A Manual of Ugaritic

Book excerpt: Pierre Bordreuil and Dennis Pardee are two of the best-known scholars doing research on the language and texts of the ancient city of Ugarit (modern Tell Ras Shamra). This grammar was first published in French in 2004 in two volumes; and Eisenbrauns is pleased to make it available now in a corrected and updated version, in one volume, with significant enhancements. In addition to including all of the information present in the French edition, this English edition includes a CD with a complete, hyperlinked PDF version of the grammar. The book includes a historical introduction to the texts and language, the book includes a sketch of the grammar of Ugaritic, a bibliography, facsimiles (hand-copies) of a number of texts, and a glossary and text concordance—in short, everything that a student needs for entrée into the language. On the CD, in addition to the PDF, color photos of all of the texts included in the book are provided. The hyperlinks to the PDF enable the reader to move easily from the discussion in the grammar to a copy of a text to the color photo of the text and back again, making the material much more accessible and usable for students and researchers. Pierre Bordreuil inaugurated a chair in Ugaritic at the écoles des langues et civilisations orientales at the Institut catholique de Paris. Dennis Pardee teaches in the Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.