Ugaritic is an extinct Northwest Semitic language. This article describes the grammar of the Ugaritic language. For more information regarding the Ugaritic language in general, see Ugaritic language.
Ugaritic is an inflected language, and as a Semitic language its grammatical features are highly similar to those found in Classical Arabic and Akkadian. It possesses two genders (masculine and feminine), three cases for nouns and adjectives (nominative, accusative, and genitive [also, note the possibility of a locative case]); three numbers: (singular, dual, and plural); and verb aspects similar to those found in other Northwest Semitic languages. The word order for Ugaritic is verb–subject–object (VSO), possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA). Ugaritic is considered a conservative Semitic language, since it retains most of the Proto-Semitic phonemes, the basic qualities of the vowel, the case system, the word order of the Proto-Semitic ancestor, and the lack of the definite article.
The word order for Ugaritic is Subject Verb Object (SVO), Verb Subject Object (VSO), possessed–possessor (NG), and noun–adjective (NA).
Ugaritic, like all Semitic languages, exhibits a unique pattern of stems consisting typically of "triliteral", or 3-consonant consonantal roots (2- and 4-consonant roots also exist), from which nouns, adjectives, and verbs are formed in various ways: e.g. by inserting vowels, doubling consonants, and/or adding prefixes, suffixes, or infixes.
Verbs in Ugaritic have 2 aspects: perfect for completed action (with pronominal suffixes) and imperfect for uncompleted action (with pronominal prefixes and suffixes). Verb formation in Ugaritic (like all Semitic languages) is based on triconsonantal roots. Affixes inserted into the root form different meanings. Taking the root RGM (which means "to say") for example:
| Perfect | Imperfect | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | ||||
| 1st | STEM-tu or STEM-tī | ʼa-STEM | ||
| RaGaMtu or RaGaMtī | َʼaRGuMu | |||
| 2nd | masculine | STEM-ta | ta-STEM | |
| RaGaMta | taRGuMu | |||
| feminine | STEM-ti | ta-STEM-īna | ||
| RaGaMti | taRGuMīna | |||
| 3rd | masculine | STEM-a | ya-STEM | |
| RaGaMa | yaRGuMu | |||
| feminine | STEM-at | ta-STEM | ||
| RaGaMat | taRGuMu | |||
| Dual | ||||
| 1st | STEM-nayā | na-STEMā | ||
| RaGaMnayā | naRGuMā | |||
| 2nd | masculine & feminine | STEM-tumā | ta-STEM-ā(ni) | |
| RaGaMtumā | taRGuMā(ni) | |||
| 3rd | masculine | STEM-ā | ya-STEM-ā(ni) | |
| RaGaMā | yaRGuMā(ni) | |||
| feminine | STEM-atā | ta-STEM-ā(ni) | ||
| RaGaMatā | taRGuMā(ni) | |||
| Plural | ||||
| 1st | STEM-nū | na-STEM | ||
| RaGaMnū | naRGuMu | |||
| 2nd | masculine | STEM-tum(u) | ta-STEM-ū(na) | |
| RaGaMtum(u) | taRGuMū(na) | |||
| feminine | STEM-tin(n)a | ta-STEM-na | ||
| RaGaMtin(n)a | taRGuMna | |||
| 3rd | masculine | STEM-ū | ya-STEM-ū(na) | |
| RaGaMū | yaRGuMū(na) | |||
| feminine | STEM-ā | ta-STEM-na | ||
| RaGaMā | taRGuMna | |||
Ugaritic verbs occur in 5 moods:
| Mood | Verb [1] |
|---|---|
| Indicative | yargumu |
| Jussive | yargum |
| Volitive [2] | yarguma |
| Energic 1 | yargum(a)n |
| Energic 2 | yargumanna |
In Ugaritic, "doubly weak verbs" refer to verbs whose roots contain two weak (or guttural) consonants. These verbs exhibit irregular patterns in their conjugation due to the inherent instability of the weak consonants, often leading to phonetic variations. This phenomenon is akin to that observed in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew.
