# A-RE-TU-MI (ʾarṣ̂-ummī)

> Earth is my mother (NWS theophoric compound PN; pre-Greek Artemis)

A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier.

- Reading: ʾarṣ̂-ummī
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*ʾar(V)ṣ̂-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/768/index.md>) 'earth'
- Kind: Personal name
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: A (a) · RE (re) · TU (tu) · MI (mi)

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: אֶרֶץ *ʾereṣ* — ʾereṣ (אֶרֶץ) 'earth, land'; ʾēm (אֵם) 'mother'
- Ugaritic: 𐎀𐎗𐎕 *ʾarṣ* — ʾarṣ 'earth'; ủm 'mother' (DULAT 67); X-ummī name Anati-umme, RS 14.16:7 (Kinlaw 1967, 24)
- Akkadian: *erṣetu* — erṣetu 'earth'; ummu 'mother'
- Greek: Ἄρτεμις (Artemis)—widely agreed pre-Greek; no convincing Greek etymology
- Lydian: Artimuś (dat. artimuλ)—u after the m, not in TU's slot; Aramaic (Letoon) ʾrtmwš likewise
- Linear B: a-te-mi-to (PY Es 650, genitive)—drops pre-consonantal /r/ per standard LB orthography
- Etruscan: Artumes (oldest), Artam[e]s, Aritimi, gen. Artmsl (Nielsen & Rathje 2009: 261–262)—u before the m, as in TU-MI; Cristofani's cited Aretume unverified

## Attestations

- [ZA 7a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA7a/index.md>): A-RE-TU-MI — PN/epithet: 'Earth is my mother' (pre-Greek Artemis)

## Commentary

ZA 7a: U-JU 5, A-RA-TU 4, A-RE-TU-MI; MI opens line 3, which runs on into the break, so words or a number may have followed it. ʾarṣ̂-ummī 'Earth is my mother': √ʾ-r-ṣ̂ 'earth', Heb. ʾereṣ, Ug. arṣ, Akk. erṣetu (HALOT 90), with ʾummī 'my mother', its glottal elided in sandhi. TU writes ṣu, as TE writes ṣe in TA-NA-RA-TE-U-TI-NU, and MI writes mmī, the geminate unmarked. Cf. the sentence names Mari Eštar-ummī (ARM 23 610:7) and Ugaritic Anati-umme (RS 14.16:7). Cf. Artemis, LB a-te-mi-to and a-ti-mi-te, Greek Ἄρτεμις and West Greek Ἄρταμις, a scatter Beekes explains as adaptation from an a/i/u vowel system (Beekes 2014, 8, 25). RE has the e of Akk. erṣetu and Heb. ʾereṣ (PS *ʾar(V)ṣ̂-), where A-RA-TU on the same tablet writes A-RA-. Weak point: the tablet breaks after MI, so the word can run on. One attestation. See A-RA-TU-ME.

## Same root

- [A-RA-TU](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-RA-TU/index.md>) (ʾarṣ̂atu)
- [A-RA-TU-ME](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-RA-TU-ME/index.md>) (ʾarṣ̂atum)

## In the onomasticon

- [A-RE-TU-MI](<https://linear-a.ai/names/A-RE-TU-MI/index.md>): Personal name, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; HALOT; Beekes 2014
- Nielsen, Marjatta; Rathje, Annette (2009), Artumes in Etruria – the Borrowed Goddess. In Fischer-Hansen, Tobias; Poulsen, Birte (eds.), From Artemis to Diana: The Goddess of Man and Beast,Acta Hyperborea 12,Museum Tusculanum Press,261–301
- 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
- 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
- Beekes, Robert S. P. (2014), Pre-Greek: Phonology, Morphology, Lexicon. Brill Introductions to Indo-European Languages 2,Brill
- Kinlaw, Dennis F. (1967), A Study of the Personal Names in the Akkadian Texts from Ugarit. Brandeis University, Department of Mediterranean Studies (Ph.D. dissertation)

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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 add28e94.