LEXICAL OBSERVATIONS ON UGARITIC GB AND SOME PROBLEMS OF CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

New comparative material supports the interpretation ‘sacrificial
pit’ for the Ugaritic term Áb, which is not attested elsewhere in
Northwest Semitic. Ugaritic appears to share the same semantic development from the Proto-Semitic root GYB with Modern South
Arabic. A further Ugaritic / Modern South Arabic isogloss has been
identified, which is helpful for a revision of the classification of
Modern SouthArabic within Semitic.