# A-KA-NU (ʾagānu) > cup, bowl A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier. - Reading: ʾagānu - Confidence: Confirmed. The function is fixed inside the corpus (position, arithmetic, commodity signs). The etymology may still be a proposal. - Root: [\*ʾigān-]() 'cup, bowl' - Kind: Vessel - Language: Semitic - Signs: A (a) · KA (ka) · NU (nu) - Rank: #8 of the top 100 - First proposed by Cyrus H. Gordon, Evidence for the Minoan Language (1966), §119, §145 ## Compared forms - Akkadian: *agannu* — agannu 'a large bowl' (CAD A/1 142) - Hebrew: *ʾaggān* — ʾaggān 'large bowl', bāʾaggānōt, Exod 24:6 (HALOT 11) - Ugaritic: *ågn* — ågn 'cauldron, earthenware bowl' (DULAT 26) - Phoenician: 𐤀𐤂𐤍 *ʾgn* — ʾgn 'bowl' (Krahmalkov 31) ## Attestations - [KN Zc 7](): A-KA-NU-ZA-TI DU-RA-RE A-ZU-RA — bowl (self-referential vessel label) ## Commentary Hebrew/Aramaic ʾaggān 'bowl'; Qatna and Amarna write a-ga-nu (GlOS 1, 12). Rendsburg sets a-ka-nu beside Heb. ʾaggān, Ph. and Aram. ʾgn, Akk. agannu 'bowl' (2026, 204). Gordon 1966 §119: 'opens with the word a-ka-nu = Hebrew and Aramaic ʾaggan bowl, which happens to be applied specifically to a magic bowl in an Aramaic incantation.' Self-referential vessel label: the bowl names itself. GORILA writes A-KA-NU-ZA-TI as one sign group, but Gordon segments A-KA-NU as a standalone noun. GORILA IV 125 begins the transcription with A-KA-NU-ZA-TI and marks no lacuna before it. The following ZA-TI is /zāt/ 'this' (older *zāʾt), giving ʾagānu zāt 'this bowl.' Cf. Hebrew zōʾt. Phoenician ʾGN is feminine, as zāt requires, and FK D 35 has the postposed demonstrative construction hʾgn hz, 'this bowl' (Krahmalkov 2000, 31). A Sarepta jug handle in Ugaritic script reads agn z pʿl yd[--] 'this bowl PN made' (KTU 6.70 1; Rendsburg 2026, 204), and Egypt lists *ʾaguna among Syrian tribute, written a-ku-nu at Amarna (Hoch 1994, 42–43 no. 36). Rival: one word, a verb of √k-n-s, which is written KA-NA-SI everywhere else. TI's vowel is dead, as the final TI of MA-TI-TI. Weak point: ZA-TI is a hapax, its first sign is disputed ZA/ZE. See *412. ## Same root - [\*412]() (ʾigān) ## References - Reading: Gordon 1966; Rendsburg 2026; GlOS 1; Krahmalkov 2000; Hoch 1994 - KTU: Dietrich, Manfried; Loretz, Oswald; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2013), Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten / The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places (KTU³). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 360/1); ISBN 978-3-86835-014-2 - Gordon, Cyrus H. (1966), Evidence for the Minoan Language. Ventnor Publishers,68 - Krahmalkov: Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000), A Phoenician-Punic Dictionary. Peeters (Leuven) - HALOT: Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob; Richardson, M. E. J. (trans. and ed.) (1994), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vols. I–IV. E. J. Brill, Leiden · New York · Köln - CAD A/1: Oriental Institute (A. Leo Oppenheim, ed.) (1964), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, vol. A/1. Oriental Institute, Chicago; J. J. Augustin, Glückstadt - Hoch, James E. (1994), Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. Princeton University Press - DULAT: del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill, Leiden/Boston (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1/112); Third Revised Edition, tr. and ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson; 2 parts - GORILA IV: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1982), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 4: Autres documents (GORILA IV). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 4); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris - GlOS 1: Sanmartín, Joaquín (2019), A Glossary of Old Syrian, Volume 1: ʔ – ḳ. Languages of the Ancient Near East 8/1,Eisenbrauns (Pennsylvania State University Press), University Park - Rendsburg, Gary A. (2026), Across the Mediterranean: Ugaritic Words which Reached Greek and Latin. In Colasuonno, Maria Maddalena; Criscuolo, Alfredo; D'Anna, Luca; Esposito, Raffaele; Lusini, Gianfrancesco; Nicosia, Mara (eds.), Forty Years of Semitic Philology: Studies in Honour of Riccardo Contini, Offered by Friends and Colleagues on the Occasion of His Seventieth Birthday, Volume II,Series Minor CX.2; Serie Orientale Roma n.s. 57.2,UniorPress, Napoli,201–219 --- Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-KA-NU/ Licence: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cite as: di Mino, Tom. 2026. Linear A Lexicon. Plasma AI. https://linear-a.ai/. Data: kaphtor, commit 50525edd.