SI-RU-TE

šīrūt ‘sacred song’, an abstract in -ūt from √š-y-r ‘sing’, ‘sacred’ from its ritual distribution: 7 tokens on stone vessels at five peak sanctuaries (Iouktas, Kophinas, Syme, Troullos, Vrysinas), fragmentary on IO Za 14, IO Za 15 and TL Za 1; PK Za 11 breaks after SI-RU-[. Ugaritic syllabic ši-i-ru /šīru/ ‘song’ gives the root and the long ī in the Bronze Age (Huehnergard 2012, 158). The plural šīrōt ‘songs’ (Amos 8:3) would be SI-RA-TE from *šīrāt or SI-RO-TE from šīrōt; Linear A keeps O and U apart (Steele 2024, 17), and the stone has RU wherever the sign survives (IO Za 2, KO Za 1, SY Za 3, VRY Za 1). TE writes final t with a support vowel, as in genitive position on AP Za 2 and PH Zb 4. Rival: širrūt ‘cultic service’ (√š-r-t), MHeb. šêrût, JArm. šêrûtā ‘service, worship’ (HALOT 1661), the Levites who stand ‘to minister to him’ (lĕšārĕtô, Deut 10:8) and the singers who ‘ministered … with song’ (1 Chr 6:17), Ph. mšrt ‘service’ (KAI 60.7–8; Krahmalkov 2000, s.v. MŠRT); Ugaritic šrd ‘to serve’ is ‘more likely’ Š of √yrd (Huehnergard 2012, 157). Weak point: after I-PI-NA-MA a genitive šīrūti is expected (Fischer 2002, §292).