An Introduction To Ugaritic, by John Huehnergard

[Note:  This book was provided free of charge by Hendrickson Publishers.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

What would lead someone to want to introduce themselves to Ugaritic, an extinct member of the Semitic language family that was spoken and, for at least a couple generations, written in an unusual cuneiform alphabet in the city of Ugarit on the coast of present-day Syria?  For one, the language itself is fairly similar to biblical Hebrew and not that much more distant from Arabic, and contains a great deal of influence from Akkadian, the first known written Semitic language.  For another, although most known Ugaritic texts are either letters from elites, legal texts, or heathen religious writings about Baal and other false gods, the language does help explain some difficult passages within biblical Hebrew and also provides some of the context of the heathen…