Proto-Semitic root

*yah-

‘Yah, Yahweh (divine name)’

di Mino’s gloss: Yah, Yahweh

In Linear A1 entry

JA-HAYāh(a)Yāh, divine nameSpeculativeSemitic2

Notes

The Moabite form is Mesha 18. DULAT 980 keeps Ugaritic yw apart from Hb. yh, yhwh and the Amorite element ya-wi-. Not 1546 *hVwVy- ‘be, become’, whose Hb. hwh ‘to be’ HALOT 395 lists among the proposed etymologies.

Reflexes5 languages

Northwest Semitic5

Hebrewyāh (HALOT 393)yhwh (HALOT 394)gloss withheld
Moabiteyhwh (HALOT 395)
Ugariticyw: šm bny yw (KTU 1.1 IV 14; DULAT 980)gloss withheld
Egyptian Aramaicyhw, yhh, yh (HALOT 395)
Nabataeanʾhyw (HALOT 395)gloss withheld

Beyond Semitic1

Egyptiany-h in the Northwest Semitic name ʾadōnī-rōʿē-yāh, 18th–19th Dynasty (Adrom and Müller 2013, 136)gloss withheld

† Gloss withheld: the cited dictionary’s licence is closed, so its form and page stand without its gloss.