Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Donald R. Vance, Ph.D." <donaldrvance AT mac.com>]

Matt,
	I, too, studied under Pardee at UoC and his reputation is stellar.  
I've used all the grammars that have been suggested (all excellent  
suggestions, btw) and Bordeuil & Pardee is the most useful. Having the  
photographs of the texts is extremely useful. I used it in the French  
and just acquired the English revision. I strongly recommend the  
vocalization of texts because it forces one to deal with the details  
of grammar that are too easily glossed over when one merely  
translates. B&P's grammar works from this perspective as well and will  
help in that regard. This process also helps your Hebrew and other  
semitic languages as well. Get SBL Writings from the Ancient World  
volume on Ugaritic poetry and you will have a transcription and an  
accessible translation as well. Use it as a sort of key. Sivan's big  
grammar is a reference grammar (Brill). The others are introductory  
grammars.

My two cents,


Donald R. Vance, Ph.D.
Professor of Biblical Languages and Literature
Oral Roberts University
dvance AT oru.edu
donaldrvance AT mac.com


On Jan 5, 2010, at 8:06 AM, James Spinti wrote:

> Matt,
>
> That's a loaded question for two reasons: 1. I studied under Pardee at
> the U of Chicago, so I am more than a little biased. And 2. I work for
> Eisenbrauns, so anything I say is suspect :)
>
> But, in all honesty, I would suggest the Bordeuil & Pardee for a  
> couple
> of reasons: 1.  High quality photos of the tablets on the CD. 2. Up to
> date--just released in November. 3. It's cheaper than most of the  
> other
> ones.
>
> Rolf's suggestion to read--especially KRT--is excellent.
>
> James
> ________________________________
> James Spinti
> Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
> Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
> Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
> jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
> Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
> Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
> Fax: 574-269-6788
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
> Johnston
> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 10:31 PM
> To: James Spinti; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
>
> James,
>
> Thanks for taking the time to respond.  It was helpful.
>
> If you had to recommend I get one other text to use after/in  
> conjunction
>
> with Schniedewind would it be Bordreuil & Pardee?
>
> Matt Johnston
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "James Spinti" <JSpinti AT Eisenbrauns.com>
> Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 5:35 PM
> To: "Matthew Johnston" <MatthewJay AT hotmail.com>;
> <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
>
> > Matt,
> >
> > Since nobody has responded yet, I'll take a stab at it.
> >
> > Vowel reconstruction: largely an academic exercise in historical
> > linguistics. It also allows people to see how you are parsing the
> word.
> > Vocab: being that you have a basic Hebrew vocabulary, you will
> probably
> > just acquire the Ugaritic one by reading.
> >
> > Schniedewind is fairly good. There are others out there, as well:
> > Sivan, A Grammar of the Ugaritic Language (Brill--expensive)
> >
> > Sivan, Ugaritic Grammar (Bialik--in modern Hebrew)
> >
> > Tropper, Ugaritisch: Kurzgefasste Grammatik mit Ubungstexten und
> Glossar
> > (Ugarit Verlag--German) He also has an exhaustive grammar...
> >
> > Segert, A Basic Grammar of Ugaritic Language with Selected Texts and
> > Glossary (U of California)
> >
> > Bordreuil & Pardee, A Manual of Ugaritic (Eisenbrauns--translation &
> > correction of their French version)
> >
> > Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (Pontifical Biblical Institute--very dated
> and
> > not at all user friendly)
> >
> > Online resources:
> > http://jimgetz.org/ has some good posts on the KRT epic
> > www.dailyhebrew.com has a long bibliography of resources
> > http://www.itanakh.org/languages/ugaritic/index.htm
> >
> > I'm sure there are others, but that should get you started.
> >
> > James
> > ________________________________
> > James Spinti
> > Marketing Director, Book Sales Division
> > Eisenbrauns, Good books for more than 30 years
> > Specializing in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies
> > jspinti at eisenbrauns dot com
> > Web: http://www.eisenbrauns.com
> > Phone: 574-269-2011 ext 226
> > Fax: 574-269-6788
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
> > Johnston
> > Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:06 PM
> > To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: [b-hebrew] Ugaritic Studies
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > I am new the list and have some questions concerning Ugaritic (I am
> > pretty sure this is an appropriate topic).  I am just looking for any
> > advice or digital resources anyone might have concerning the study of
> > the Ugaritic language.  I have studied Biblical Hebrew for about 2
> years
> > and and been studying (to the best of my ability) Ugaritic for 2  
> > weeks
> > or so.  I have A Primer on Ugaritic: Language, Culture and Literature
> by
> > William M. Schniedewind and Joel H. Hunt and have found it helpful so
> > far, but am feeling like a little more direction would be helpful.
> With
> > that background in mind here are some questions I have been having
> (any
> > help with all or some would be greatly appreciated):
> >
> > How important is it to learn how to reconstruct vowel (the whole
> process
> > seems so subjective)?
> > Should I be memorizing vocabulary (right now I have just memorized a
> few
> > words and the rest I just figure out based on my Hebrew/look up)?
> > Does anyone have any digital vocabulary cards (if people even make
> > flashcards for Ugaritic vocabulary)?
> > Is the book I have (mentioned above) the best for self-teaching?  Do
> I
> > need to be using something in conjunction with it?
> > Are there any online/digital resources that are useful (I've only  
> > come
> > across Quartz Hill School of Theology, which looks less than  
> > helpful)?
> >
> > Any other tips/secret keys to unlocking the language are welcome.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Matt
> > _______________________________________________
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> > b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
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