For instance, the Ugaritic verb ḥwy, similar to Hebrew היה (h-y-h), "to be" or "to live," is an example of a doubly weak verb. Due to its weak consonants, this verb can undergo phonetic changes, such as the assimilation of waw (w) to yod (y), especially in the absence of an intervening vowel, leading to forms like ḥyy. This characteristic impacts the verb's inflection, resulting in variations that are atypical compared to regular (strong) verbs. [1]
Ugaritic verbs occur in 10 reconstructed patterns or binyanim:
| Verb Patterns | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active voice | Passive voice | |||||
| Perfect (3rd sg. masc.) | Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.) | Perfect (3rd sg. masc.) | Imperfect (3rd sg. masc.) | |||
| G stem (simple) | paʻala, paʻila, paʻula | yapʻulu, yapʻalu, yapʻilu | puʻila | yupʻalu | ||
| Gt stem (simple reflexive) | ʼiptaʻala | yaptaʻalu | (?) | (?) | ||
| D stem (factitive) | paʻʻala | yapaʻʻilu | puʻʻila | yupaʻʻalu | ||
| tD stem (factitive reflexive) | tapaʻʻala | yatapaʻʻalu | (?) | (?) | ||
| N stem (reciprocal passive) | nap(a)ʻala | yappaʻilu <<(*yanpaʻilu) | n/a | |||
| L stem (intensive or factitive) | pāʻala | yupāʻilu | (?) | (?) | ||
| Š stem (causative) | šapʻala | yašapʻilu [1] | šupʻila | yupaʻilu [2] | ||
| Št stem (causative reflexive) | ʼištapʻala | yaštapʻilu | (?) | (?) | ||
| C stem (causative internal pattern) | (?) | yapʻilu | n/a | |||
| R stem (factitive) (biconsonantal roots) | paʻlala (e.g. karkara) | yapaʻlalu (e.g. yakarkaru) | (?) | (?) | ||
Nouns in Ugaritic can be categorized according to their inflection into: cases (nominative, genitive, and accusative), state (absolute and construct), gender (masculine and feminine), and number (singular, dual, and plural).
Ugaritic has three grammatical cases corresponding to: nominative, genitive, and accusative. Normally, singular nouns take the ending -u in the nominative, -i in the genitive and -a in the accusative. Using the word malk- (king) and malkat- (queen) for example:
| Nominative | Genitive | Accusative | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | malku | malki | malka |
| Feminine | malkatu | malkati | malkata |
As in Arabic, some exceptional nouns (known as diptotes) have the suffix -a in the genitive. There is no Ugaritic equivalent for Classical Arabic nunation or Akkadian mimation.
Nouns in Ugaritic occur in two states: absolute and construct. If a noun is followed by a genitival attribute (noun in the genitive or suffixed pronoun) it becomes a construct (denoting possession). Otherwise, it is in the absolute state. Ugaritic, unlike Arabic and Hebrew, has no definite article.
Nouns which have no gender marker are for the most part masculine, although some feminine nouns do not have a feminine marker. However, these denote feminine beings such as ʼumm- (mother). /-t/ is the feminine marker which is directly attached to the base of the noun.
Ugaritic distinguishes between nouns based on quantity. All nouns are either singular when there is one, dual when there are two, and plural if there are three or more.
The singular has no marker and is inflected according to its case.
The marker for the dual in the absolute state appears as /-m/. However, the vocalization may be reconstructed as /-āmi/ in the nominative (such as malkāmi "two kings") and /-ēmi/ for the genitive and accusative (e.g. malkēmi). For the construct state, it is /-ā/ and /-ē/ respectively.
Ugaritic has only regular plurals (i.e. no broken plurals). Masculine absolute state plurals take the forms /-ūma/ in the nominative and /-īma/ in the genitive and accusative. In the construct state they are /-ū/ and /-ī/ respectively. The female afformative plural is /-āt/ with a case marker probably following the /-t/, giving /-ātu/ for the nominative and /-āti/ for the genitive and accusative in both absolute and construct state.
Adjectives follow the noun and are declined exactly like the preceding noun.
Independent personal pronouns in Ugaritic are as follows (some forms are lacking because they are not in the corpus of the language):
| Person | singular | dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | ʼanā, ʼannāku "I" | ʾanaḥnu "we" | ||
| 2nd | masculine | ʼatta "you" | ʼattumā "you two" | ʼattumu "you all" |
| feminine | ʼatti "you" | ʼattina "you all" | ||
| 3rd | masculine | huwa [1] "he" | humā "them two" | humu [1] "they" |
| feminine | hiya [1] "she" | hinna "they" | ||
Suffixed (or enclitic) pronouns (mainly denoting the genitive and accusative) are as follows:
| Person | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | -ya [1] "my" | -nayā "our" | -na, -nu "our" | |
| 2nd | masculine | -ka "your" | -kumā "your" | -kum- "your" |
| feminine | -ki "your" | -kin(n)a "your" | ||
| 3rd | masculine | -hu "his" | -humā "their" | -hum- "their" |
| feminine | -ha "her" | -hin(n)a "their" | ||
The following is a table of Ugaritic numerals:
| Number | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ʼaḥḥadu | ʼaḥattu |
| 2 | ṯinā [1] | ṯittā [1] |
| 3 | ṯalāṯu | ṯalāṯatu |
| 4 | ʼarbaʻu | ʼarbaʻatu |
| 5 | ḫam(i)šu | ḫam(i)šatu |
| 6 | ṯiṯṯu | ṯiṯṯatu |
| 7 | šabʻu | šabʻatu |
| 8 | ṯamānu | ṯamānītu |
| 9 | tišʻu | tišʻatu |
| 10 | ʻaš(a)ru | ʻaš(a)ratu |
| 20 | ʻašrāma [2] | |
| 30 | ṯalāṯūma [2] | |
| 100 | miʼtu | |
| 200 | miʼtāma | |
| 1000 | ʼalpu | |
| 10000 | ribbatu [2] | |
The following is a table of Ugaritic ordinals:
| Number | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | prʿ | prʿt |
| 2 | ṯanū | ṯanītu [1] |
| 3 | ṯalīṯu | ṯalīṯatu |
| 4 | rabīʻu | rabīʻatu |
| 5 | ḫamīšu | ḫamīšatu |
| 6 | ṯadīṯu | ṯadīṯatu |
| 7 | šabīʻu | šabīʻatu |
| 8 | ṯamīnu | ṯamīnatu |
| 9 | tašīʻu | tašīʻatu |
In grammar, the accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to receive the direct object of a transitive verb.
