- Reading
- ḥayyā
- Confidence
- Candidate
- Root
- *ḥayy- ‘to live, be alive’
- Kind
- Ritual
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- #97 of the top 100
Compared forms
- חַיHebrew ḥayHebrew חַי ḥay "alive", חַיִּים ḥayyīm "life"; Ugaritic ḥyw "to live"; Mari West Semitic ḥaya "lives" is written both ha-ia- and a-ia-; Late Old Babylonian Alalakh likewise alternates ha-ia- and a-ia- in the same name (Weeden 2009, 96–100). The Mesopotamian god Haya is written dḫa-ià; Aya is an independently attested goddess.
Attestations2 cited
Commentary
PE Zc 4 A-JA ≈ JA-SI, inked, and SY Za 2, the last group of the formula, after U-NA-KA-NA-SI-OLE; MA 4b A-[?]-[?]-[?]-JA is a longer word. A for ḥ has its control at Old Babylonian Mari, where West Semitic ḥaya ‘lives’ is written both ha-ia- and a-ia-, and at Alalakh VII, where a-ia- and ha-ia- alternate in one name, a-ia- on Weeden’s account reproducing an unrepresented /ḥ/ (Weeden 2009, 96–100). /ḥayyā/ ‘the Living One’, as Amorite Ḥajja, a divine name (Gelb 1980, 19), in Milki-Ḥayya (Gelb 1980, no. 4724). Rivals: the god Haya, dḫa-ià from Early Dynastic Fara on, whom the Old Babylonian Hymn to Haia for Rim-Sin calls the god who loves the petition ‘Give me life!’ (line 59; ORACC AMGG, ‘Haya’; ETCSL 2.6.9.2.59); the goddess Aya; Davis’s ‘much’, modifying the oil (Davis 2013, 41). Two attestations.