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Title: Basics of Ancient Ugaritic: A Concise Grammar, Workbook, and Lexicon
Author: Michael Williams
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Ancient Languages, Biblical Studies
Year Published: 2012
Number of Pages: 143
Binding: Paperback
ISBN10: 031049592X
ISBN13: 978-0310495925
Price: $49.99
Reviewed by Bryan Buchanan for the Association for Mormon Letters
There are "mostly dead" languages (think Latin) and then "all dead" languages that literally had to be unearthed. Ugaritic is a prime example of the latter. Named for the ancient city of Ugarit (known in modern times as Ras Shamra) along the Mediterranean coast of present-day Syria, Ugaritic is a language from the same Northwest Semitic family as Hebrew and Aramaic. The alphabet is--oddly enough--a cuneiform system of 30 letters (no vowels, much like Hebrew). The language, once transliterated away from the unfamiliar symbols, suddenly becomes a very familiar-looking language for someone who knows even basic biblical Hebrew.
A completely accidental discovery of a tomb and subsequent excavations in and around Ras Shamra turned up more than 1500 texts. The bulk of these deal with epic texts such as the "Legend of Aqhat," "The Legend of King Kirta/Keret" and the Ba'al and Anat cycles. The last of these, Ba'al and Anat, are likely of the greatest interest given their relationship to deities and accounts found in the Hebrew Bible. Williams notes that El roughly corresponds to Elohim (God the Father in Mormon terms) while Ba'al (the son of El) can be seen in Mormon context as Jehovah/Jesus Christ. Interestingly, each of these deities has a consort: Athirat/Asherah connected with El and Anat with Ba'al. Finally, Mot—as a deity not worshipped as he is an enemy to Ba'al—can be seen as a Satan-like figure. All of these deities appear in the Hebrew Bible, though often in vague or muddied allusions.
The way in which Ugaritic texts interface with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible is fascinating. For example, there is a puzzle of how Daniel could appear in Ezekiel 14 and 28 since he is mentioned as someone familiar to everyone but would come toward the end of Ezekiel's era. As the king in the legend of Aqhat text is named "Dan'el" perhaps the gymnastics weren't necessary in the first place. Another instance that I found intriguing is the *rapa'uma* of the Ugaritic texts—the Hebrew Bible mentions *repha'im* but their nature is unclear. Williams notes that these figures are "inhabitants of the underworld and may be deified royal ancestors." Isa 14:9 notes that these *repha'im* meet those that come to *sheol* (identified as "a world of spirits" in Joseph Smith's thought). With the combination of family history and theosis in their theology, Mormons will undoubtedly find this connection of interest.
Following a chapter on the relationship of Ugaritic and Hebrew generally [1] and one on the alphabet, Williams discusses the nouns. Like other Semitic languages, Ugaritic uses a triliteral root system where (usually) three consonants constitute the core of the noun. Williams discusses five aspects of a noun: case, gender, definiteness, number and state. As per his standard, the details are kept to a minimum and many times he simply says "we'll talk about this later." A paradigm chart and a few exercises finish off this chapter.
As he introduces the different types of adjectives, Williams must deal with increasing amounts of terminology: substantive, predicative, comparative, participles, etc. He does so concisely, often giving a similar example in English to make the concept clear. This chapter is even more brief than the previous section on nouns—only four pages in this case. [2] The chapter on prepositions is similarly short and to the point—for someone with background in biblical Hebrew, these are all familiar and function in much the same way. The pronouns (both independent and suffixes) are again very much analogous to their Hebrew counterparts. There are, however, relative and demonstrative pronouns that will be new territory.
To initiate the section on verbs, Williams helpfully alerts the reader that one has to step outside of Western-style grammar and forget traditional "tenses." Ugaritic seems to be even more fluid in this regard than Hebrew and much depends on context. As he does in other places in the text, Williams reminds the reader that scholarly judgment is still out on many aspects of Ugaritic and the verbal structures are perhaps the best example of this. He introduces the two main "conjugations" and paradigms charts but does not go into any more detail. The next chapter discusses "moods" such as indicative, energic (meaning something like "really" doing something—I have never encountered this idea in other languages and found it interesting), jussive and imperative.
A very short treatment of infinitives and their functions then leads into the thematic stems (equivalent to the *binyanim* of Hebrew). I found this section very entertaining—as verbs are the heart of any language, it is intriguing to see how they function (especially in a language essentially frozen in time several thousand years ago!). The basic form is known as the G stem and everything branches out from there. The different stems can indicate reflexive, passive and causative effects. Then, since any language outside of Esperanto wouldn't be any fun without some odd verbs, Williams discusses "weak" verbs that do not include all "strong" consonants. Again, with some Hebrew in your toolbox, this idea is very normal but will take some getting used to otherwise.
