Middle voice derived stems in Ugaritic in historical view

This paper analyses the function and historical development of the N-stem and Gt-stem, two derivational templates for the middle voice in Ugaritic. Based on a comprehensive sample of 61 N-stem and 63 Gt-stem cases, the study shows that these templates have distinct roles. The N-stem typically promotes a patientive, often inanimate, subject, creating unaccusative, anticausative, and medio-passive verbs. In contrast, the Gt-stem aligns an affected, animate Agent as the subject, forming autobenefactive, reflexive, and reciprocal verbs. The distribution of these usages varies between Ugaritic poetry and prose. The N-stem is more common in prose, where it is frequently used for medio-passive functions, a trend also seen in later Canaanite languages. The Gt-stem is more prominent in poetry, reflecting an earlier stage of development that parallels the trajectory of Aramaic, where this stem became the main marker for middle and passive voice. The study concludes that the Ugaritic corpus, with its linguistic variations between poetic and prosaic registers, provides a crucial historical context for understanding the divergent paths of middle voice development in the Canaanite and Aramaic branches of Northwest Semitic languages.