JA-SU-MA-TU
O Šumāt! (vocative yā + divine name, plural of *šum- 'name')
- Reading
- yā Šumāt
- Confidence
- Candidate
- Root
- *(ʾi-)šim- ‘name’
- Kind
- Personal name
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- Amorite-linked appendix
Compared forms
- Amorite Šumat-Yaraḥ, Šumat-ʾIlī, Šumatān, and Šumatānum (Gelb 1980, AS 21, nos. 5581–5582, 5588–5589); Common Semitic *šum-/šim- ‘name’ and Amorite sum- ‘name (> posterity)’ (Huffmon 1965, pp. 247–249, 252).
Attestations1 cited
Commentary
JA SU-MA-TU: JA is the vocative yā, as JA-DI-KI-TU /yā Diktu/ in the same formula position. Huffmon lists Amorite sumat- as an unexplained name element and reports Birot’s proposal that it is a plural of sum- ‘name (> posterity)’: *šum- with *-āt gives Šumāt. SU-MA-TU writes /šu-mā-t/, TU carrying a dead vowel after final /t/ and the long vowel unmarked. Amorite has the element in Šumat-Yaraḥ, Šumat-ʾIlī, Šumatān and Šumatānum (Gelb 1980, nos. 5581–5582, 5588–5589; Huffmon 1965, 57, 247–249, 252). GORILA V 64–65 and Davis read the next sign as OLIV, giving yā Šumāt | OLIV 1; Metaxa-Muhly 1984 and Finkelberg 1990 read syllabic RE, which would lengthen the name. The slot names the deity addressed, and Phoenician makes ‘Name’ divine in Astarte-Šembaal, Ug. ʿṯtrt šm bʿl (Krahmalkov 2000, 392), and Šem-ʾIl ‘Il is the Name’ (468). Weak point: no held form names a deity Šumāt; the element stands only in Amorite personal names. See SI-MA.