U-NA-RU-KA-NA-SI
and behold, may my gathering [take place] (proposed precative lū)
- Reading
- wannā lū kanāsī
- Confidence
- Candidate
- Root
- *kanVs- ‘to gather, assemble’
- Kind
- Verbal
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- —
Compared forms
- Hebrewכָּנַסkānaskānas (כָּנַס) ‘to gather, assemble’ (Esth 4:16, Ezek 22:21, Neh 12:44); knesset (כְּנֶסֶת) ‘assembly, gathering’; √k-n-s ‘to gather’
- Akkadiankamāsukamāsu A ‘to gather, store’ (CAD K 114–117); earlier form of Hebrew kns via m~n interchange (Greenfield 2001, 840–846); lū ‘may, indeed’—the precative/asseverative particle written by -RU- (akk_hg_0642)
- Aramaicכנשknašknaš (כנש) ‘to gather, assemble’; kiništu (NB/LB loan) ‘priestly college’ (AHw 480a; Greenfield 2001)
- Arabicكنسkanasakanasa (كنس) ‘to sweep, collect’; kanīsah (كنيسة) ‘synagogue, church’ (< Aramaic knš)
Attestations1 cited
- PK Za 12]RA-ME[ ]A-[…]-NE U-NA-RU-KA-[?]-JA-SI A-PA-DU-PA-[…] ]JA-[…] JA-PA-QAAnd behold, may [there be] my gathering!
Commentary
PK Za 12 writes U-NA-RU-KA-[?]-JA-SI, JA legible (GORILA IV 38). The lost sign is restored as NA from the formula, and NI fits the trace equally (Soldani 2012, 221–222 n. 129). NA-JA recurs in I-NA-JA-PA-QA on PK Za 11, a Palaikastro spelling, and PK Za 11 preserves U-NA-RU-KA-NA-TI whole. U-NA wannā ‘and behold’, RU lū ‘may’, KA-NA-SI kanāsī ‘my gathering’. Akkadian lū introduces a positive injunction in a verbless clause (Huehnergard 1997, §22.2). Duhoux and Thomas take -RU- for a morphological variant within the group, Thomas an infix (Duhoux 1992, 69–70; Thomas 2020, 12–13). Cf. IO Za 16, which ends U-NA-RU-KA[. Rival: Soldani’s KA-NI-JA- beside KA-NI-JA-MI (CR Zf 1), with SI an ending. Hebrew has the same sequence, hēn lū yəhî ‘behold, may it be’ (Gen 30:34). Weak point: the sign after KA is restored. One attestation. See U-NA-KA-NA-SI for the rival √k-n-š.