# DU (du)

> that, of (relative pronoun)

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

- Reading: du
- Confidence: Confirmed. The function is fixed inside the corpus (position, arithmetic, commodity signs). The etymology may still be a proposal.
- Root: [\*ḏī-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/K0877/index.md>) 'he who, that which' (masculine demonstrative/relative)
- Kind: Particle
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: DU (du)
- Rank: #12 of the top 100
- First proposed by Cyrus H. Gordon, Evidence for the Minoan Language (1966), §156

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: 𐎄 *d* — d 'who, which, that of'
- Hebrew: זוּ *zû* — zû (זוּ) 'which, who' (poetic relative)
- Aramaic: דִּי *dī* — dī (דִּי) 'which, that, of'
- Arabic: ذو *ḏū* — ḏū (ذو) 'possessor of'

## Attestations

- [ZA 10b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA10b/index.md>): DU 1 — that, of (relative pronoun)
- [ZA 31](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA31/index.md>): DU 2

## Commentary

ḏū 'he of, that of', the West Semitic determinative-relative (PWS *ḏū), kept apart from Akkadian ša. Gordon read it as a word in du ra-re, 'the cup of this night-demon', on the Knossos cup KN Zc 7 (Gordon 1966, §156); DU-RA-RE there reads as one word, durāru 'release'. As a bound element it opens DU-RU-WI ḏu-luwwī. Alone it stands in lists with a quantity, ZA 10b TA 2 / DU 1 and ZA 31 DU 2: Ebla and Amorite names open with ḏū 'he of' (ḏū-ʾIl, Pagan 1998, row 1609; ḎU+DAWD-I, Gelb 1980, no. 6583), so the roster DU abbreviates such a name, as KI abbreviates in the accounts. HT 122a ]DU 1 is broken before, and HT 47a ]DU 2̣0[ ends a word begun on the line before (GORILA I 91). The relative marker also heads genitives, nominative ðū (Huehnergard and Pat-El 2018, 191–92, Table 1). Weak point: no Linear A clause shows DU heading a relative. See DU-RA-RE, DU-RU-WI, KA-*305 and SE-WA-AU-DE.

## Same root

- [DA-QE-RA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DA-QE-RA/index.md>) (ḏā-Qīra)
- [DU-RU-WI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU-RU-WI/index.md>) (ḏu-luwwī)
- [DU-MA-I-NA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU-MA-I-NA/index.md>) (ḏū-maʿīna)
- [DU-NE-MI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU-NE-MI/index.md>) (ḏū-naʿmi)
- [DU-ZU-WA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU-ZU-WA/index.md>) (ḏū-ṯuwāʕ)
- [KA-\*305](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/KA-*305/index.md>) (ka-ḏā)
- [SE-WA-AU-DE](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SE-WA-AU-DE/index.md>) (šawaʿ-dē)

## References

- Reading: Gordon 1966 §156; Pagan 1998; Gelb 1980
- Gordon, Cyrus H. (1966), Evidence for the Minoan Language. Ventnor Publishers,68
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- Pagan, Joseph M. (1998), Ebla Electronic Corpus: Onomastic Data Base. Undena Publications (1998 disk); HTML edition by G. Buccellati, IIMAS / Cybernetica Mesopotamica (2012)
- GORILA I: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 1: Tablettes éditées avant 1970 (GORILA I). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 1); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris
- Huehnergard, John; Pat-El, Na'ama (2018), The origin of the Semitic relative marker. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies,81,191–204

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/DU/
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.