A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language

by Daniel Sivan

Ugaritic, discovered in 1929, is a North-West Semitic language, documented on clay tablets (about 1250 texts) and dated from the period between the 14th and the 12th centuries B.C.E. The documents are of various literary, administrative, lexicological. Numerous Ugaritic tablets contain portions of a poetic cycle pertaining to the Ugaritic pantheon. Another part, the administrative documents shed light on the organization of Ugarit, thus contributing greatly to our understanding of the history and culture of the biblical and North-West Semitic world.
This important reference work, a revised and translated edition of the author's Hebrew publication (Beer Sheva, 1993), deals with the phonology, morphology and syntax of Ugaritic. The book contains also an appendix with text selections.

Genres: Language

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much shorter than it looks, but that might just be because consonantal Ugaritic looks so much like consonantal Hebrew you can just keep all of the differences in your head even on a first quick pass-through—if you aren't already familiar with Biblical Hebrew, I can imagine this being much more of a slog. It's more or less assumed that you are, however, even if it isn't 100% required—frequent Bible quotes illustrating parallels and elucidating interpretations are always translated but never transcribed or explained in detail.
It is refreshing that Sivan doesn't feel the need to spend pages upon pages explaining what verb stems or construct states are, though.

[Robert Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know no one else is the hopelessly in love language nerd that I am, but I'm going to pretend that you care. After getting hooked on Ugaritic by reading Basics of Ancient Ugaritic: A Concise Grammar, Workbook, and Lexicon, this book is a fantastic reference grammar. Sivan is opinionated and forthright but he cites all major alternate positions at every turn. The number and quality of examples is staggering. This book is a wonderful resource, sure to be useful for many years to come.

[Ahmed]

هذا الكتاب يثبت مقولة "لنا مدنية سلفت !" ,, لم يستطع الككاتب اخفاء عروبة الارض و اللغة و التاريخ وان حاول المقاربة بين اللغة الاوغاريتية و ما يسمى اللغة العبرية .
أن من اشد ما يؤخذ عىل الكاتب هو محاولته انكار و فصل وسلخ سكان أوغاريت عن الكنعانيين ,, كيف لا و صهيوني الفكر و التصرف .
على رغم من ذلك ظهر الحق و بانت عروبة اللهجات الكنعانية و الارامية و الاكادية ,, وبانت ضرورة اعادة قرائة و فك رموز هذه الاهجات على ضوء الابجدية الجديدة التي تم اكتشافها في رأس شمرا (أوغاريت ) ,, اجمالا الكتاب جيد و المادة العلمية غزيرة توعا ما
.
و أخيرا ان اللغة الاوغاريتية هي دليل على ان اللغة العبرية لغة مصطنعة بألفاظها و طرق نطقها و لهجتها .

[Kirk Lowery · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best out there...but hideously expenseive.

[Philip Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An essential reference work for Ugaritic but accessible. I recommend using this and John Huehnegard's introduction.