Ugaritic language

The Ugaritic language is known to us only in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit since its discovery by French archaeologists in 1928. It has been extremely important for scholars of the Old Testament in clarifying the Hebrew text and has revealed more of how Judaism borrowed from surrounding pagan cultures.

Ugaritic is a Semitic language written with a cuneiform alphabet. This alphabet is different from all other cuneiform writings and probably just used because of habit. It has 30 different letters. (See the Ugaritic alphabet for an illustration.)

The Ugaritic language was used by a Canaanite culture, but is not regarded as a Canaanite language[?]. It is instead viewed as a unique language, even though culturally speaking, it would probably best be named the Canaanite language. This confusing fact comes from problems related to linguistic taxonomy.

External Link

Ugarit and the Bible (http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm) -- Discussion of the ways in which Ugaritic has illuminated the Old Testament.