ANI-ANTI

Lamanite GN	1.	Village, 1st c. BC (Alma 21:11)

Etymology

Possibly a GN from an indigenous people. Also, possibly EGYPTIAN. See the ʿn.tj names in Ranke, I, p. 69–70.

The element anti, which appears in a number of Book of Mormon names, could be either a transliteration or a translation of a GN. One candidate for the Vorlage of a transliterated form could be the Greek ἀντι-, ἀντ-, ἀνθ-, which carries approximately all the same meanings as the derived English “anti-” (RFS). At least as early as the ASSYRIAN hegemony Greeks were serving as mercenaries in the Levant, and possibly as early as the reign of King DAVID, if the Cherethites first mentioned in 1 Samuel 30:14 are Cretans, though there is still much debate about this.

Notice that some HEBREW GNs have in the Kethib an n preceding a dental, such as nţph, Netophah (Ezra 2:21) in the gentilic ʿntwty, Anethotite 2 Samuel 23:27), in each case with a vocal shewa separating the n and the dental. It is possible that in the Book of Mormon onomasticon when the n precedes a dental, there was a shewa in the pronunciation but not in the Kethib. See also gnzk (ganzakh) and ntnk (2 Chronicles 2:10) for an n before a consonant.

Other ancient Near Eastern Vorlagen are at best possible. See the Akkadian preposition an(a), “to, toward; for; up to, against; upon (CAD 1, 2:100–1) and the Akkadian noun anantu, a poetic term for “battle, strife” (CAD 1, 2:111) (RFS). Notice also the Sumerian logogram An which can mean “heaven; star; god,” and its feminine form Antu(m), which can mean “goddess” and consort of An. Confer also the Hittite PNs ending in ant/t(a), such as Purushkhanda, Arnuwanda, Zidanta, Si(n)t, Ziplata (= Ziplanda), also Old Persian PN Antiyara, Cilician god Sandas (= Sandon), Lycian name Cadyanda (= Kadyanda), etc. (RFS)