Ugaritic grammar

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 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.

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).

Ugaritic consonantal phonemes

		Labial	Interdental		Dental/Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
			Plain	Emphatic	Plain	Emphatic
Nasal		m			n
Plosive	voiced	b			d			ɡ
	voiceless	p			t	tˤ		k	q		ʔ
Fricative	voiced		ð	ðˤ	z		ʒ	ɣ		ʕ
	voiceless		θ		s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
Trill					r
Approximant		w			l		j

The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ occurs as a late variant of the emphatic voiced interdental /ðˤ/.

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

Proto-Semitic	Ugaritic	Arabic		Tiberian Hebrew		Aramaic
b [b]	b	ب	b [b]	ב	b/ḇ [b/v]	ב	b/ḇ [b/v]
p [p]	p	ف	f [f]	פ	p/p̄ [p/f]	פ	p/p̄ [p/f]
ḏ [ð]	ḏ	ذ	ḏ [ð]	ז	z [z]	ד (older ז)	d/ḏ [d/ð]
ṯ [θ]	ṯ	ث	ṯ [θ]	שׁ	š [ʃ]	ת	t/ṯ [t/θ]
ṱ [θʼ]	ḓ	ظ	ẓ [ðˤ]	צ	ṣ [sˤ]	ט	ṭ [tˤ]
d [d]	d	د	d [d]	ד	d/ḏ [d/ð]	ד	d/ḏ [d/ð]
t [t]	t	ت	t [t]	ת	t/ṯ [t/θ]	ת	t/ṯ [t/θ]
ṭ [tʼ]	ṭ	ط	ṭ [tˤ]	ט	ṭ [tˤ]	ט	ṭ [tˤ]
š [s]	š	س	s [s]	שׁ	š [ʃ]	שׁ	š [ʃ]
z [dz]	z	ز	z [z]	ז	z [z]	ז	z [z]
s [ts]	s	س	s [s]	ס	s [s]	ס	s [s]
ṣ [tsʼ]	ṣ	ص	ṣ [sˤ]	צ	ṣ [sˤ]	צ	ṣ [sˤ]
l [l]	l	ل	l [l]	ל	l [l]	ל	l [l]
ś [ɬ]	š	ش	š [ʃ]	שׂ	ś [ɬ]→[s]	שׂ/ס	s/ś [s]
ṣ́ [tɬʼ]	ṣ	ض	ḍ [ɮˤ]→[dˤ]	צ	ṣ [sˤ]	ע (older ק)	ʿ [ʕ]
g [ɡ]	g	ج	ǧ [ɡʲ]→[dʒ]	ג	g/ḡ [ɡ/ɣ]	ג	g/ḡ [ɡ/ɣ]
k [k]	k	ك	k [k]	כ	k/ḵ [k/x]	כ	k/ḵ [k/x]
q [kʼ]	q	ق	q [q]	ק	q [q]	ק	q [q]
ġ [ɣ]	ġ	غ	ġ [ɣ]	ע	ʿ [ʕ]	ע	ʿ [ʕ]
ḫ [x]	ḫ	خ	ḫ [x]	ח	ḥ [ħ]	ח	ḥ [ħ]
ʿ [ʕ]	ʿ	ع	ʿ [ʕ]	ע	ʿ [ʕ]	ע	ʿ [ʕ]
ḥ [ħ]	ḥ	ح	ḥ [ħ]	ח	ḥ [ħ]	ח	ḥ [ħ]
ʾ [ʔ]	ʾ	ء	ʾ [ʔ]	א	ʾ [ʔ]	א/∅	ʾ/∅ [ʔ/∅]
h [h]	h	ه	h [h]	ה	h [h]	ה	h [h]
m [m]	m	م	m [m]	מ	m [m]	מ	m [m]
n [n]	n	ن	n [n]	נ	n [n]	נ	n [n]
r [r]	r	ر	r [r]	ר	r [r]	ר	r [r]
w [w]	w	و	w [w]	ו	w [w]	ו	w [w]
y [j]	y	ي	y [j]	י	y [j]	י	y [j]
Proto-Semitic	Ugaritic	Arabic		Tiberian Hebrew		Aramaic

Grammar

Word order

The word order for Ugaritic is Verb Subject Object (VSO), Subject Object Verb (SOV), 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

Aspects

Verbs in Ugaritic have 2 aspects: perfect for completed action (with pronominal suffixes) and imperfect for uncompleted action (with pronominal prefixes and suffixes). Verb formation in Ugaritic is based on (like all Semitic languages) triconsonantal roots. Affixes inserted into the root form different meanings. Taking the root RGM (which means "to say") for example:

Morphology of Ugaritic verbs (in the simple active pattern (G stem))

