masc.)	Imperfect
(3rd sg. masc.)	Imperative
(2nd sg. masc.)	Infinitive	Participle
(sg. masc.)
G stem (simple)	qal	“to say”	ragama,
“he says, said”	yargumu,
“he will say, said, used to say”	rugum,
“say!”	ragāmu,
“to say”
Gp stem (passive of G)	qal passive	“to be said”	rugima	yurgamu	—	?
(?) C stem (causative internal pattern)	—	MLK, “to reign” → “to enthrone”	—	yamliku	—	—
Gt stem (simple reflexive)	—	“to speak to oneself”	ʼirtagama	yartagamu	ʼirtagim	?
N stem (reciprocal or passive)	niphʻal	“to speak to each other; to be said”	nargama	yirragimu (	?	nargamu
D stem (factitive / causative, or intensive)	piʻʻel	“to speak loudly”	raggima	yaraggimu	raggim	ruggamu
Dp stem (passive of D)	puʻʻal	“to be said loudly”	ruggima	yuraggamu	—	?
tD stem (reflexive of D)	hithpaʻʻel	“to speak loudly to oneself”	taraggima	yataraggimu	taraggim	?
L stem (intensive or factitive)	pôlel	RWM, “to raise up”	?	yarāmimu	rāmim	?
Lp stem (passive of L)	pôlal	RWM, “to be raised up”	?	yurāmamu	—	?
Š stem (causative)	hiphʻil	“to make someone speak”	šargima	yašargimu	šargim	šurgamu
Šp stem (passive of Š)	hophʻal	“to be made to speak”	šurgima	yušargamu	—	?
Št stem (causative reflexive)	hištaph‘al	“to make someone speak to himself”	ʼištargima	yištargimu	?	?
R stem (factitive) (reduplicated roots)	—	KRKR, “to twiddle one's fingers”	karkara	yakarkaru	?	?

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
Singular	nominative	-u	mlk	''malk'''u'''''	-u	mlkt	''malkat'''u'''''
genitive	-i	mlk	''malk'''i'''''	-i	mlkt	''malkat'''i'''''
accusative	-a	mlk	''malk'''a'''''	-a	mlkt	''malkat'''a'''''
Dual	nominative	-āma (or -āmi?)	-ā	mlkm	''malkāma / malk'''āmi'''''	mlk	''malk'''ā'''''	-āma / -āmi	-ā	mlktm	''malkatāma / malkat'''āmi'''''	mlkt	''malkat'''ā'''''
gen. & acc.	-êma (or -êmi?)	-ê	mlkm	''malkêma / malk'''êmi'''''	mlk	''malk'''ê'''''	-êma / -êmi	-ê	mlktm	''malkatêma / malkat'''êmi'''''	mlkt	''malkat'''ê'''''
Plural	nominative	-ūma	-ū	mlkm	''mal(a)k'''ūma'''''	mlk	''malak'''ū'''''	()-u*	mlkt	''mal(a)kāt'''u'''''
gen. & acc.	-īma	-ī	mlkm	''mal(a)k'''īma'''''	mlk	''malak'''ī'''''	()-i*	mlkt	''mal(a)kāt'''i'''''

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:

“the house” (absolute state) “of the king” (absolute state, genitive). This might be called the ‘Latin’ way of expression (domus regis);
“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
	’n (ʼanā) and
’nk (ʼanāku)	“I”	?	“we two”	’anḥn? (ʼanaḥnu?)	“we”
’at (ʼatta)	“you (m.)”	’atm (ʼattumā)	“you two”	’atm (ʼattumu)	“you all (m.)”
’at (ʼatti)	“you (f.)”	’atn? (ʼattina?)	“you all (f.)”
hw (huwa)	“he”	hm? (humā?)	“them two”	hm? (humū?)	“they”
hwt (huwāti)	“him”	hmt (humutu?)	“them”
hy (hiya)	“she”	hm? (humā?)	“them two (f.)”	hn (hinna)	“they (f.)”
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	gen., acc.	2nd	masculine	feminine	3rd	masculine	nominative	gen., acc.	feminine	nominative	gen., acc.
-— (-î)	-n (-nī)	“me, my”	-ny (-nayā / -niyā)	“us, our”	-n (-nā / -nū)	“us, our”
-y (-ya)
-k (-ka)	“you, your”	-km (-kumā)	“you, your”	-km (-kumū?)	“you, your”
-k (-ki)	“you, your (f.)”	-kn (-kin(n)a)	“you, your (f.)”
-h (-hu)	“him, his”	-hm (-humā?)	“them, their”	-hm (-humū?)	“them, their”
-h, -nh, -n, -nn
(-hu, -annahu, -annu, -annannu)
-h (-ha)	“her”	-hn (-hin(n)a)	“them, their (f.)”
-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 (some vocalisations are conjectural):

