Introduction

INTRODUCTION

We are pleased to make available to a wider readership this Book of Mormon Onomasticon website, the result of years of research and discussion. The proposed etymologies of the names and words presented on this website have undergone a rigorous process of sharing, discussing, and critiquing. Though the individuals who have investigated these names agree that Book of Mormon names originate from seventh-century-BC JERUSALEM or from the JAREDITE cultural legacy (although the place of origin of the JAREDITES remains indeterminate), these names are presented with no expressly apologetic or polemical intention. The creation and maintenance of this onomasticon will remain an ongoing work. Therefore, we would gratefully receive irenic suggestions from readers.

For a discussion of why a study of the proper names of the Book of Mormon merits consideration, please see the “Foreword.”

ARRANGEMENT OF THE ENTRIES The entries are arranged in alphabetical order with each entry on a separate page. The data for each entry are arranged according to the following schema:

ENTRY The name or word appears at the top left of the page in capital, bolded letters:

Attestations of the name or word are listed in a box in the order of their appearance in the Book of Mormon and assigned to one of three basic groupings: Lehite, JAREDITE and biblical. Mulekite is not normally differentiated from Lehite, except in the main entry below. An effort has been made to list every occurrence.

Etymology. Unless otherwise noted, the discussion of the name begins with a brief summary of the more likely etymological probabilities. This is followed by a synopsis of other proffered etymologies, listed in no strict order, though in general the more recent suggestions appear first. If the Book of Mormon name is solely a translation instead of a transliteration, speculative reconstructions of a Vorlage may be offered if the context provides any clues.

This section concludes with a list of words or names that may be related to the subject entry.

Variants The different spellings of the name/word, if such exist, are listed. Clicking on a variant opens a page with all the variants for that name/word and where and when they occur.

Deseret Alphabet The Deseret Alphabet spelling of the name, with variants if there are any, is followed by an IPA transcription, in order to provide some sense of nineteenth-century pronunciation.

Notes, if there are any for the entry.

Bibliography, if there is one for the entry.

An entry can be accessed by entering the spelling of a name or word from the 1981 or 2013 Book of Mormon edition into the search box on the left and clicking on “go,” or, by clicking on the letter of the alphabet that begins the name/word being sought in the “Name Index” or “Variant List.” The “Reverse Alphabetic Name List” and the “Reverse Variant List” allow searches by the last letter of the name or word being sought. The “inactive” letter boxes of the indices means that no names or words begin/end with that letter of the alphabet.

In addition to the etymologies, six supplements are provided:

Names by Plates The first supplement lists the names and words alphabetically by plates: small plates, plates of Mormon (large plates), brass plates (names and words that occur exclusively in the quotations taken from the brass plates = Old Testament), supposed names from the brass plates but not in the Old Testament, plates of Ether, and finally, names which appear in the quotations designated as Isaiah. Unavoidably, there is much duplication between many of these lists.

Alphabetical Chart with Appearances The second supplement lists every name or non-English word in the Book of Mormon (368 in total) in the left-hand column, and then provides a breakdown of the origin of the name or word and how it is used. There are columns that number the names/word so that the sum at the bottom of the column represents how many occurrences of that type of name/word are attested.

Bibliography of the Contributing Scholars Lists many of the scholarly works that have provided data for the etymologies.

Abbreviations of Bibliographic Sources The numerous abbreviations employed in the etymologies are spelled out in this list.

Principals Those who manage the Book of Moron Onomasticon are listed under here. To contact them, email <onoma@byu.edu>.

Fun Facts Finally, the principals have gathered a few fun facts that have grown out of our work on the eytmologies. We hope you will enjoy at least a few of them.

METHODOLOGY

Requisite to any study of the Book of Mormon onomasticon is primary and accurate control of philologic possibilities. For example one older Book of Mormon commentary states that the name Jershon name means “Land of the exiled, or of the strangers.” This unlikely etymology is probably based on the assumption that the root in HEBREW for the NEPHITE Jershon is to be derived from the HEBREW word for stranger, gēr. This HEBREW root begins with a gimel, /g/, which normally is transliterated in the King James Bible with a g (as in Gershon) and not a j. As discussed below the j in the HEBREW names of the King James Bible usually represent the HEBREW yod, /y/. Therefore, based on the normal transliteration techniques employed in the King James Version and assuming they apply to the Book of Mormon, the meaning “exile” or “stranger” for the derivation of Jershon is not likely. In addition, the sound /š/ in JERSHON would still remain unexplained.

