Ancient Ugaritic

Nominal morphology Edit
Nouns are marked for gender (masculine and feminine), number (singular, plural and vestiges of the dual) and state (absolute and construct, the latter characterizing nouns followed by their possessors) and also have the category definiteness. There is some evidence for remains of the Proto Semitic genitive grammatical case as well. While many of the endings coalesce in the standard orthography, inscriptions in the Latin and Greek alphabet permit the reconstruction of the noun endings (which are also the adjective endings) as follows:[33]

Singular Dual Plural
Masculine Absolute ∅ 𐤌‬ m /-ēm/ 𐤌‬ m /-īm/
Construct ∅ ∅ /-ē/ ∅ /-ē/
Feminine Absolute 𐤕‬ t /-(o)t/ 𐤕𐤌‬ tm /-tēm/ 𐤕‬ t /-ūt/
Construct 𐤕‬ t /-(o)t/ 𐤕𐤍‬ tn /-tēn/ 𐤕‬ t /-ūt/
In late Punic, the final /-t/ of the feminine was apparently dropped: 𐤇𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕‬ ḥmlkt "son of the queen" or 𐤀𐤇𐤌𐤋𐤊𐤕‬ ʼḥmlkt "brother of the queen" rendered in Latin as HIMILCO.[30][34] /n/ was also assimilated to following consonants: e.g. št "year" for earlier */sant/.[30]

The case endings in general must have been lost between the 9th century BC and the 7th century BC: e.g. the personal name rendered in Akkadian as ma-ti-nu-ba-ʼa-li "Gift of Baal", with the case endings -u and -i, was written ma-ta-an-baʼa-al two centuries later. However, evidence has been found for a retention of the genitive case in the form of the first singular possessive suffix: ʼby /ʼabiya/ "of my father" vs ʼb /ʼabī/ "my father". If true, this may suggest that cases were still distinguished to some degree in other forms as well.

The written forms and the reconstructed pronunciations of the personal pronouns[35] are as follows:

Singular:
1st: /ʼanōkī/ ʼnk (Punic sometimes ʼnky), also attested as /ʼanek/
2nd masc. /ʼatta(ː)/ ʼt
2nd fem. /ʼatti(ː)/ ʼt
3rd masc. /huʼ/ hʼ, also [hy] (?) hy and /huʼat/ hʼt
3rd fem. /hiʼ/ hʼ

Plural:
1st: /ʼanaḥnū/ ʼnḥn
2nd masc. unattested
2nd fem. unattested
3rd masc. /hummat/ hmt,
3rd fem. /himmat/ hmt

Enclitic personal pronouns are added to nouns (to encode possession) and to prepositions, as shown below for "standard Phoenician" (the predominant dialect, as distinct from the Byblian and late Punic varieties). They appear in a slightly different form depending on whether they follow the plural form masculine nouns (and therefore are added after a vowel) or not. The former case is given in brackets with the abbreviation a.V..

Singular:
1st: /-ī/ ∅, also y (a.V. /-ayy/ y)
2nd masc. /-ka(ː)/ k
2nd fem. /-ki(ː)/ k
3rd masc. /-oː/ ∅, Punic ʼ, (a.V. /-ēyu(ː)/ y)
3rd fem. /-aː/ ∅, Punic ʼ (a.V. /-ēya(ː)/ y)

Plural:
1st: /-o(ːn}}/ n
2nd masc. unattested
2nd fem. unattested
3rd masc. /-o(ː)m/ m (a.V. /-nōm/ nm)
3rd fem. /-e(ː)m/ m (a.V. /-nēm/ nm)

Verbal morphology Edit
The verb inflects for person, number, gender, tense and mood. Like other Semitic languages, Phoenician verbs have different "verbal patterns" or "stems", expressing manner of action, level of transitivity and voice. The perfect or suffix-conjugation, which expresses the past tense, is exemplified below with the root q-t-l "to kill" (a "neutral", G-stem).[37]

Singular:
1st: /qataltī/ qtlty
2nd masc. /qataltā/ qtlt
2nd fem. /qatalt(ī)/ qtlt
3rd masc. /qatōl/ qtl
3rd fem. /qatalō(t)/ qtlt,[38] also qtl, Punic qtlʼ

Plural:
1st: /qatalnū/ qtln
2nd masc. unattested
2nd fem. unattested
3rd masc. qatalū/ qtl, Punic qtlʼ
3rd fem. unattested

The imperfect or prefix-conjugation, which expresses the present and future tense (and which is not distinguishable from the descendant of the Proto-Semitic jussive expressing wishes), is exemplified below, again with the root q-t-l.

1st: /ʼiqtul/ ʼqtl
2nd masc. /tiqtul/ tqtl
2nd fem. /tiqtulī/ tqtly
3rd masc. /yiqtul/ yqtl
3rd fem. /tiqtul/ tqtl
Plural: 1st: */niqtul/? *nqtl
2nd masc. /tiqtulū/ *tqtl, Punic *tqtlʼ
2nd fem. /tiqtulna/ tqtln
3rd masc. yiqtulū/ yqtl
3rd fem. unattested

