A-MA

people, kinfolk—social/kinship term

𐘇AAB0882 entries𐙁MAAB8056 entries
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Reading
ʿamma
Confidence
Candidate
Root
*ʕamm- ‘relative’ 1, ‘uncle’ 2, ‘ancestor’ 3
Kind
Kinship
Language
Semitic
Rank
—

Compared forms

  • Hebrew ʿamHebrew ʿam "people, nation" (HALOT 837), Ugaritic ʿm "lineage, ancestors" (DULAT 160), Akkadian ummānu "people, army" (CAD U/W 106), Phoenician ʿm "people" (Tomback 255)

Attestations3 cited

  1. HS Zg 1A-MA
  2. MA 1bA-MA *47
  3. ZA 7bA-MA

Commentary

HS Zg 1, a stone object, has A-MA alone; MA 1b has A-MA · *47 over QE-DE-MI-NU; ZA 7b has A-MA, the rest broken. Three attestations, at three sites. ʿamma ‘people, kinfolk’: Heb. ʿam ‘paternal uncle; kin, clan; people’ (HALOT 837). On MA 1b, A-MA stands beside QE-DE-MI-NU (Qēdmīnu ‘primordial, eastern’, cf. Kadmos), a kinship term beside a Semitic personal name, as in the NWS names ʿAmminadab (Exod 6:23; Num 1:7; HALOT 844) and ʿAmmišadday (Num 1:12). Ebla has the name a-ma ʿamma ‘the uncle’ (Pagan 1998, row 672). Plain A writes the ʿ, as in A-MA-JA ʿAmmaya and A-PA₃-DI ʿAbdī; *306+MI writes the same name element with *306. Rivals: ʾammat- ‘cubit’ and ʾam(a)t- ‘maidservant’, on the same two consonants. See *306+MI.

On the 3D inscriptions

Not written on any of the 82 inscriptions modelled so far.

Linear A Lexicon