# KA-NI-JA-MI (qāniy-yammi)

> Creator of the Sea (El epithet)

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

- Reading: qāniy-yammi
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*qVnVy-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/K0304/index.md>) 'acquire, create' + [\*yamm-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/724/index.md>) 'sea'
- Kind: Divine
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: KA (ka) · NI (ni) · JA (ja) · MI (mi)

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: *qnyt ʾilm* — qnyt ʾilm 'Creatress of the Gods' (KTU 1.4 III 26)—standard epithet of Athirat/Asherah
- Hebrew: קֹנֵה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ qōnēh šāmayim wāʾāreṣ (Gen 14:19)—epithet of El ʿElyon; also קֹנֵה qōnēh alone as divine title
- Phoenician: ʾl qn ʾrṣ 'El Creator of the Earth' (KAI 26 III 18, Karatepe bilingual)
- Amarna: EA 266:16—Canaanite vassal invokes qny in theophoric context
- Amorite: *qanij(ān)um* — qanij(ān)um 'to create' (QNJ; Gelb 1980, glossary p. 29); names KA-NI-IA-NU qaniyānu (no. 3980), fem. QA-NI-A-TUM (no. 5196); jammum 'sea' in IA-AM-MU-U₂ (no. 2946)

## Attestations

- [CR Zf 1](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/CRZf1/index.md>): A-MA-WA-SI KA-NI-JA-MI I-JA QA-KI-SE-NU-TI A-TA-DE — Creator of the Sea (divine epithet)

## Commentary

CR Zf 1, a gold pin of unknown findspot: A-MA-WA-SI · KA-NI-JA-MI. qāniy-yammi 'Creator of the Sea': the masculine construct participle qāniy (Amorite qanijum) with the genitive yammi 'of the Sea'; KA writes q. √q-n-y is a Bronze Age divine epithet: Ugaritic qnyt ʾilm of Athirat (KTU 1.4 III 26); the Hittite divine name Elkunirša, ʾil qōnē ʾarṣ 'El, creator of the earth' (HALOT 1112), whose wife is Ašertu, Athirat (Olyan 1988, 41–42); Karatepe ʾl qn ʾrṣ (KAI 26 A III 18); Gen 14:19. El's Ugaritic creation epithet is bny bnwt (KTU 1.4 II 11). Rival: -MI as mimation.

## In the onomasticon

- [KA-NI-JA-MI](<https://linear-a.ai/names/KA-NI-JA-MI/index.md>): God or goddess, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; HALOT; Olyan 1988; Gelb 1980
- KAI: Donner, Herbert; Röllig, Wolfgang (2002), Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften. Band 1. Harrassowitz
- KTU: Dietrich, Manfried; Loretz, Oswald; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2013), Die keilalphabetischen Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten / The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places (KTU³). Ugarit-Verlag, Münster (Alter Orient und Altes Testament 360/1); ISBN 978-3-86835-014-2
- EA: Moran, William L. (1992), The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- 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
- Olyan, Saul M. (1988), Asherah and the Cult of Yahweh in Israel. Society of Biblical Literature Monograph Series 34,Scholars Press, Atlanta

---

Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/KA-NI-JA-MI/
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.