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Ugaritic cuneiform

Origin

Ugaritic cuneiform was named after Ugarit, the city state where it was used in what is now Syria. It was probably created sometime during the 14th century

BC.

Notable features

Ugaritic cuneiform outwardly resembles other cuneiform scripts and has a sound system based on consonant alphabets such

as Phoenician/Canaanite.

Ugaritic was generally written from left to right in horizontal rows, though there are examples of it written in the opposite direction.

Words were divided with a slash, no other punctuation was used.

Used to write:

Ugaritic, a Semitic language closely related to Phoenician which was spoken in the city state of Ugarit in northern Syria. Ugarit flourished from the 14th

century BC until 1180/70 BC, when it was destroyed.

The city was rediscovered in 1928 by a peasant whose plow uncovered an ancient tomb near Ras Shamrah in northern Syria. A group of French

archaeologists led by Claude F.A. Schaeffer started excavating the city in 1929.

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Links

Information about the Ugaritic alphabet and language

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_alphabet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugaritic_language

Information about the city of Ugarit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit

Ugaritic fonts

http://davidmyriad.tripod.com/myriads.font.page.html

http://www.fontspace.com/category/ugarit

http://www.historian.net/files.htm

http://reinhold.kainhofer.com/rk_fonts/index.html

ALPHABETUM - a Unicode font specifically designed for ancient scripts, including classical & medieval Latin, ancient Greek, Etruscan, Oscan, Umbrian,

Faliscan, Messapic, Picene, Iberian, Celtiberian, Gothic, Runic, Old & Middle English, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Old Nordic, Ogham, Kharosthi, Glagolitic, Old

Cyrillic, Phoenician, Avestan, Ugaritic, Linear B, Anatolian scripts, Coptic, Cypriot, Brahmi, Old Persian

cuneiform: http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/~jmag0042/alphabet.html

Semitic languages

Akkadian, Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Argobba, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, Canaanite, Chaha, Chaldean Neo-

Aramaic, Ge'ez, Hadhramautic, Hebrew, Himyaritic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic, Maltese, Mandaic,Nabataean, Neo-

Mandaic, Phoenician, Punic, Qatabanic, Sabaean, Sabaic, Silt'e, Syriac, Tigre,Tigrinya, Turoyo, Ugaritic, Western Neo-Aramaic

Cuneiform scripts

Akkadian, Elamite, Hittite, Old Persian Cuneiform, Sumerian, Ugaritic

Consonant alphabets (Abjads)

Ancient Berber, Arabic, Hebrew, Mandaic, Manichaean, Middle Persian, Nabataean, Parthian,Phoenician, Paleo-Hebrew, Proto-Sinaitic / Proto-

Canaanite, Psalter, Punic, Sabaean, Samaritan,Sogdian, South Arabian, Syriac, Tifinagh, Ugaritic