Inseparable from a control of the primary languages is a knowledge of which languages apply to the Book of Mormon onomasticon and to what extent they apply. When considering possible language sources for the Book of Mormon,HEBREW of the biblical period is the first choice. Nearly equal in consideration to HEBREW is EGYPTIAN, followed by the other Semitic languages in use at or before the time of LEHI—namely, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, Akkadian, Aramaic, and so forth. Semitic languages first attested after the time of LEHI, such as Classical Arabic, the later Aramaic dialects, and Ethiopic dialects, are not as relevant as the earlier languages, but may be used with extreme caution. Other non-Semitic languages with which the HEBREWS could have had contact before the time of LEHI, such as Hittite, Greek, Hurrian, and Sumerian should be a last resort.

Even with these precautions problems cannot be avoided. A name can have several etymologies based not only on several roots in one language, but it may also be traceable to more than one language. For example, one author has seen in ALMA an Arabic name, while in HEBREW there could be as many as four possible etymologies,ʾlm, ʿlm, ǵlm, or ʾ lmʾ.

This onomasticon owes much to Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, in six parts (Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 2004-2009) for making all the possible variants of the names readily accessible. For instance, any etymology of the toponym Cumorah must be based on an acceptable reading of the received text. The present editions of the Book of Mormon are unanimous in reading Cumorah. However, this place name is spelled three different ways in the printer's manuscript. Thus, Mormon 6 contains the spelling Camorah and Cumorah in vs. 2, while vs. 5 has Comorah. In the 1830 edition Camorah is standard throughout the Book of Mormon. Cumorah appears in all subsequent editions.

In addition, thanks to Royal Skousen’s work, we have become aware of variations in the spellings of words and names that have slipped into the present editions seemingly without justification. For example, the present spelling of the NEPHITE weight shiblum is most likely a mistake for shilum. The original manuscript of Alma 11:15-19 is badly damaged, but it seems that Oliver Cowdery originally wrote, [shi]bl[u]m, then overwrote the b with an l, and then crossed out the l, leaving [shi]l[u]m. For the second occurrence in O Cowdery wrote shilum. The printer’s manuscript simply has shilum. The typesetter of the 1830 inadvertently inserted the b probably because of the b in the preceding shiblon.

Second only to the need for a critical edition is the need to posit a theoretical model for the possible transliteration into English of the names as they might have been on the Vorlage. Thus, does a j in a name in the Book of Mormon represent the phoneme /j/ or /y/ or /g/ or /h/ or even the h as in the English word hue? The j in the transliterated HEBREW names in the King James Bible usually stands for a /y/, the HEBREW letter yod. It is notable, however, that the King James renderings are not consistent. The initial HEBREW phonemes of JEREMIAH, ISAIAH and Job are /y/, /y/, and /ʾ/ respectively. Extrapolating from this example, we can expect relative but not absolute consistency in the transliterations of the Book of Mormon onomasticon.

A further complication involves the commingling of JAREDITE names among the NEPHITE names. Unless and until it can be determined from which cultural background the JAREDITES departed, it will be impossible to do anything but guess about etymologies for JAREDITE names. It also appears that JAREDITE names surface rather early in the NEPHITE history, as early as Alma 1. The names in the NEPHITE record that appear to derive from JAREDITE sources should not necessarily be considered with NEPHITE names when etymologies are proposed.

Conclusion

An understanding of the proper names in the language of the Vorlage of the Book of Mormon can reveal, via literary nuance, aspects of NEPHITE/LAMANITE culture that remain unrecognized by the reader who is limited to modern languages. However, such results are valid only to the extent that the conclusions are based on sound methodology. This study has proposed an apposite methodology—that is, control of the posited primary languages, discretion in determining the primary languages, thorough and rigorous examination of all the philologic possibilities in the various target languages, and a knowledge of all variations in the received texts.

Needless to say, this onomasticon is in its infant stages, a first tentative attempt at defining the relevancy and establishing a methodology for a study of the proper names of the Book of Mormon. Much work still remains to be done.

This introduction would not be complete without a word of warning. Extreme caution both in which tools are employed and the ways in which they are used must always be the standard. Yet the study of the onomasticon of the Book of Mormon is a must if we are to understand the world of the Lehites and JAREDITES.

We hope this introduction to the onomasticon will lead to even more significant progress in the study of the proper names and non-English nouns of the Book of Mormon.