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The 'Ugaritic alphabet' is a cuneiform abjad (alphabet without vowels), used from around 1500 BC for the Ugaritic language, an extinct Canaanite language discovered in Ugarit, Syria. It has 31 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, which gave rise to the alphabetic orders of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin alphabets on the one hand, and of the Ge'ez alphabet on the other.
The script was written from left to right.

Contents

Origin

Abecedaries

Special Characters

Letters

Ugaritic in Unicode

External links

Origin

Scholars have searched in vain for the cuneiform prototypes of the letters of the Ugaritic alphabet as its origin remains a mystery. However, there is circumstantial evidence that Ugaritic script may simply be an original alphabet very loosely inspired by the earlier cuneiform scripts such as Akkadian or Persian.

Abecedaries

Lists of Ugaritic letters have been found in two alphabetic orders: the "Northern Semitic order" more similar to the one found in the Hebrew and Phoenician, and more distantly, the Greek and Latin alphabets; and the "Southern Semitic order" more similar to the one found in the South Arabian, and more distantly, the Ge'ez alphabets. The letters are given in transcription and in their Hebrew cognates; letters missing from Hebrew are left blank.
'North Semitic'

’a

b

g

x

d

h

w

z

ħ

y

k

š

š'

l

m

ð

n

s

c

p

q

r

θ

γ

t

ś

’i

’u

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

g

d

γ

z

ð

y

θ

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

Letters

	''	alpa
	''b''	beta
	''g''	gamla
	''	ẖa
	''d''	delta
	''h''	ho
	''w''	wo
	''z''	zeta
	''	ḥota
	''	ṭet
	''y''	yod
	''k''	kaf
	''š''	šin
	''š2''	šinš
	''l''	lamda
	''m''	mem
	''	ḏal
	''n''	nun
	''	ẓu
	''s''	samka
	''	ʿain
	''p''	pu
	''	ṣade
	''q''	qopa
	''r''	raša
	''	ṯanna
	''ġ''	ġain
	''t''	to
	''s2''	śu
	''	i
	''	u
	word divider

Ugaritic in Unicode

In Unicode, the Ugaritic alphabet is assigned to U+10380 - U+1039F.

External links

★ Alphabet myth (wedge ≡ cuneiform)

★ Ugaritic writing

★ Ugaritic script (ancientscripts.com)

★ Ugaritic cuneiform Omniglot entry on the subject

★ Download an ugaritic font (Non-Unicode font)

★ Ugaritic cuneiform characters from the Unicode Ugaritic cuneiform script

★ Ugaritic script (Brian Colless - version 1)

★ Ugaritic script (Brian Colless - version 2)