		Perfect	Imperfect
Singular
1st		STEM-tu or STEM-tī	ʼa-STEM
		RaGaMtu or RaGaMtī	َʼaRGuMu
2nd	masculine	STEM-ta	ta-STEM
		RaGaMta	taRGuMu
	feminine	STEM-ti	ta-STEM-īna
		RaGaMti	taRGuMīna
3rd	masculine	STEM-a	ya-STEM
		RaGaMa	yaRGuMu
	feminine	STEM-at	ta-STEM
		RaGaMat	taRGuMu
Dual
1st		STEM-nayā	na-STEMā
		RaGaMnayā	naRGuMā
2nd	masculine & feminine	STEM-tumā	ta-STEM-ā(ni)
		RaGaMtumā	taRGuMā(ni)
3rd	masculine	STEM-ā	ya-STEM-ā(ni)
		RaGaMā	yaRGuMā(ni)
	feminine	STEM-atā	ta-STEM-ā(ni)
		RaGaMatā	taRGuMā(ni)
Plural
1st		STEM-nū	na-STEM
		RaGaMnū	naRGuMu
2nd	masculine	STEM-tum(u)	ta-STEM-ū(na)
		RaGaMtum(u)	taRGuMū(na)
	feminine	STEM-tin(n)a	ta-STEM-na
		RaGaMtin(n)a	taRGuMna
3rd	masculine	STEM-ū	ya-STEM-ū(na)
		RaGaMū	yaRGuMū(na)
	feminine	STEM-ā	ta-STEM-na
		RaGaMā	taRGuMna

Moods

Ugaritic verbs occur in 5 moods:

Mood	Verb
Indicative	yargumu
Jussive	yargum
Volitive	yarguma
Energic 1	yargum(a)n
Energic 2	yargumanna

Patterns

Ugaritic verbs occur in 10 reconstructed patterns or Binyan:

Verb Patterns
	Active voice		Passive voice
	Perfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Perfect (3rd sg. masc.)	Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.)
G stem (simple)	paʻala, paʻila, paʻula	yapʻulu, yapʻalu, yapʻilu	puʻila	yupʻalu
Gt stem (simple reflexive)	ʼiptaʻala	yaptaʻalu	(?)	(?)
D stem (factitive)	paʻʻala	yapaʻʻilu	puʻʻila	yupaʻʻalu
tD stem (factitive reflexive)	tapaʻʻala	yatapaʻʻalu	(?)	(?)
N stem (reciprocal passive)	nap(a)ʻala	yappaʻilu <<(*yanpaʻilu)	n/a
L stem (intensive or factitive)	pāʻala	yupāʻilu	(?)	(?)
Š stem (causative)	šapʻala	yapaʻilu	šupʻila	yupaʻilu
Št stem (causative reflexive)	ʼištapʻala	yaštapʻilu	(?)	(?)
C stem (causative internal pattern)	(?)	yapʻilu	n/a
R stem (factitive) (biconsonantal roots)	paʻlala (e.g. karkara)	yapaʻlalu (e.g. yakarkaru)	(?)	(?)

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Nouns

Nouns in Ugaritic can be 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).

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. Using the word Malk- (king) and Malkat- (queen) for example:

	Nominative	Genitive	Accusative
Masculine	Malku	Malki	Malka
Feminine	Malkatu	Malkati	Malkata

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. 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.

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 /-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 (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:

Person		singular	dual	Plural
1st		ʼanā, ʼanāku "I"
2nd	masculine	ʼatta "you"	ʼattumā	ʼattum- "you"
	feminine	ʼatti "you"
3rd	masculine	huwa "he"	humā "they"	hum- "they"
	feminine	hiya "she"

Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns

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

Person		Singular	Dual	Plural
1st		-ya "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 "hers"		-hin(n)a "their"

Numerals

The following is a table of Ugaritic numerals:

Number	Masculine	Feminine
1	ʼaḥad-
2	ṯināmi	ṯitāmi
3	ṯalāṯ-	ṯalāṯat-
4	ʼarbaʻ-	ʼarbaʻat-
5	ḫam(i)š-	ḫam(i)šat-
6	ṯiṯṯ-	ṯiṯṯat-
7	šabʻ-	šabʻat-
8	ṯamān-	ṯamānīt-
9	tišʻ-	tišʻat-
10	ʻaš(a)r-	ʻaš(a)r(a)t-
20	ʻišrūma
30	ṯalāṯūma
100	miʼat-
1000	ʼalp-
10000	ribat-

See also

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

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 below); includes a cursory discussion on the relationship between Ugaritic and Old Testament/Hebrew Bible literature.)
• Introduction to Ugaritic Grammar (Quartz Hill School of Theology)
• Unicode Chart