Ugaritic

Not to be confused with Ugric languages.

Ugaritic^[2][3] (/ˌ(j)uːɡəˈrɪtɪk/ (Y)OOG-ə-RIT-ik)^[4] is an extinct Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit,^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]} including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycle.^[11][12]

Ugaritic
Clay tablet of Ugaritic alphabet
Native to	Ugarit
Extinct	12th century BC[1]
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
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Ugaritic has been called "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform".^[13]

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.^[14]

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^[11] 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^{[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 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,^[15] and (e), in poetry, parallellisms are also helpful to interpret the consonantal skeleton.^[16]

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),^[17] 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.^[18]

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 paradigm of the suffix conjugation (or Perfect) is as follows for the a-verb RGM, the i-verb Š‘iL (“to ask”), 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”	ša’iltu (or ša’iltī)	“I ask, have asked”	maruṣtu (or maruṣtī)	“I fall ill, have fallen ill”
	2nd	masculine	STEM-ta	rgmt	RaGaMta	“you (m.) say”	ša’ilta	(etc.)	maruṣta	(etc.)
		feminine	STEM-ti	rgmt	RaGaMti	“you (f.) say”	ša’ilti		maruṣti
	3rd	masculine	STEM-a	rgm	RaGaMa	“he says”	ša’ila		maruṣa
		feminine	STEM-at	rgmt	RaGaMat	“she says”	ša’ilat		maruṣat
Dual	1st	masc. & fem.	STEM-nayā	rgmny	RaGaMnayā	“the both of us say”	ša’ilnayā		maruṣnayā
	2nd	masc. & fem.	STEM-tumā	rgmtm	RaGaMtumā	“you two say”	ša’iltumā		maruṣtumā
	3rd	masculine	STEM-ā	rgm	RaGaMā	“they both (m.) say”	ša’ilā		maruṣā
		feminine	STEM-atā	rgmt	RaGaMatā	“they both (f.) say”	ša’ilatā		maruṣatā
Plural	1st	masc. & fem.	STEM-nū	rgmn	RaGaMnū	“we say”	ša’ilnū		maruṣnū
	2nd	masculine	STEM-tum(u)	rgmtm	RaGaMtum(u)	“you (m. Pl.) say”	ša’iltum(u)		maruṣtum(u)
		feminine	STEM-tin(n)a	rgmtn	RaGaMtin(n)a	“you (f. Pl.) say”	ša’iltin(n)a		maruṣtin(n)a
	3rd	masculine	STEM-ū	rgm	RaGaMū	“they (m.) say”	ša’ilū		maruṣū
		feminine	STEM-ā	rgm	RaGaMā	“they (f.) say”	ša’ilā		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)^[1]

			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

1. These are reconstructed for the Imperfect.

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.^[19]

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.^[20]

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

Patterns

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[1]	(?)	(?)
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[2]	šupʻila	yušapʻalu
Št stem (causative reflexive)	hištaph‘al	ʼištapʻala	yaštapʻilu	n/a
R stem (factitive) (reduplicated roots)[3]		paʻlala (e.g. karkara)	yapaʻlalu (e.g. yakarkaru)	(?)	(?)

1. The i-form imperfect of the G stem (or D stem?) sometimes has causative meaning. It probably is not a separate stem: Daniel Sivan, A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language (HdO 28; Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, 2001) pp. 116-117.
2. Gordon, Cyrus (1947). Ugaritic Handbook, I. Pontifical Biblical Institute. p. 72.
3. This includes reduplicated bi- (like KRKR, “to twiddle one's fingers”) and triconsonant roots (ṢḤRR, “to scorch”), as well as other four-consonant roots (PRṢḤ, “to bow, collapse(?)”). A factitive-reflexive tR or Rt stem may also exist (attested only once: Pierre Bordreuil & Dennis Pardee, A manual of Ugaritic (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2009), pp. 44-45).

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Nouns

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”).^[21][22]

		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.

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

Ugaritic has only regular plurals (i.e. no broken plurals). 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. 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.

Personal 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		Singular		Dual		Plural
1st		ʼanā, ʼanāku	"I"			ʼanaḥnu	"we"
2nd	masculine	ʼatta	“you”	ʼattumā	“you two”	ʼattumu	“you all”
	feminine	ʼatti	“you”			ʼattina	“you all”
3rd	masculine	huwa[1]	“he”	humā	“them two”	humu[1]	“they”
	feminine	hiya[1]	“she”			hinna	“they”

1. 3rd person independent pronouns can occur in the genitive or accusative but are suffixed with a /-t/.

Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns

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

Person		Singular		Dual		Plural
1st		-ya[1]	“my”	-nayā	“our”	-na, -nu	“our”
2nd	masculine	-ka	“your”	-kumā	“your”	-kum-	“your”
	feminine	-ki	“your”			-kin(n)a	“your”
3rd	masculine	-hu	“his”	-humā	“their”	-hum-	“their”
	feminine	-ha	“her”			-hin(n)a	“their”

1. -nī is used for the nominative, i.e. following a verb denoting the subject.

Numerals

The following is a table of Ugaritic numerals:

Number	Masculine	Feminine
1	ʼaḥḥadu	ʼaḥattu
2	ṯinā[1]	ṯittā[1]
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 [2]
30	ṯalāṯūma [2]
100	miʼtu
200	miʼtāma
1000	ʼalpu
10000	ribbatu[2]

1. Segert, Stanislav (1984). A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language. University of California Press. p. 53. ISBN 9780520039995.
2. Ibid., p. 54

Ordinals

The following is a table of Ugaritic ordinals:

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

1. These are reconstructed for the imperfect simple active pattern (G stem).

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[a][23]	vocalized	English
w bn bht ksp w ḫrṣ bht ṭhrm ’iqn’im	wa-banayū bahatū kaspa wa-ḫurāṣa, bahatū ṭuḥūrīma ’iqn’īma	“And build a house of silver and gold, a house of pure 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

• Asia portal

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

Notes

1. Ugaritic text does not include many vowels which would have been present in spoken language