From: faris@sarcasm.trl.OZ.AU (Aziz Faris)
Subject: Re: Representatives on Lebanon
Reply-To: a.Faris@trl.oz.au 
Organization: Telecom Research Labs, Melbourne,Australia
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 01:56:44 GMT

In article <1992Nov20.141224.24527@ulrik.uio.no>, eliedw@hedda.uio.no (Elie Dib Wardini) writes:
|> Ugaritic alphabet, it is written in cuneiform contray to the Phoenician written
|> in a sort of pictoral form. THe question is then: was the Phoenician alphabet
|> derived from Ugarit or vice versa? It *SEEMS* to me that the consensus is that
|> the Phoenician alphabet was older, while at Ugarit they used their skills at
|> writing cones (they also wrote a lot in Akkadian) and tried to copy the
|> Pheonician alphabet. Don't take my word for it. Check the info and the
|> discussion in "Ugarit-Forschungen, Internationales Jahrbuch fur die Alterkunde
|> Syrien-Palastinas". Look for articles especially by: M. Dietrich, O. Loretz,
|> A.R. Millard and W. Helch. Check especially volumes 4, 6, 11, 18 and 21

According to the book that I have called Ancient Semetic Civilisations by
Sabatimo Muscati, the language of Ugarit is the first to use the Alphabets.
Also much of the knowledge about the Pheonician culture is gained from the
Ugarit texts.

|> 
|> >|> 
|> >|> I personally lean towards seeing Ugaritic as a Canaanite dialect, but the
|> issue
|> >|> is not as clear as you would have it.
|> >
|> >Scholars do not call it Canaanite, but call it Ugarictic Pheoncian.
|>  ^^^^^^^^
|> Give me some names. Since most of the artciles and grammars I have read about
|> Ugaritic, the discussion is such as I mention it is. The term
|> Ugaritic-Phoenician has not occured in the material I have read. I don't want
|> to sound too silly by saying, that the use of this term seems to be reserved
|> for those who are not specialists.
|> 
|> >According to the tablets of Ebla, as I said ealier the region or mountains of
|> >Lebanon were called "Labunum". It is thought that this means Lebanon and the
|> >Canaanites applied that name. According to the bible the Canaanites were
|> living
|> >in Palestine as well as in Syria. I would be surprised that they did not
|> occupy
|> >Lebanon.
|> 
|> Canaanites lived from the South of Palestine to a few kilometres north of the
|> present borders of LEbanon. THis area was called Canaan (including Lebanon). In
|> this area there lived many different peoples (according to what they called
|> each other). The term Phoenicia was coined by the greeks to indicate the people
|> who lived in the Lebanon area (from Akko and Arwad). These peopled called
|> themselves Canaanites (and their descendants in Carthago up to the 4th cnt. AD)
|> and not Phoenicians. THey differenciated themsleves from other Canaanites by
|> their language and by their calling themselves the Sidonites, Sons of TYre or
|> Byblos etc. There seems to have been an interconnection between these (even if
|> >Yes he used the term Pheonician, and Ugarit proved that what he was saying was
|> >correct, it was noy sidon, tyre, or Byblos that provided that proof.
|> 
|> Philo of Byblos wrote in the 1st. cent AD!!!! The term Phoencia was used by the
|> Romans to name the area!!!!!! What Ugarit proved he said was correct is about
|> the Canaanite religion.

Elie, according to the book "Ancient Near East Texts, relating to the old
testament" by James Pritchard page 25, the word Finkh was used by the Egyptians.
Which is beleived to mean Pheonician, and dates to about 1100 BC. Ugarit proved
what philo said about the Pheonicians. Check out the book by Muscati and the
book by petanito about Ebla.
|> 
|> >
|> >The language of Ebla was old Canaanite or north-west semetic. It was wriiten
|> >using Sumerian form or Akkadian form and they found dictionaries to go between
|> >the Ebla and Sumerian languages.
|> 
|> It seems to me that you have made a great discovery! tell us how you came to
|> this conclusion.

Checkout the book by Giovani Petanito "Archives of Ebla".
|> 
|> 
|> Ah! I give up!
|> 
|> I have to go now! see you later!

Do not give up Elie, check those books that I have told you about. here they 
are again:

Archives of Ebla, Giovani Petanito

Ancient Semetic Civilisation, Sabitomo Muscati

Ancient Near Eastern Texts, James Pritchard

A.Faris