In grammar, the genitive case is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can also serve purposes indicating other relationships. For example, some verbs may feature arguments in the genitive case; and the genitive case may also have adverbial uses.
Latin declension is the set of patterns according to which Latin words are declined—that is, have their endings altered to show grammatical case, number and gender. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives are declined, and a given pattern is called a declension. There are five declensions, which are numbered and grouped by ending and grammatical gender. Each noun follows one of the five declensions, but some irregular nouns have exceptions.
Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia from the third millennium BC until its gradual replacement in common use by Old Aramaic among Assyrians and Babylonians from the 8th century BC.
Arabic grammar is the grammar of the Arabic language. Arabic is a Semitic language and its grammar has many similarities with the grammar of other Semitic languages. Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic have largely the same grammar; colloquial spoken varieties of Arabic can vary in different ways.
The grammar of Old English differs greatly from Modern English, predominantly being much more inflected. As a Germanic language, Old English has a morphological system similar to that of the Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including constructions characteristic of the Germanic daughter languages such as the umlaut.
The grammar of the Polish language is complex and characterized by a high degree of inflection, and has relatively free word order, although the dominant arrangement is subject–verb–object (SVO). There commonly are no articles, and there is frequent dropping of subject pronouns. Distinctive features include the different treatment of masculine personal nouns in the plural, and the complex grammar of numerals and quantifiers.
Romanian nouns, under the rules of Romanian grammar, are declined, varying by gender, number, and case.
Hindustani, the lingua franca of Northern India and Pakistan, has two standardised registers: Hindi and Urdu. Grammatical differences between the two standards are minor but each uses its own script: Hindi uses Devanagari while Urdu uses an extended form of the Perso-Arabic script, typically in the Nastaʿlīq style.
The grammar of the Marathi language shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Odia, Gujarati or Punjabi. The first modern book exclusively about the grammar of Marathi was printed in 1805 by Willam Carey.
Gothic is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Gothic with a few traces of an old sixth instrumental case.
Dirasha is a member of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. It is spoken in the Omo region of Ethiopia, in the hills west of Lake Chamo, around the town of Gidole.
In Ancient Greek, all nouns are classified according to grammatical gender and are used in a number. According to their function in a sentence, their form changes to one of the five cases. The set of forms that a noun will take for each case and number is determined by the declension that it follows.
Old Norse has three categories of verbs and two categories of nouns. Conjugation and declension are carried out by a mix of inflection and two nonconcatenative morphological processes: umlaut, a backness-based alteration to the root vowel; and ablaut, a replacement of the root vowel, in verbs.
Old High German is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. A set of declined forms of the same word pattern is called a declension. There are five grammatical cases in Old High German.
Historical linguistics has made tentative postulations about and multiple varyingly different reconstructions of Proto-Germanic grammar, as inherited from Proto-Indo-European grammar. All reconstructed forms are marked with an asterisk (*).
This article concerns the morphology of the Albanian language, including the declension of nouns and adjectives, and the conjugation of verbs. It refers to the Tosk-based Albanian standard regulated by the Academy of Sciences of Albania.
Arabic nouns and adjectives are declined according to case, state, gender and number. While this is strictly true in Classical Arabic, in colloquial or spoken Arabic, there are a number of simplifications such as loss of certain final vowels and loss of case. A number of derivational processes exist for forming new nouns and adjectives. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives.
The grammar of Old Saxon is highly inflected, similar to that of Old English or Latin. As an ancient Germanic language, the morphological system of Old Saxon is similar to that of the hypothetical Proto-Germanic reconstruction, retaining many of the inflections thought to have been common in Proto-Indo-European and also including characteristically Germanic constructions such as the umlaut. Among living languages, Old Saxon morphology most closely resembles that of modern High German.
This article describes the grammar of the Old Irish language. The grammar of the language has been described with exhaustive detail by various authors, including Thurneysen, Binchy and Bergin, McCone, O'Connell, Stifter, among many others.
