Ugaritic Converter

The basic purpose of this tool is to allow you to write English or Hebrew in cuneiform using the Ugaritic Alphabet. For a more detailed overview, see the explanitory section below. For more information about how the Ugaritic Alphabet was used to write Ugaritic, see the Wikipedia Page (link)

An Explanation

Welcome to the Ugaritic Converter! This handy tool allows you to explore the Ugaritic Script by converting text from the English Alphabet (Latin Alphabet) into the Ugaritic Alphabet.

It also converts Hebrew Letters into Ugaritic ones as well. How cool is that?

So, what's the story behind the Ugaritic Alphabet? It's an ancient cuneiform writing system used to jot down the Ugaritic language on clay tablets way back in the day in the ancient city of Ugarit (nowadays called Ras Shamra, Syria) around 1400–1200 BCE.

Now, the cool thing is that Ugaritic used an alphabet, unlike other cuneiform methods. And guess what? The Ugaritic alphabet is related to the one we use for English! So, we can tweak it a bit and adapt it to write English on clay tablets. Pretty neat, right?

But here's the thing – the history of the English alphabet is a bit complicated, and over time, we've added new letters that didn't exist in the Ugaritic days. So matching each English letter to its Ugaritic counterpart is like solving a puzzle. This tool follows common conventions used by modern nerds who use the Ugaritic Script to write in English. For example, Ugaritic had a "G," but no "C". So for "C," we use the Ugaritic letter "Tsade" (which doesn't exist in English). There are a couple of these changes that had to happen to make it usable with English. See the chart below to see exactly how this tool changes the letters.

Now, let's get creative! This converter lets you plan and create your own clay tablets in modern times. Sure, the ancient languages written in cuneiform may not be spoken anymore (RIP Sumerian and Akkadian), but that doesn't mean we can't keep the tradition alive! Write clay tablets in your native language, and you'll have a unique piece of living history that you can actually read and proudly display. It's like connecting with the past in a whole new way! So, let's get started and embark on a cuneiform adventure! 📜✍️

Correspondences
English Ugaritic Hebrew
A 𐎀 א
B 𐎁 ב
C 𐎕 צ
D 𐎄 ד
E 𐎃
F 𐎏
G 𐎙
H 𐎅 ה
I 𐎛
J 𐎂 ג
K 𐎋 כ
L 𐎍 ל
M 𐎎 מ
N 𐎐 נ
O 𐎓 ע
P 𐎔 פ
Q 𐎖 ק
R 𐎗 ר
S 𐎒 ס
T 𐎚 ת
U 𐎜
V 𐎝
W 𐎆 ו
X 𐎈 ח
Y 𐎊 י
Z 𐎇 ז
𐎉 ט
𐎘 ש
SPACE 𐎟 SPACE

A Note about Shin and Thanna

Please note that the Hebrew letter Shin (ש) corresponds to two Ugaritic letters - Thanna (𐎘, which had a 'th' sound) and Shen (𐎌 which, like Hebrew Shin, had an 'sh' sound.). In making this Hebrew-to-Ugaritic Script Converter tool, I have elected to equate Shin to Thanna, rather than Shen. I wanted to explain my reasons here:
  1. First, even though Thanna has a different sound than Shin in Ugaritic, words in Ugaritic containing Thanna correspond to words in Hebrew that use Shin. For example, Ugaritic 'thalathu' (𐎘𐎍𐎘) meaning 'third' is equivalent to Hebrew 'shalosh' (שלש) meaning 'three'. And Ugaraticic 'thekem' (𐎘𐎋𐎎) meaning 'shoulder' equates with hebrew 'shekhem' (שכם), which also means 'shoulder'. Often, these are words which, in Aramaic, also came to use 't' (in Aramaic, the word for three is Tlat - תלת)
  2. Ugaritic Thanna shares Hebrew Shin's spot in the alphabetic order - coming after Resh, and before Tav. Meanwhile, in the Ugaritic Alphabetic order, Shen (𐎌) has been inserted between Kaf and Lamed. no other related script has any letter in this position. The fact that Thanna takes Shin's spot in the alphabetic order tells me that the people of Ugarit saw it as a closer equivalent to the Phonecian/Hebrew Shin than Shen.
  3. Thanna is more distinct of a shape, and more legible in context. I have used the Ugaritic script in real life in order to write Hebrew on clay. I have tested both Shen and Thanna for Shin. In my experience, using Thanna makes the text more legible. This is because no other ugaritic character has a stroke intersecting with a Winklehaken (𒌋). This makes the Thanna quite distinct in use.

Copyright Jan Sikusi 2023