# NI-NU-NI (nīnūn)

> offspring, descendants, posterity

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

- Reading: nīnūn
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*nīn-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/3847/index.md>) 'descendants, offspring'
- Kind: Kinship
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: NI (ni) · NU (nu) · NI (ni)

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: *nîn* — nîn ‘offspring, descendants’ (Gen 21:23; Isa 14:22; Job 18:19); cf. the extended -ūn formation Yəšūrūn ‘Jeshurun, the Upright One’
- Hebrew verb: *rare n-w-n* — rare n-w-n ‘produce shoots, get descendants’ at Ps 72:17; HALOT leaves open whether the noun derives from the verb or the verb is denominative
- Semitic morphology: masculine nominative plural *-ūna (Huehnergard 2019, 60–61); Arabic indefinite nominative -un (Fischer 2002, §§141, 147)

## Attestations

- [PL Zf 1](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/PLZf1/index.md>): \]TA WI-TE-JA-MU U-QE-TI JA-SA-SA-RA-\[ME?\] TA-NU-NI-KI-NA NI-NU-NI \[?\]-I-\[?\] — offspring(?)

## Commentary

PL Zf 1, a silver pin: … TA-NU-NI-KI-NA · NI-NU-NI · [?]-I-[?]. NI-NU-NI follows TA-NU-NI-KI-NA tannî qînâ, the imperative and its object, as a vocative noun: nīnūn 'offspring, descendants', Heb. nîn 'descendants', with the verb nyn 'to get descendants' (Ps 72:17; HALOT 696). NI writes nī, NU nū, and the final NI the n with a dead vowel; -ūn is the plural or collective ending, as in Yəšūrūn. Rival: nīn-un, with the Arabic nominative nunation. Weak point: Hebrew has nîn only in the singular, beside neked (HALOT 696). One attestation.

## References

- Reading: di Mino; HALOT
- Huehnergard, John (2019), Proto-Semitic. In Huehnergard, John; Pat-El, Na‘ama (eds.), The Semitic Languages,Routledge,49–79
- Fischer, Wolfdietrich (2002), A Grammar of Classical Arabic. Yale Language Series,Yale University Press
- 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/NI-NU-NI/
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.