Ugaritic alphabet
From Freepedia
- Note: This article contains special characters.
| History of the Alphabet |
|---|
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Wadi el-Hol 19th c. BC
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| Meroitic 3rd c. BC |
The Ugaritic alphabet is a cuneiform version of the Levantine consonant alphabet (abjad), used from around 1300 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. It has 30 distinct letters. Other languages (particularly Hurrian) were occasionally written in it in the Ugarit area, although not elsewhere.
Clay tablets written in Ugaritic provide the earliest evidence of both the Levantine and South Semitic orders of the alphabet, that gave rise to the alphabetic orders of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabets on the one hand, and of the Ethiopic alphabet on the other.
The script was written from left to right.
Contents |
Origin
Scholars have searched in vain for the cuneiform prototypes of the letters of the Ugaritic alphabet. However, there is circumstantial evidence that they may simply be the letters of the Semitic alphabet, distorted by their adaptation to being written with a stylus on clay. For example, there are two basic shapes in cuneiform: a line wedge, such as 𐎂, and a corner wedge, such as 𐎓. These seem to correspond to lines and circles in the linear Semitic alphabets: the three Semitic letters with circles, preserved in Greek Θ, O and Latin Q, are all made with corner wedges in Ugaritic: 𐎉 Tet, 𐎓 Ain, and 𐎖 Qopa. Other letters look similar as well: 𐎅 Ho resembles its assumed Greek cognate E, while 𐎆 Wo, 𐎔 Pu, and 𐎘 Thanna are similar to Greek Y, Π, and Σ turned on their sides. The similarities are more apparent and more numerous with older Semitic script such as Phoenician.
Letters
| 𐎀 | ʾa | Alpa |
| 𐎁 | b | Beta |
| 𐎂 | g | Gamla |
| 𐎃 | ẖ | Kha |
| 𐎄 | d | Delta |
| 𐎅 | h | Ho |
| 𐎆 | w | Wo |
| 𐎇 | z | Zeta |
| 𐎈 | ḥ | Hota |
| 𐎉 | ṭ | Tet |
| 𐎊 | y | Yod |
| 𐎋 | k | Kaf |
| 𐎌 | š | Shin |
| 𐎍 | l | Lamda |
| 𐎎 | m | Mem |
| 𐎟 | ḏ | Dhal |
| 𐎐 | n | Nun |
| 𐎑 | ẓ | Zu |
| 𐎒 | s | Samka |
| 𐎓 | ʿ | Ain |
| 𐎔 | p | Pu |
| 𐎕 | ṣ | Sade |
| 𐎖 | q | Qopa |
| 𐎗 | r | Rasha |
| 𐎘 | ṯ | Thanna |
| 𐎙 | ġ | Ghain |
| 𐎚 | t | To |
| 𐎛 | ʾi | I |
| 𐎜 | ʾu | U |
| 𐎝 | s2 | Su |
| | (unassigned) | |
| 𐎟 | word divider | |
Ugaritic in Unicode
In Unicode, the Ugaritic alphabet is assigned to U+10380 - U+1039F.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | ||
| 1038 | 𐎀 | 𐎁 | 𐎂 | 𐎃 | 𐎄 | 𐎅 | 𐎆 | 𐎇 | 𐎈 | 𐎉 | 𐎊 | 𐎋 | 𐎌 | 𐎍 | 𐎎 | 𐎟 | |
| 1039 | 𐎐 | 𐎑 | 𐎒 | 𐎓 | 𐎔 | 𐎕 | 𐎖 | 𐎗 | 𐎘 | 𐎙 | 𐎚 | 𐎛 | 𐎜 | 𐎝 | 𐎟 |
Abecedaries/ ABCDaries
Ugaritic is found in two alphabetic orders, the Northern Semitic order found in the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman scripts, and the Southern Semitic order found in the Ethiopic scripts. The letters are given in transcription and in their Hebrew cognates; letters missing from Hebrew are left blank.
North Semitic (the abjad)
| ’a | b | g | x | d | h | w | z | ħ | ţ | y | k | š | l | m | ð | n | ẓ | s | c | p | ş | q | r | θ | γ | t | ’i | ’u | ś |
| א | ב | ג | ח׳ | ד | ה | ו | ז | ח | ט | י | כ | ל | מ | ד׳ | נ | ט׳ | ס | ע | פ | צ | ק | ר | ש | ע׳ | ת | שׂ |
South Semitic
| h | l | ħ | m | q | w | š | r | t | s | k | n | x | b | ś | p | ’ | c | ẓ | g | d | γ | ţ | z | ð | y | θ | ş |
| ה | ל | ח | מ | ק | ו | ר | ת | ס | כ | נ | ח׳ | ב | שׂ | פ | א | ע | ט׳ | ג | ד | ע׳ | ט | ז | ד׳ | י | ש | צ |
Special characters
External links
- Ugaritic (ancientscripts.com)
- Ugaritic Cuneiform characters from the Unicode Ugaritic cuneiform script.
- Ugaritic cuneiform Omniglot entry on the subject.
