A-SA-DA-KA

MA Wc <5>, a Mallia roundel: A-SA-DA-KẠ with a dotted unit stroke on face a, GRA+E 4 on face b, a grain context (GORILA II 88); SA is drawn damaged. ʾaṣdaqa ‘Most Righteous’, the ʾaqtal elative of √ṣ-d-q: SA writes the coda ṣ with a dead vowel, as A-SA-MU-NE ʾAšmūn, and KA q, the emphatics unmarked; -A is the oblique of the diptote elative (Fischer 2002, §§125a, 153a), as in I-ZU-RI-NI-TA. ʾṢDQ is a name in Lihyanite and Sabaic (Harding 1971, 51) and in Qatabanic (Aylward 2) and Ḥaḍramitic (Raybūn-Kafas/Naʿmān 123) texts (DASI). Amorite names carry the root: Ṣa-du-qum and Am-mi-ṣa-du-qá (Huffmon 1965, 256–257), ʿAMM-I+ṢADUQ-A (Gelb 1980, no. 753). Cf. Zadok (2 Sam 8:17), Zedekiah (2 Kgs 24:17), Melchizedek (Gen 14:18). Weak point: ʾṢDQ is a first-millennium Arabian name, and no Amorite, Ugaritic or Hebrew name has the elative. Rival: ha-ṣadaqa ‘the Righteous’, the article ha- as in A-SI-KI-RA. Rival: Hurrian aštaga ‘woman’, the diminutive in -(a)ga of ašte ‘woman’ (Wilhelm, "Hurrian," 103; Laroche 1980, 61–62), written aš-ta-ka (Meskene) and aš-da-a-ga-bi (KUB XXIX 8 IV 23): coda š with a dead A, as A-SA-MU-NE, accounts for every sign. One attestation.