DU-RU-WI

the Levite (ethnonymic designation)

𐘬DUAB5131 entries𐘘RUAB2645 entries𐘣WIAB4012 entries
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Reading
ḏu-luwwī
Confidence
Candidate
Root
*ḏī- ‘he who, that which’ (masculine…) + *lVwVy- ‘twist, bend’ 1, ‘turn’ 2, ‘accompany, join’ 3
Kind
Personal name
Language
Semitic
Rank
—

Compared forms

  • Hebrewlēwîlēwî ‘Levi; Levite’ (HALOT 523)
  • Ugariticd determinative-relatived determinative-relative ‘the one(s) of, he who’ (DULAT 252)
  • Arabicḏūḏū ‘possessor of, he of’ (Lane 984)
  • AmoriteLWJ ‘surround, accompany’: lājum, lījum (Gelb AS 21, 24)

Attestations1 cited

  1. HT 25aDU-RU-WIthe Levite (ethnonymic designation)

Commentary

HT 25a .4, at the end of the line after ZU-JU-PU₂ 1, with no numeral. WI is complete at the preserved right edge; .5 opens I-KI-RA 1 after the lost lower-left margin, where DU-RU-WI’s 1 can stand, as DI-NA-U’s 1 opens .3 (GORILA I 44–45); the break leaves unconfirmed whether a divider followed it. DU writes ḏu ‘the one of’, and RU-WI luwwī ‘joined’, with the u of the D-stem of l-w-y ‘to accompany’: Ebla lu-wu, lu-a (GlOS 2, 19); cf. Gen 29:34 yillāweh ‘will be joined’. U-RE-WI on the same tablet writes the e of Hebrew lēwî; the names lāwiy, lawuy (GlOS 2, 19) would need RA-WI. Rival: DU-RU-WI-I-KI-RA as one name. Niesiołowski-Spanò derives the Levites from Mycenaean ra-wo, λαοί (2020, 444–452).

On the 3D inscriptions

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

Linear A Lexicon