The final chapter serves as the junk drawer where Williams can place linguistic items that don't really fit anywhere else. I particularly enjoyed the "Attention Grabbers" that express ideas like "look!", "behold!", and "woe!" Given the relationship of Ugaritic to the Hebrew Bible, these terms feel very familiar. Several appendices provide a comparative alphabet chart, designations for the several major collections of Ugaritic texts, an extensive vocabulary list, bibliography and answers to the exercises.
In assessing "Basics of Ancient Ugaritic," audience might be the key term. As part of the "Basics" lineup from a publisher not devoted solely or even primarily to academic output, its level of detail seems appropriate. That said, compared to the other titles in the series (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, etc.), it came off to me as overly simplistic. For example, having reviewed the recent title on Aramaic, I wasn't quite satisfied with how this turned out.
One case in point—in the introduction ("Taking the 'Ugh' Out of Ugaritic") the author notes he intends to include humor and create a few laughs. "Informality" seems to be a more accurate term. Phrases such as "don't let X alarm you" and "that wasn't so bad" struck me not as humorous but simply a conscious effort to avoid the jargony flavor of most grammars (which is a fine goal).
However, I think there is an essential difference between this particular "Basics" title and, say, the Hebrew or Greek ones. Where you undoubtedly will have many people picking up the latter simply because they are biblical languages and they have some passing curiosity, that is much less likely to be the case with Ugaritic. Those who purchase this book have, by that very action, demonstrated that they are of a more serious bent. Therefore, treating this book in a more informal manner than even the Hebrew or Greek seems to me not to be the best approach. However, in saying this, my intent is not to leave one with the impression that this book is a failure. Williams has taken a language that most people have never heard of (I got some great reactions telling people I was reviewing this book) and produced a very usable one-volume introduction to Ugaritic, a language important on its own terms and doubly so due to its intimate connection to Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible.
[1] I found it odd that he did not address the parallel development of morphology in Ugaritic and Hebrew (I can't imagine many people coming to Ugaritic cold)—for example, once one knows that the "t" in Ugaritic can correspond to "sh" in Hebrew, the "tlt" in Ugaritic is easily seen as the cognate of "shalosh" ("three") in Hebrew.
[2] The book checks in under 150 pages (more like 100 without the appendices) and, yet retails at $49.99. While, compared to many textbooks, this is certainly not unheard of. It appears to be a print-on-demand title, making the price seem a bit steep.
Title: Basics of Ancient Ugaritic: A Concise Grammar, Workbook, and Lexicon
Author: Michael Williams
Publisher: Zondervan
Genre: Ancient Languages, Biblical Studies
Year Published: 2012
Number of Pages: 143
Binding: Paperback
ISBN10: 031049592X
ISBN13: 978-0310495925
Price: $49.99
Reviewed by Bryan Buchanan for the Association for Mormon Letters
There are "mostly dead" languages (think Latin) and then "all dead" languages that literally had to be unearthed. Ugaritic is a prime example of the latter. Named for the ancient city of Ugarit (known in modern times as Ras Shamra) along the Mediterranean coast of present-day Syria, Ugaritic is a language from the same Northwest Semitic family as Hebrew and Aramaic. The alphabet is--oddly enough--a cuneiform system of 30 letters (no vowels, much like Hebrew). The language, once transliterated away from the unfamiliar symbols, suddenly becomes a very familiar-looking language for someone who knows even basic biblical Hebrew.
A completely accidental discovery of a tomb and subsequent excavations in and around Ras Shamra turned up more than 1500 texts. The bulk of these deal with epic texts such as the "Legend of Aqhat," "The Legend of King Kirta/Keret" and the Ba'al and Anat cycles. The last of these, Ba'al and Anat, are likely of the greatest interest given their relationship to deities and accounts found in the Hebrew Bible. Williams notes that El roughly corresponds to Elohim (God the Father in Mormon terms) while Ba'al (the son of El) can be seen in Mormon context as Jehovah/Jesus Christ. Interestingly, each of these deities has a consort: Athirat/Asherah connected with El and Anat with Ba'al. Finally, Mot—as a deity not worshipped as he is an enemy to Ba'al—can be seen as a Satan-like figure. All of these deities appear in the Hebrew Bible, though often in vague or muddied allusions.
The way in which Ugaritic texts interface with the narratives of the Hebrew Bible is fascinating. For example, there is a puzzle of how Daniel could appear in Ezekiel 14 and 28 since he is mentioned as someone familiar to everyone but would come toward the end of Ezekiel's era. As the king in the legend of Aqhat text is named "Dan'el" perhaps the gymnastics weren't necessary in the first place. Another instance that I found intriguing is the *rapa'uma* of the Ugaritic texts—the Hebrew Bible mentions *repha'im* but their nature is unclear. Williams notes that these figures are "inhabitants of the underworld and may be deified royal ancestors." Isa 14:9 notes that these *repha'im* meet those that come to *sheol* (identified as "a world of spirits" in Joseph Smith's thought). With the combination of family history and theosis in their theology, Mormons will undoubtedly find this connection of interest.
