A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and Literature

by William M. Schniedewind , Joel H. Hunt

• ISBN13: 9780521879330
• ISBN10: 0521879337
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-07-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

A Primer on Ugaritic is an introduction to the language of the ancient city of Ugarit, a city that flourished in the second millennium BCE on the Lebanese coast, placed in the context of the culture, literature, and religion of this ancient Semitic culture. The Ugaritic language and literature was a precursor to Canaanite and serves as one of our most important resources for understanding the Old Testament and the Hebrew language. Special emphasis is placed on contextualization of the Ugartic language and comparison to ancient Hebrew as well as Akkadian.

Author Biography

Joel H. Hunt is a former professor at Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA).

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Ancient Ugarit	p. 5
Ugarit's Location	p. 5
Excavations and the Discovery of the Texts	p. 8
Brief History of Ancient Ugarit	p. 12
Life in Ancient Ugarit	p. 15
Ugaritic Religion	p. 18
Texts in the Ugaritic Language	p. 20
School Texts (Chapter 2)	p. 22
Letters (Chapter 3)	p. 22
Administrative Texts (Chapter 4)	p. 23
Legal Texts (Chapter 5)	p. 23
Literary Texts (Chapter 6)	p. 24
Ugarit and Biblical Studies	p. 27
School Texts: Introducing the Language and Alphabet	p. 31
Introducing the Alphabet	p. 31
The Languages and Language of Ugarit	p. 31
Classification of Ugaritic	p. 32
Ugarit as a Scribal Center	p. 33
School Texts (KTU 5)	p. 33
Ugaritic Alphabet Chart	p. 38
Letters (KTU 2): An Inductive Introduction to Ugaritic	p. 40
Introduction to Letters	p. 40
Instructions	p. 45
From 'Iwrdr to Plsy (KTU 2.10)	p. 46
From Tlmyn and 'Ahtmlk to the Queen (KTU 2.11)	p. 68
From Tlmyn to the Queen (KTU 2.12)	p. 79
To the Queen Mum (KTU 2.13)	p. 81
From 'Iwiridanni to 'Iwiripuzenni (KTU 2.14)	p. 83
From Tlmym to Tryl (KTU 2.16)	p. 85
From the King of Tyre to the King of Ugarit (KTU 2.38)	p. 87
Second Letter to the Queen Mother (KTU 2.30)	p. 90
Administrative Texts (KTU 4)	p. 92
An Agricultural Document (KTU 4.143)	p. 93
A Record of Tribute (KTU 4.43)	p. 94
Text Dealing with Maritime Commerce (KTU 4.266)	p. 95
An Economic List (KTU 4.709)	p. 96
Legal Texts (KTU 3)	p. 97
Document of Guarantee (KTU 3.3)	p. 98
'Iwrkl Ransoms Some Captives (KTU 3.4)	p. 103
Smmn Establishes a Marzihu (KTU 3.9)	p. 109
Literary Texts (KTU 1)	p. 117
El's Marzihu (KTU 1.114)	p. 118
Mourning from the Baal Cycle (KTU 1.5 vi: 11-25)	p. 121
Keret Epic (KTU 1.14, columns i-ii)	p. 123
Snake Bite Text (KTU 1.100)	p. 132
Ba'al Cycle: Yam and Ba'al (KTU 1.2 iv)	p. 137
Aqhat (KTU 1.19)	p. 138
Birth of the Goodly Gods (KTU 1.23)	p. 146
Grammatical Precis	p. 149
Orthography	p. 149
Phonology	p. 150
Consonants	p. 150
Vowels	p. 152
Pronouns	p. 154
Independent Nominative Personal Pronouns	p. 154
Independent Oblique Personal Pronouns	p. 155
Pronominal Suffixes	p. 155
The Determinative-Relative Pronoun	p. 156
Deictic Pronouns	p. 157
Interrogative Pronouns	p. 157
Indefinite Pronouns	p. 157
Nouns and Adjectives	p. 158
Gender	p. 158
Number	p. 158
Case	p. 158
State	p. 158
Noun and Adjective Declensions	p. 159
Vocative	p. 159
Noun Suffixes	p. 160
Noun Patterns	p. 160
The Numbers	p. 164
Cardinal Numbers	p. 164
Ordinal Numbers	p. 165
Multiplicatives	p. 165
Verb	p. 165
G and N Stems-"Basic Patterns"	p. 166
D (Double) Stem-Factitive or "Intensive"	p. 166
S Stem-Causative	p. 167
Other Conjugations (L and R)	p. 167
Verb Conjugations	p. 168
Tense/Aspect	p. 168
Suffix Conjugation (SC)-"Perfect"	p. 169
Prefix Conjugations (PC)	p. 170
Prefix Preterite (yaqtul)	p. 170
Prefix Imperfect (yaqtulu)	p. 171
Jussive	p. 171
Volitive	p. 172
"Energetic"	p. 172
Imperative	p. 173
Participles: Active and Passive	p. 173
Infinitives	p. 174
Strong Verbs	p. 174
Weak Verbs	p. 175
Particles	p. 177
Prepositions	p. 177
Particles of Negation	p. 178
Vocative Particles	p. 179
Proclitics and Adverbs	p. 179
Conjunctions	p. 170
Glossary	p. 180
Ugaritic Lexicography	p. 180
Ugaritic Glossary	p. 182
Resources for Further Study	p. 210
Index	p. 223
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