# SA-RA (šarra)

> queen, princess (feminine of šarru)

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

- Reading: šarra
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*ŝarr-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/3463/index.md>) 'king, prince, official'
- Kind: Personnel
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: SA (sa) · RA (ra)

## Compared forms

- Akkadian: *šarratu* — šarratu 'queen'
- Amorite: šarra beside šarratum 'queen' (Gelb 1980, glossary); ʿAštar-šarra, EŠ₄-DAR-ŠAR-RA (no. 1693); Mari women's names DN-šarra(t) 'DN is the queen' (Nakata 1995, 249); śartu 'queen', qallt, beside śarru 'king' (Buck 2019, 332)
- Hebrew: *śārā* — śārā 'princess' (Gen 17:15)

## Attestations

- [SAM Wa 1](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/SAMWa1/index.md>): JA-SA SA-RA TE 10 ¹⁄₁₆

## Commentary

SAMW a 1, a Samothrace nodule: JA-SA SA-RA TE 10 ¹⁄₁₆. šarra 'queen', the feminine of SA-RU šarru 'king', -a against -u: Amorite šarra beside šarratum 'queen' (Gelb 1980, glossary), ʿAštar-šarra (no. 1693); Heb. śārā 'woman of rank, princess' (HALOT 1354), the name Sarah (Gen 17:15). Philistine seren (Heb. sərānîm, HALOT 770; Ug. srn, DULAT 759) is Minoan šarrān, šarr with the afformative -ān, as KI-RE-TA-NA Kretan. The same word is written SA-RA₂ on 20 HT tablets. Rival: JA-SA-SA-RA as one word across a line break, as IO Za 12 writes JA-SA / SA-RA-ME and IO Za 16 JA-SA-SA-RA / ME. HT 62 .1 [·-·]-SA-RA is broken before (GORILA I 117), the end of a longer word, so it stays out of the attestations. See SA-RO.

## Same root

- [SA-RA₂](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SA-RA~E2~82~82/index.md>) (šarra)
- [SA-RU](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SA-RU/index.md>) (šarru)
- [SA-RO](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SA-RO/index.md>) (šarr)
- [SA-RE-JU](<https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SA-RE-JU/index.md>) (Šarr-ēlu)

## In the onomasticon

- [SA-RA](<https://linear-a.ai/names/SA-RA/index.md>): Title, Semitic

## References

- Reading: di Mino; Gelb 1980; Nakata 1995; Buck 2019; HALOT; DULAT; GORILA I
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- Nakata, Ichiro (1995), A Study of Women's Theophoric Personal Names in the Old Babylonian Texts from Mari. Orient,30–31,234–253
- 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
- DULAT: del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill, Leiden/Boston (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1/112); Third Revised Edition, tr. and ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson; 2 parts
- GORILA I: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 1: Tablettes éditées avant 1970 (GORILA I). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 1); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris
- Buck, Mary E. (2019), The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit: Historical Implications of Linguistic and Archaeological Parallels. Studies in the Archaeology and History of the Levant 8,Brill, Leiden

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/SA-RA/
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.