# I-NA-WA (ʾi-nawā)

> the dwelling, abode (sanctuary as divine habitation)

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

- Reading: ʾi-nawā
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*nwy](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/3654/index.md>) 'pasture land, grazing place' 1, 'abode, settlement' 2, 'to betake oneself to an abode' 3
- Kind: Ritual
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: I (i) · NA (na) · WA (wa)

## Compared forms

- Amorite: *nawûm* — nawûm 'steppe; encampment (man and beast)' (Huffmon, APNM 237)
- Hebrew: נָוֶה *nāweh* — nāweh (נָוֶה) 'habitation, pasture-land; temple, shrine' (Exod 15:13 אֶל־נְוֵה קׇדְשֶׁךָ)
- Akkadian: *nawûm* — nawûm 'pasture, steppe'
- Greek: ναός *naos* — ναός (naos) 'temple, inner sanctum' < *nawos (Bernal 1987, endorsed Rendsburg 1989)

## Attestations

- [PH 6](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/PH6/index.md>): I-NA-WA A-RI — the dwelling, abode (nominal core of the libation formula verb ʾata-i-nawa-ya; heading, set off by 𐄁)

## Commentary

PH 6 (MM IIB), the heading, set off by the divider: I-NA-WA · A-RI / I-ZU-RI-NI-TA / A-RI / I-DA-PA₃-I-SA-RI. ʾi-nawā 'the dwelling', the nominal core of the libation formula, spelled with plain NA: A-TA-I-*301-WA-JA ʾata-i-nawa-ya 'I make myself a dwelling', eleven times at five peak sanctuaries, conjugates this noun, and *301-WA nawā (IO Za 4) writes it with *301 = na, the sign whose value derives from this root; PH 6 predates that convention. √n-w-y: Heb. nāweh 'grazing place; settlement' (HALOT 678–679), Amorite nawûm 'steppe; encampment' (Huffmon 1965, 237). ʾi- is the prosthetic vowel, as in I-ZU-RI-NI-TA and I-DA-MA-TE against DA-MA-TE. One attestation.

## Same root

- [A-TA-I-\*301-WA-JA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-TA-I-*301-WA-JA/index.md>) (ʾatainawaya)
- [A-TA-I-\*301-WA-E](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-TA-I-*301-WA-E/index.md>) (ʾatainawē)
- [\*301](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/*301/index.md>) (nawā)
- [NU-WI](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/NU-WI/index.md>) (nōwē)

## References

- Reading: di Mino
- Rendsburg, Gary A. (1989), Black Athena: An Etymological Response. Arethusa,22,67–82
- Bernal, Martin (1987), Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization, Volume I: The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785–1985. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey
- APNM: Huffmon, Herbert B. (1965), Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts: A Structural and Lexical Study. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore
- 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

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/I-NA-WA/
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.