A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture, and Literature - enenuru

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Ugaritic <strong>Primer</strong>
second vowel is revealed, only the type qatil- is attested (e.g., sû}il
/sûa}ila/; l}ik /la}ika/), but Akkadian provides examples of the type
qatal- (e.g., sa-ma-ta < smt, “to transfer real estate”). We assume
that all three types existed in Ugaritic. The Suffix Conjugation was
used mostly in prose and replaces, to a great extent, the prefix
preterite discussed below. The suffix form also serves as the
performative, i.e., verbs where the action is part of the utterance
(e.g., ytt. nhsûm. mhrk, “Ihereby give serpents as your brideprince”;
KTU 1.100:75, exercise §6.4).
7.6.8 Prefix Conjugation (PC)
The base of the prefix conjugations in the G-stem is either /qtul/,
/qtil/, or /qtal/. The vowel of the prefix is a when the theme (stem)
vowel is either /u/ or /i/, hence, the prefix conjugations are
sometimes referred to as the “yaqtul.” But the prefix vowel is /i/
when the theme vowel is /a/, i.e., }il}ak /}il}ak/, “I will send.” 13 As
is the case with the SC forms, the PC theme vowels indicate the
semantic class of the root (i.e., /a/ for statives, /i/ or /u/ for
fientives), or the phonetic quality of the second or third root radical
(i.e., gutturals tend to attract /a/). The prefix conjugations are
differentiated by their respective endings, which unfortunately do
not appear in the script, with the exception of the energic /n/. Thus,
one must pay close attention to the context of a form in a text.
7.6.9 Prefix Preterite
Prefix Preterite (PC S p), or “short Prefix Conjugation,” is not
marked by a final vowel in the singular. Remnants of this short
form exist in Biblical Hebrew, most notably in poetry and in the
waw consecutive (which might have originated as a “preterite
continuative”), in the III-yod verbs (e.g., NRbˆy vs. h‰nVbˆy), and in the
13 This phenomenon in Hebrew, of a verb with an /a/ theme vowel taking an /i/
prefix vowel versus expecting an /a/ prefix vowels for verbs with /i/ or /u/
themes, was proven in 1894 by J. Barth. In 1939, on the basis of the }-signs, H.
L. Ginsberg demonstrated that Barth’s Law operates in Ugaritic. Thus, yiqtal
versus yaqtil or yaqtul. Accordingly, the law is now generally known as
“Barth-Ginsberg’s Law.”