Number	used with Masculine nouns only	used with Masc. or Fem. nouns	used with Feminine nouns only	notes
1	ʼaḥd	ʼaḥḥadu
2		ṯn	ṯinā (+nominative),
ṯinê (+gen., acc.)	ṯt
3	ṯlṯt	ṯalāṯatu	ṯlṯ	ṯalāṯu
4	ʼarbʻt	ʼarbaʻatu	ʼarbʻ	ʼarbaʻu
5	ḫmšt	ḫamišatu	ḫmš	ḫamišu
6	ṯṯt	ṯiṯṯatu	ṯṯ	ṯiṯṯu
7	šbʻt	šabʻatu	šbʻ	šabʻu
8	ṯmnt	ṯamānîtu	ṯmn	ṯamānû
9	tšʻt	tišʻatu	tšʻ	tišʻu
10	ʻšrt	ʻašratu	ʻšr	ʻašru
11	ʻšt ʻšrh	ʻaštê ʻišrêh (ʻašrihu?)	ʻšt ʻšr	ʻaštê ʻašru
12	ṯn ʻšrh / ṯn ʻšrt	ṯinā ʻišrêh (ʻašrihu?) / ṯinā ʻašratu	ṯn ʻšr	ṯinā ʻašru
13	ṯlṯt ʻšrh / ṯlṯt ʻʻšrt	ṯalāṯatu ʻišrêh (ʻašrihu?) / ṯalāṯatu ʻašratu	ṯlṯ ʻšr	ṯalāṯu ʻašru
20		ʻšrm	ʻašrāma	dual of ʻašru, “10”
30	ṯlṯm	ṯalāṯūma	«plural» form of ṯalāṯu, “3”;
“40” ... “90” similarly
100	mʼit	miʼtu
200	mʼitm	miʼtāma	dual of miʼtu, “100”
300	ṯlṯ mʼat	ṯalāṯu miʼātu	“400” ... “900” similarly
1000	ʼalp	ʼalpu
2000	ʼalpm	ʼalpāma	dual of ʼalpu, “1000”
3000	ṯlṯ ʼalpm	ṯalāṯu ʼalpūma
10,000	rbt	ribbatu
20,000	rbtm	ribbatāma	dual of ribbatu, “10,000”
30,000	ṯlṯ rbbt	ṯalāṯu ribabātu

Numerals are declined just like other nouns, for example ʼarbaʻu (“4”): genitive ʼarbaʻi, accusative ʼarbaʻa.

Ordinals

The following is a table of Ugaritic ordinals. The vocalisations (predominantly based on comparison with Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic) are very uncertain:

Number	written as	vocalisation (??)
1st	pr‘ or ’aḥd	parī‘u or ’aḥḥīdu
2nd	ṯn	ṯanû
3rd	ṯlṯ	ṯalīṯu
4th	rbʻ	rabīʻu
5th	ḫmš	ḫamīšu
6th	ṯdṯ	ṯadīṯu
7th	šbʻ	šabīʻu
8th	ṯmn	ṯamīnu
9th	tšʻ	tašīʻu
10th	‘šr	‘ašīru

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 what might be called ‘numerical stairs’.

An example of repetition is in a part of the Ba‘al myth cycle, where Ba‘al’s fight with the Sea god Yammu (also known as Naharu) is described. Divine artisan Kothar makes a magic mace for Ba‘al and, speaking to the mace, instructs it what to do:

Ugaritic	vocalized	English
(14′-15′) hlm . ktp [.] zbl [.] ym [.]
bn ydm / [ṭp]ṭ . nhr	hulum katipa zabūli Yammi,
bêna yadêma ṭāpiṭi Nahari	“Strike! the shoulder of Prince Yammu!,
between the arms of Ruler Naharu!”

The phrase is repeated, with subtle variation, to describe the fight:

(16′-17′) *ylm . ktp . zbl ym .
bn [.] ydm [.] ṭpṭ / [nh]r*	yallumu katipa zabūli Yammi,
bêna yadêma ṭāpiṭi Nahari	It [the mace] struck the shoulder of Prince Yammu,
between the arms of Ruler Naharu.

When the fight ends in a draw, Kothar makes a second mace for Ba‘al. This mace too is instructed:

(21′-22′) hlm . qdq/[d] . *zbl ym .
bn . ‘nm . ṭpṭ . nhr*	hulum qudquda zabūli Yammi,
bêna ‘ênêma ṯāpiṭi Nahari	“Strike! the head of Prince Yammu!,
between the eyes of Ruler Naharu!”

The fight is then described thus:

(24′-25′) ylm . qdqd . zbl / [ym .]
bn . ‘nm . ṭpṭ . nhr	yallumu qudquda zabūli Yammi,
bêna ‘ênêma ṯāpiṭi Nahari	It struck the head of Prince Yammu,
between the eyes of Ruler Naharu.

This time Ba‘al indeed succeeds in killing Yammu.

In the quoted section several parallellisms may be noted: “shoulder” // “between the arms”; “head” // “between the eyes”; “Prince” // “Ruler”; and Yammu // Naharu.

An example of a chiasm is (Dan’il curses vultures after he has found out that they have scavenged the body of his dead son Aqhat):

b‘l . yṯbr . d’iy / hmt	Ba‘lu yaṯbur di’ya humutu	may Ba‘al break their flying!”

