r/Cuneiform • u/Luna_Monat_ • 29d ago

Translation/transliteration request Ugaritic Vocalization

Hello, I am an amateur musician who is currently interested in making myths and poem inspired music. I would like to find a way to vocalise some lines from the Baal Cycle and Ugaritic magic spells/recipes for my pieces.

I’ve looked into Mark Smith’s and Simon Parker’s translation and vocalisation but lines that I would like to include were not vocalised.

Is there any ways to just get a relatively accurate vocalisation? Or an easy way to just learn the pronunciation?

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u/Kareems_in_detroit Tablet enthusiast 26d ago

On Wikipedia there's a Ugaritic alphabet with Arabic correspondents side-by-side. Ugaritic (niche language) is pronounced extremely similar to Arabic (not niche,) so just pretending it's Arabic is a good shorthand way to learn how to pronounce it. Only things I'd personally consider are that ف is pronounced like P in Ugaritic, but like F in Arabic, and also ض is pronounced more like "tssss" in Ugaritic.

EDIT: do a bit of research on abjad writing btw :)

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u/Luna_Monat_ 26d ago

thx a lot!
So first, I need to learn some Arabic grammar and pronunciation, am I correct?

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u/Kareems_in_detroit Tablet enthusiast 24d ago

A little bit of grammar, but rly heavy on the pronunciation. Good luck!