Ugaritic alphabet

Ugaritic alphabet

▪ writing system
      cuneiform writing system used on the Syrian coast from the 15th to 13th century BC. It is believed that it was invented independent of other cuneiform writing systems and of the linear North Semitic alphabet, though similarities in certain letters suggest that it may have been patterned after the North Semitic alphabet. Unlike the North Semitic alphabet, however, Ugaritic was written from left to right; its 30 symbols included 3 syllabic signs for vowels, as opposed to the 22 consonantal letters in the North Semitic alphabet. Extant documents in Ugaritic (Ugarit) are written on clay tablets with a wedge-shaped stylus and date from the 15th–14th century BC. They were found primarily at Ugarit (Ras Shamra) on the Syrian coast in 1929. Two other inscriptions in Ugaritic, found at Beth-Shemesh in Palestine (modern Tel Bet Shemesh, Israel) and in Lower Galilee (modern northern Israel), suggest that the script may have been known throughout a fairly wide area.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ugaritic alphabet — Infobox Writing system name= Ugaritic type= abjad typedesc= time= from around 1500 BCE languages= Ugaritic, Hurrian sisters= children= sample= imagesize= 200px iso15924= UgarThe Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels),… …   Wikipedia

  • Ugaritic language — 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=ugaThe Ugaritic language, discovered by French archaeologists… …   Wikipedia

  • 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… …   Wikipedia

  • UGARITIC — UGARITIC, a Northwest Semitic language spoken and written in northern Syria during the second millennium B.C.E. Documents written in this tongue have been discovered at Ras Shamra, site of the ancient ugarit , and at nearby Ras ibn Hani. The… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • ALPHABET, HEBREW — The origin of alphabetic script has always been a subject of human curiosity. According to Greek mythology, script was brought to Greece from Phoenicia. This tradition was accepted by the Greek and Roman writers, some of whom developed it even… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Alphabet — [ William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia .] An alphabet is a standardized set of letters mdash basic written symbolsmdash each of which roughly represents a phoneme, a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in… …   Wikipedia

  • alphabet — /al feuh bet , bit/, n. 1. the letters of a language in their customary order. 2. any system of characters or signs with which a language is written: the Greek alphabet. 3. any such system for representing the sounds of a language: the phonetic… …   Universalium

  • Ugaritic — /ooh geuh rit ik, yooh /, adj. 1. of or pertaining to Ugarit, its people, or their language. n. 2. Also, Ugaritian /ooh geuh rish euhn, yooh /. the Semitic language of the Ugaritic people, related to Hebrew and Phoenician and written in a… …   Universalium

  • Ugaritic — [ˌju:gə rɪtɪk] noun a pre Phoenician Semitic language written in a distinctive cuneiform alphabet, spoken by the people of Ugarit, an ancient port and trading city in northern Syria. adjective relating to Ugaritic …   English new terms dictionary

  • Ugaritic — U•ga•rit•ic [[t]ˌu gəˈrɪt ɪk, ˌyu [/t]] adj. 1) ara of or pertaining to Ugarit, its people, or their language 2) peo the western Semitic language of the inhabitants of Ugarit, written in a cuneiform alphabet • Etymology: 1935–40 …   From formal English to slang

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”