Ugaritic grammar

language
name=Ugaritic
states=ancient Ugarit
extinct=12th century BC
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
fam2=Semitic
fam3=West Semitic
fam4=Central Semitic
fam5=Northwest Semitic
iso2=uga|iso3=uga

:"Note: vowels in this article are reconstructed via comparative Semitics."

Ugaritic is an extinct Northwest Semitic language. This article describes the grammar of the Ugaritic language. For more information regarding the Ugaritic language in general, see Ugaritic language.

Overview

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); three numbers: (singular, dual, and plural); and verb aspects similar to those found in Western 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.

Phonology

Ugaritic has 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. (ē and ō only occur as long vowels and are the result of monophthongization of the diphthongs “ay” and “aw” respectively).

Moods

Ugaritic verbs occur in 5 moods:

Like Arabic, some exceptional nouns (known as diptotes) have the suffix -a in the genitive.

tate

Nouns in Ugaritic occur in 2 states. Absolute and construct.If a noun is followed by a genitival attribute (noun in the genitive or suffixed pronoun) it becomes a construct (denoting possession). Otherwise, it is in the absolute state. 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.

ingular

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 /- āmi/ in the nominative (such as malkāmi "two kings") and /-ēmi/ for the genitive and accusative (e.g. malkēmi). For the construct state, it is /-ā/ and /-ē / respectively.

Plural

Ugaritic has only regular plurals (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:

footnote|1 ṯināmi and ṯitāmi are the nominative form. The genitive-accusative form would be ṯinēmi and ṯitēmi respectively.

footnote|2 ʻišrūma and ṯalāṯūma are in the nominative form. The genitive-accusative form would be ʻišrīma and ṯalāṯīma respectively.

ee also

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

Notes

References

*cite book|author=Stanislav Segert|title=A Basic Grammar of the Ugaritic Language|publisher=University of California Press|year=1997|id=ISBN 0-520-03999-8
*cite book|author=Sabatino Moscati|title=An Introduction to Comparative Grammar of Semitic Languages Phonology and Morphology|publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag|year=1980|id=ISBN 3-447-00689-7
*Woodard, Roger D. Ancient Languages of Syria-Palastine and Arabia. Cambridge University Press 2008.

External links

* [http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm 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 below); includes a cursory discussion on the relationship between Ugaritic and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible literature.)
* [http://www.theology.edu/ugraintr.htm Introduction to Ugaritic Grammar] (Quartz Hill School of Theology)
* [http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10380.pdf Unicode Chart]