# JA-WI (Yawī)

> personal name, '(he) lives', the bare form of the Amorite Yawi-DN names

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

- Reading: Yawī
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*ḥayy-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/2760/index.md>) 'to live, be alive; life'
- Kind: Personal name
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: JA (ja) · WI (wi)

## Compared forms

- Amorite: Ya-wi-dIM, Ya-wi-AN, Ya-wi-i-la, Ya-wi-dD[a-gan], hypocoristic Ya-wi-ya (ARM VII 169.5) at Mari (Huffmon 1965, 39, 70–72)
- Amorite (rival): *ia-wi-AN yahwî-ʾilu* — ia-wi-AN yahwî-ʾilu 'ʾIlu shall exist', √h-w-y 'be' (ARM 25 48; Buck 2018, 336; Gelb 1980, no. 3591)

## Attestations

- [ZA 14](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/ZA14/index.md>): JA-WI — personal name, '(he) lives'; rival '(he) is'

## Commentary

ZA 14 .4 JA-WI, the last group on the line, against the original right edge, with no numeral; the surface beneath it is blank, .5 keeps only traces at the broken lower left and .6 is vacat (GORILA III 180–181). It is the last word of the inscription, though signs may have followed on the lost lower left. Yawī, the bare form of the Mari names Ya-wi-dIM, Ya-wi-AN, Ya-wi-i-la and Ya-wi-dD[a-gan], beside the hypocoristic Ya-wi-ya (Huffmon 1965, 39, 70); Huffmon takes ya-wi with ya-ah-wi from *ḥwy 'live, give life' (1965, 71–72). Rival: √h-w-y 'be, become', ia-wi-AN yahwî-ʾilu 'ʾIlu shall exist' (Buck 2018, 336; PS *hVwVy-), the alternative Huffmon names. One attestation.

## Same root

- [A-JA](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-JA/index.md>) (ḥayyā)
- [JA-JA-\[…\]](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/JA-JA-~5B~E2~80~A6~5D/index.md>) (ḥayyā)
- [A-JU](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/A-JU/index.md>) (Ḥayyu)

## In the onomasticon

- [JA-WI](<https://linear-a.ai/names/JA-WI/index.md>): Personal name, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; Huffmon 1965; Buck 2018
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- APNM: Huffmon, Herbert B. (1965), Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts: A Structural and Lexical Study. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore
- GORILA III: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 3: Tablettes, nodules et rondelles édités en 1975 et 1976 (GORILA III). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 3); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris
- Buck, Mary Ellen (2018), The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit: The Historical Origins of the Bronze Age Polity of Ugarit Based upon Linguistic, Literary, and Archaeological Evidence. 

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/JA-WI/
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 add28e94.