▪ Huehnergard2011 gives Sem *ŠN as the underlying root and reconstructs a ComSem n. *
šan(a)t‑ ‘year’.
▪ Badawi2008: 460 mentions that
sanaẗ may be a derivative of √SNW »if its third radical is considered to be و (
w). There is a degree of uncertainty about and overlapping between the roots √SNN and √SNH.«
▪ Nişanyan(02Feb2014) sees a connection between Ar
sanaẗ and Hbr
šānâ / Aram
šᵉnā ‘to repeat, return, come again’. If this could be substantiated, one would have to consider a relation between
sanaẗ and ↗
ṯanà ‘to bend, fold, double’ (cf. also ↗
iṯnān ‘two’).
▪ BDB1906 considers the possibility that Hbr
šānâ ‘year’ may be related to Hbr
šānâ ‘to change’ (cf. also Akk
šanû ‘to become different, strange, change (intr.)’, Syr
šᵉnā ‘to change, esp. mentally = grow insane’), so that ‘year’ would be, originally, a term for ‘changing’ seasons.
▪ Of the same rasm سنة but not to be confused with sanaẗ ‘year’: ↗sunnaẗ ‘custom, habit; (the Prophet’s) tradition’ (√SNː/SNN), sinaẗ ‘slumber, doze’ (↗wasina, √WSN); in ClassAr also †sannaẗ ‘she-bear; she-lynx’ and †sinnaẗ ‘double-edged axe; ploughshare; coin, money’ (both √SNː/SNN; values given as in Steingass1884 / Wahrmund1887).