‘Numerical stairs’ or ‘progressions of numbers’ are of the form “N (times) X, N+1 (times) Y”, or “100 (times) X, 1000 (times) Y”. An example, where the huge size of Kirta’s army is portrayed:

’aṯr . ṯlṯ . klhm	’aṯra ṯalāṯi kullūhumū	[three] by three, all together.

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.”

Notes

References

; Citations

; Bibliography

(2 vols; originally in Spanish, translated by W. G. E. Watson).
(Contains Latin-alphabet transliterations of the Ugaritic texts and facing translations in English.)
Found at Google Scholar.
P. 1-404 .
A more concise grammar.

References

"Ugaritic".
Rendsburg, Gary A.. (1987). "Modern South Arabian as a Source for Ugaritic Etymologies". [[Journal of the American Oriental Society]].
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.
{{MerriamWebsterDictionary. Ugaritic
(1999). "Handbook of Ugaritic Studies". Brill.
Lipiński, Edward. (2001). "Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar". Peeters Publishers.
Woodard, Roger D.. (2008-04-10). "The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia". Cambridge University Press.
Goetze, Albrecht. (1941). "Is Ugaritic a Canaanite Dialect?". Language.
Kaye, Alan S.. (2007-06-30). "Morphologies of Asia and Africa". Eisenbrauns.
(2007). "A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and Literature". Cambridge University Press.
(November 2010). "Texts from Ugarit Solve Biblical Puzzles". [[Biblical Archaeology Review]].
(2013). "Ugaritic and Biblical Hebrew". [[Brill Publishers]].
Donald B. Redford. (1992). "Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in ancient times". Princeton University Press.
Gordon, Cyrus H.. (1965). "The Ancient Near East". Norton.
(2012). "An Introduction to Ugaritic". Hendrickson Publishers.
The voiced palatal fricative [ʒ] occurs as a late variant of the voiced interdental fricative /ð/.
The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/, while an independent phoneme at all periods, also occurs as a late variant of the emphatic voiced interdental /ðˤ/.
An example of this last method in Sivan, ''A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language'', p. 116: "[The] pattern of correspondences between the thematic vowel with the second radical and the prefix vowel (thematic ''u'' and ''i'' taking prefix vowel ''a''; thematic ''a'' taking prefix ''i'') is helpful in reconstructing the vocalized forms of the G stem prefix conjugation." Two more examples of rules of thumb are: abstract nouns preferably have the vowel -''u''- (Pierre Bordreuil & Dennis Pardee, ''A Manual of Ugaritic'' (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2001) p. 33); and stative verbs in the perfect use the ''qatila'' vowel pattern.
(2012). "Stories from Ancient Canaan". WJK.
(1982). "Ugaritic Word Order and Sentence Structure in KRT". Journal of Semitic Studies.
(March 1985). "A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language by Stanislav Segert – Hardcover – University of California Press".
Daniel Sivan, A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language (HdO 28; Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2001), pp. 99-106, 116-119.
Gordon, Cyrus Herzl. (1998). "Ugaritic Textbook". Gregorian Biblical BookShop.
Daniel Sivan, ''A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language'' (HdO 28; Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2001) pp. 96-177.
Pierre Bordreuil & Dennis Pardee, ''A manual of Ugaritic'' (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009), pp. 43-45.
This includes reduplicated bi- (like '''''KRKR''''', “to twiddle one's fingers”) and triconsonant roots ('''''ṢḤRR''''', “to scorch”), as well as other four-consonant roots ('''''PRSḤ''''', “to bow, collapse(?)”). A factitive-reflexive '''tR''' or '''Rt''' stem may also exist (attested only once: Bordreuil & Pardee (2009), pp. 44-45).
(2009). "A Manual of Ugaritic". Eisenbrauns.
(2001). "A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language". Brill.
Sivan, ''A grammar of the Ugaritic language'' (2001), pp. 86-92; Bordreuil & Pardee, ''A manual of Ugaritic'' (2009) pp. 35-37 and vocalisations pp. 161ff; Segert, ''A basic grammar of the Ugaritic language'' (1984), pp. 53-54.
Sivan, ''A grammar of the Ugaritic language'' (2001), pp. 92-94; Bordreuil & Pardee, ''A manual of Ugaritic'' (2009), pp. 293-355 (Glossary).
(2012). "Stories from Ancient Canaan". Westminster John Knox.
(1965). "Ugaritic Textbook". Pontifical Biblical Institute.
''KTU'' 1.2, tablet 2, col. 4: Bordreuil (2009), pp. 159-164.
Aqhat tablet 3, col. 3, lines 42-43: Gordon (1965) p. 137 (= p. 246 lines 148-150).
Sivan (2001) p. 5.
''Kirta'', tablet 1, column 2, lines 39-43 = Gordon (1965) p. 250 lines 92-95.
Coogan & Smith (2012) p. 75. Others translate ḪḎḎ and KMYR as a kind of soldiery.
Sivan, Daniel. (2001). "A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language". [[Brill Publishers.

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