Prepositions and particles Edit
Some prepositions are always prefixed to nouns, deleting the initial /h/ of the definite article if present: such are b- "in", l- "to, for", k- "as" and m- /min/ "from". They are sometimes found in forms extended through the addition of -n or -t. Other prepositions are not like this, e.g.ʻl "upon", .ʻd "until", ʼḥr "after", tḥt "under", b(y)n "between". New prepositions are formed with nouns: lpn "in front of", from l- "to" and pn "face". There is special preposited marker of a definite object ʼyt (/ʼiyyūt/?), which, unlike Hebrew, is clearly distinct from the preposition ʼt (/ʼitt/). The most common negative marker is bl (/bal/), negating verbs, but sometimes also nouns; another one is ʼy (/ʼī/), expressing both non-existence and negation of verbs. Negative commands / prohibitions are expressed with ʼl (/ʼal/). "Lest" is lm. Some common conjunctions are w (originally perhaps /wa-?/, but certainly /u-/ in Late Punic), "and" ʼm (/ʼim/), "when", and k (/kī/), "that; because; when". There was also a conjunction (ʼ)p (/ʼap/"also". l- (/lū, li/) could (rarely) be used to introduce desiderative constructions ("may he do X!"). l- could also introduce vocatives. Both prepositions and conjunctions could form compounds.[43]

Syntax Edit
The basic word order is VSO. There is no verb "to be" in the present tense; in clauses that would have used a copula, the subject may come before the predicate. Nouns precede their modifiers (such as adjectives and possessors).

Vocabulary and word formation Edit
Nouns are mostly formed by a combination of consonantal roots and vocalic patterns, but they can also be formed with prefixes (/m-/, expressing actions or their results; rarely /t-/) and suffixes /-ūn/. Abstracts can be formed with the suffix -t (probably /-īt/, /-ūt/).[40] Adjectives can be formed following the familiar Semitic nisba suffix /-īy/ y (e.g. ṣdny "Sidonian").

Like the grammar, the vocabulary is very close to Biblical Hebrew, though some peculiarities attract attention. For example, the copula verb "to be" is kn (as in Arabic, as opposed to Hebrew and Aramaic hyh) and the verb "to do" is pʿl (as in Aramaic pʿl and Arabic fʿl, as opposed to Hebrew ʿśh, though in Hebrew pʿl has the similar meaning "to act").

Standard Phoenician
Sarcophagus inscription of Tabnit of Sidon, 5th century BC[44][45]
Text Transliteration
𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤕𐤁𐤍𐤕 𐤊𐤄𐤍 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤁𐤍
𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓 𐤊𐤄𐤍 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤌𐤋𐤊 𐤑𐤃𐤍𐤌 𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤁𐤀𐤓𐤍 𐤆
𐤌𐤉 𐤀𐤕 𐤊𐤋 𐤀𐤃𐤌 𐤀𐤔 𐤕𐤐𐤒 𐤀𐤉𐤕 𐤄𐤀𐤓𐤍 𐤆
𐤀𐤋 𐤀𐤋 𐤕𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕𐤉 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤕𐤓𐤂𐤆𐤍
𐤊 𐤀𐤉 𐤀𐤓𐤋𐤍 𐤊𐤎𐤐 𐤀𐤉 𐤀𐤓 𐤋𐤍 𐤇𐤓𐤑 𐤅𐤊𐤋 𐤌𐤍𐤌 𐤌𐤔𐤃
𐤁𐤋𐤕 𐤀𐤍𐤊 𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤁𐤀𐤓𐤍 𐤆
𐤀𐤋 𐤀𐤋 𐤕𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕𐤉 𐤅𐤀𐤋 𐤕𐤓𐤂𐤆𐤍
𐤊 𐤕𐤏𐤁𐤕 𐤏𐤔𐤕𐤓𐤕 𐤄𐤃𐤁𐤓 𐤄𐤀
𐤅𐤀𐤌 𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤕𐤐𐤕𐤇 𐤏𐤋𐤕𐤉 𐤅𐤓𐤂𐤆 𐤕𐤓𐤂𐤆𐤍
𐤀𐤋 𐤉𐤊𐤍 𐤋𐤊 𐤆𐤓𐤏 𐤁𐤇𐤉𐤌 𐤕𐤇𐤕 𐤔𐤌𐤔
𐤅𐤌𐤔𐤊𐤁 𐤀𐤕 𐤓𐤐𐤀𐤌‬ ʾnk tbnt khn ʿštrt mlk ṣdnm bn
ʾšmnʿzr khn ʿštrt mlk ṣdnm škb bʾrn z
my ʾt kl ʾdm ʾš tpq ʾyt hʾrn z
ʾl ʾl tptḥ ʿlty wʾl trgzn
k ʾy ʾrln ksp ʾy ʾr ln ḥrṣ wkl mnm mšd
blt ʾnk škb bʾrn z
ʾl ʾl tptḥ ʿlty wʾl trgzn
k tʿbt ʿštrt hdbr hʾ
wʾm ptḥ tptḥ ʿlty wrgz trgzn
ʾl ykn lk zrʿ bḥym tḥt šmš
wmškb ʾt rpʾm
Translation
I, Tabnit, priest of Astarte, king of Sidon, the son
of Eshmunazar, priest of Astarte, king of Sidon, am lying in this sarcophagus.
Whoever you are, any man that might find this sarcophagus,
don't, don't open it and don't disturb me,
for no silver is gathered with me, no gold is gathered with me, nor anything of value whatsoever,
only I am lying in this sarcophagus.
Don't, don't open it and don't disturb me,
for this thing is an abomination to Astarte.
And if you do indeed open it and do indeed disturb me,
may you not have any seed among the living under the sun,
nor a resting-place with the Rephaites.