Following a chapter on the relationship of Ugaritic and Hebrew generally [1] and one on the alphabet, Williams discusses the nouns. Like other Semitic languages, Ugaritic uses a triliteral root system where (usually) three consonants constitute the core of the noun. Williams discusses five aspects of a noun: case, gender, definiteness, number and state. As per his standard, the details are kept to a minimum and many times he simply says "we'll talk about this later." A paradigm chart and a few exercises finish off this chapter.
As he introduces the different types of adjectives, Williams must deal with increasing amounts of terminology: substantive, predicative, comparative, participles, etc. He does so concisely, often giving a similar example in English to make the concept clear. This chapter is even more brief than the previous section on nouns—only four pages in this case. [2] The chapter on prepositions is similarly short and to the point—for someone with background in biblical Hebrew, these are all familiar and function in much the same way. The pronouns (both independent and suffixes) are again very much analogous to their Hebrew counterparts. There are, however, relative and demonstrative pronouns that will be new territory.
To initiate the section on verbs, Williams helpfully alerts the reader that one has to step outside of Western-style grammar and forget traditional "tenses." Ugaritic seems to be even more fluid in this regard than Hebrew and much depends on context. As he does in other places in the text, Williams reminds the reader that scholarly judgment is still out on many aspects of Ugaritic and the verbal structures are perhaps the best example of this. He introduces the two main "conjugations" and paradigms charts but does not go into any more detail. The next chapter discusses "moods" such as indicative, energic (meaning something like "really" doing something—I have never encountered this idea in other languages and found it interesting), jussive and imperative.
A very short treatment of infinitives and their functions then leads into the thematic stems (equivalent to the *binyanim* of Hebrew). I found this section very entertaining—as verbs are the heart of any language, it is intriguing to see how they function (especially in a language essentially frozen in time several thousand years ago!). The basic form is known as the G stem and everything branches out from there. The different stems can indicate reflexive, passive and causative effects. Then, since any language outside of Esperanto wouldn't be any fun without some odd verbs, Williams discusses "weak" verbs that do not include all "strong" consonants. Again, with some Hebrew in your toolbox, this idea is very normal but will take some getting used to otherwise.
The final chapter serves as the junk drawer where Williams can place linguistic items that don't really fit anywhere else. I particularly enjoyed the "Attention Grabbers" that express ideas like "look!", "behold!", and "woe!" Given the relationship of Ugaritic to the Hebrew Bible, these terms feel very familiar. Several appendices provide a comparative alphabet chart, designations for the several major collections of Ugaritic texts, an extensive vocabulary list, bibliography and answers to the exercises.
In assessing "Basics of Ancient Ugaritic," audience might be the key term. As part of the "Basics" lineup from a publisher not devoted solely or even primarily to academic output, its level of detail seems appropriate. That said, compared to the other titles in the series (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, etc.), it came off to me as overly simplistic. For example, having reviewed the recent title on Aramaic, I wasn't quite satisfied with how this turned out.
One case in point—in the introduction ("Taking the 'Ugh' Out of Ugaritic") the author notes he intends to include humor and create a few laughs. "Informality" seems to be a more accurate term. Phrases such as "don't let X alarm you" and "that wasn't so bad" struck me not as humorous but simply a conscious effort to avoid the jargony flavor of most grammars (which is a fine goal).
However, I think there is an essential difference between this particular "Basics" title and, say, the Hebrew or Greek ones. Where you undoubtedly will have many people picking up the latter simply because they are biblical languages and they have some passing curiosity, that is much less likely to be the case with Ugaritic. Those who purchase this book have, by that very action, demonstrated that they are of a more serious bent. Therefore, treating this book in a more informal manner than even the Hebrew or Greek seems to me not to be the best approach. However, in saying this, my intent is not to leave one with the impression that this book is a failure. Williams has taken a language that most people have never heard of (I got some great reactions telling people I was reviewing this book) and produced a very usable one-volume introduction to Ugaritic, a language important on its own terms and doubly so due to its intimate connection to Hebrew and the Hebrew Bible.
[1] I found it odd that he did not address the parallel development of morphology in Ugaritic and Hebrew (I can't imagine many people coming to Ugaritic cold)—for example, once one knows that the "t" in Ugaritic can correspond to "sh" in Hebrew, the "tlt" in Ugaritic is easily seen as the cognate of "shalosh" ("three") in Hebrew.
[2] The book checks in under 150 pages (more like 100 without the appendices) and, yet retails at $49.99. While, compared to many textbooks, this is certainly not unheard of. It appears to be a print-on-demand title, making the price seem a bit steep.
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